Queer couples in WA came a step closer to having access to a formal relationship register after the Labor Party held its 2007 state conference in early June. The annual conference is the forum at which the party reports on its progress, elects committee members and debates and decides on its policy.
This year’s conference saw the WA Labor party take one step closer to partnership recognition for same-sex couples following the passing of a motion proposed by the party’s GLBTIQ branch, Rainbow Labor. The policy resolution, moved by Craig Comrie of the Broad Left, read thus:
‘The ALP acknowledges people of diverse sexualities and gender including transgender, transsexual and intersex peoples. The ALP calls on the State Government to implement appropriate policies to recognise, respect and protect people of diverse sexualities and gender.
‘In line with the recent change in National ALP Policy, the ALP will introduce and implement a partnership recognition/registration scheme that allows same sex couples to legally register their relationships in Western Australia.’
The resolution did not pass unopposed, and the fiery debate over the registry was a standout at a conference with few other significant or contentious policy developments.
George Irving, from Labor Lawyers, highlighted that the reforms would be gender neutral and provide a register in which both same sex and unmarried opposite sex couples could have their relationships legally recognised. Several self-identified heterosexual Labor delegates also spoke in favour.
On the other side of the divide, Joe Bullock, speaking out on behalf of the party’s largely Catholic right faction, argued that the motion did not respect the traditional family and its importance in society. The motion passed, however, with an overwhelming majority, including the support of some from the right.
Comrie said he moved the resolution in response to the changes in Federal Labor Party policy in April of this year. Those changes, enacted at the ALP National Conference, introduced a policy to recognise at a federal level any relationships registered under state-based schemes. Under the proposed scheme a registered couple would then have the same entitlements as married couples. One advantage of the registration scheme in comparison to de facto status is that it would provide easy proof of the relationship, whether or not the couple had been together for two years or met the other tests for de facto status.
Together the state and federal policy changes would provide a mechanism for the recognition and registration of same sex couples without amending the Federal Marriage Act, which both the ALP and the Coalition voted to define as being between a man and a woman in the Federal Caucus.
No timeline is currently in place for the implementation of the new state policy and many gay gay rights activists, including Comrie, have identified the next step towards implementing the policy is to lobby parliamentarians to enact changes in law.
