Debate on the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment (Sex or Gender Changes) Bill has recommenced in the Legislative Council.
The update to the process for allowing people to change their gender would see the removal of the WA Gender Reassignment Board and implement many of the changes put forward by the WA Law Reform Commission.
Labor promised to remove the board back in 2017, and the previous Liberal government also noted that the process was outdated, but progress on addressing the issue has been slow.
The government is expected to use Standing Order 125A declaring the legislation needs to be urgently passed. The move means there will be limited time for the committee stage of reviewing the legislation and the final reading of the bill is expected to take place by Wednesday.
The move means that there is a strong probability that many of the amendment’s that have been proposed by The Greens member Brad Pettit may not be considered.
Those amendments have been described as meeting the expectations of the transgender community, and would make the new process more inline with legislation in other jurisdictions.
The Australian Christian Lobby have urged their members to urgently contract MPs and complained about the legislation being rushed through.
In an email Peter Abetz, the former Liberal MP who is the head of the ACL in Western Australia, said the government’s move could “only be described as a bullish display of arrogance.”
“The government is unable to explain why they believe legislation to allow any person of any age to change the sex on their birth certificate is being rammed through Parliament without normal scrutiny.” Abetz said in an email to supporters.
OUTinPerth is reporting on the debate on our X account. You can also watch on parliament’s live stream.
Clarification: An earlier version of this report suggested that the government had implemented Standing Order 125A to declare the bill as urgent status. The accuracy of this has been questioned. It appears the government has informed MPs of their intention to apply the order.
At 5pm the government moved a motion to implement the standing order to declare the legislation urgent.
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