OPINION
Brian Greig is a spokesperson for rights group Just.Equal. In 1995 he was the first gay person, who had publicly shared their sexuality, to be elected to public office in Western Australia when he served on the City of Vincent Council. He represented Western Australia in the Australian Senate from 1999 until 2005 as a member of the Australian Democrats.
What does One Nation’s victory in Secret Harbour mean for LGBTIQA+ people?
Recently, we’ve seen some excellent commentary on this. Stevie Lane detailed One Nation’s harmful policies and political rhetoric, while David Gibson called on us to understand its disillusioned voter base and their attraction to populist parties.
I approach this from a different angle: the challenge this poses to Labor, and how the government will react.
Winning a single seat in the Legislative Assembly does not give incoming MP Luke Herdergen legislative power. But it does give him influence. It gives him a platform, and he won’t be afraid to use it. His inaugural speech will almost certainly cycle through One Nation’s standard talking points—including trans equality and gender affirming care.
Yet, the emergence of One Nation in the Lower House should not be the primary concern for LGBTIQA+ people. What matters far more is how the State Government responds, especially in the context of long-overdue law reform.
My fear is that Labor will retreat from LGBTIQA+ equality in the face of One Nation’s rhetoric and its threats to steal Labor votes at the next election. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s another path.
First, a quick history lesson
Until 2001, Western Australia had some of the worst anti-LGBTIQA+ laws in the country.
Being a sexually active gay male under the age of 21 was a criminal offence. There were zero anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing, or the provision of goods and services.
Worse still, the 1989 “Foss Amendments” attached to Section 322A of the Criminal Code (modelled on Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28) made it unlawful to “promote or encourage homosexuality.” They also declared that “homosexuality shall not be capable of being a public purpose,” which crippled community funding and HIV prevention.
There were no transgender ID laws, nor were there protections from hate speech.
Faith-based organisations enjoyed sweeping religious exemptions, allowing them to sack, expel, and reject LGBTIQA+ staff, students, and volunteers in publicly funded services.
The push to overturn these laws became a major civil rights movement, frequently making mainstream headlines and turning Pride into the second biggest protest march in the country after Mardi Gras.
While Liberal Premier Richard Court refused to budge, Opposition Leader Geoff Gallop pledged comprehensive reform if elected. His Shadow Attorney General, Jim McGinty, was unapologetic in arguing the case.
A fledgling One Nation party polled strongly at the February 2001 election, securing almost 10% of the vote. It won three Upper House seats, but none in the Assembly. However, its preference strategy had a devastating impact on the Coalition.
By preferencing against every sitting Liberal and National MP, One Nation helped sweep the Coalition from office, handing Geoff Gallop’s Labor a comfortable majority.
The 2001 election was also defined by the environmental movement’s push to stop old-growth logging. The Greens secured a record five Upper House seats, holding the balance of power in the Legislative Council.
This political dynamic created the mandate, pathway, and opportunity for reforms that had been blocked for decades. But it also meant that to secure Greens support, Labor had to be willing to go further than it initially intended.
What followed was a period of intense excitement, community involvement, and non-partisan cooperation.
Front-footed campaign
As the 2001 reforms were being drafted, McGinty took to the airwaves—explaining, defending, and selling his policies across print and radio. He engaged openly with the LGBTIQA+ community and supportive crossbench MPs (shout-out to veterans Kelly Pilgrim-Byrne, Damian Douglas-Meyer, Louise Pratt, and Giz Watson).
The Greens also leveraged their balance-of-power role to ensure the final bill was more comprehensive than Labor’s first drafts.
The resulting legislation was groundbreaking. The McGinty Reforms equalised the age of consent at 16, repealed the Foss Amendments, and added LGBT people to the Equal Opportunity Act.
Going even further than expected, in a national first the reforms granted same-sex couples’ access to the Family Court and, separately, allowed them to adopt children.
The scale of the reforms left religious conservatives reeling. When they complained about being excluded from the consultation process on draft legislation, McGinty publicly shut them down, stating that consultations were for those who experienced discrimination, not those who enacted it.
Arch conservatives lost their minds, loudly threatening that this “radical legislation” would cost the Gallop government the next election.
Instead, the Labor Government was returned with an increased majority in 2005. Premier Gallop had shown leadership; Jim McGinty had shown courage.
Labor’s religious faction
It must be noted, however, that the McGinty reforms failed to repeal the special religious exemptions. Labor could not secure support for this within its own caucus due to hostility from the right-wing faction, then controlled by Joe Bullock of the Shoppies Union (who later resigned from the ALP in 2018, moved to Tasmania, and joined the Liberal Party).
Which brings us back to One Nation.
The McGinty reforms saw WA leapfrog from the worst state in the nation for LGBTIQA+ rights to the best. This happened despite fierce opposition from the Liberals, religious conservatives, and One Nation alike.
It worked because the Gallop Government stood by its promises, aggressively defended its legislation, and seized an historic opportunity for progressive reform with a supportive Upper House.
In stark contrast, the McGowan and now Cook Governments have squandered their opportunities.
They have passed weak trans legislation, sidelined core commitments, and remained silent when they should have been advocating for reform.
Time is running out
With just four sitting weeks remaining for the WA Parliament this year, Attorney General Tony Buti has yet to table any legislation to repeal religious exemptions, expand the Equal Opportunity Act to include trans individuals, or outlaw hate speech and vilification.
All of these were core promises stemming from the Law Reform Commission’s Review tabled five years ago. Compounding this failure, WA may soon be the last state in Australia to eradicate harmful LGBTIQA+ conversion practices.
We are rapidly becoming the worst state for LGBTIQA+ civil rights once again.
The lesson for modern Labor is simple: look to the success of the 2001 reform odyssey as the blueprint for achieving social progress and political growth in the face of the hard-right.
One Nation is not the immediate threat to the LGBTIQA+ community. It is being abandoned by our allies at the exact moment we need them most.
Now is the time for Labor to step up—and for the Upper House crossbench to flex its muscle.
