Rod Swift, from the Australian Coalition for Equality and Gay and Lesbian Equality (WA), discusses the significance of today’s HREOC report and the response by the Federal Government.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s report into discrimination faced by same-sex couples and their families was tabled this afternoon in Federal Parliament. Coincidentally, social issues website www.getup.org.au released the results of their new Galaxy Poll which showed almost three quarters of all Australians support these reforms, and nearly six out of 10 support same-sex marriage.
The 446-page HREOC report is the culmination of a 14-month-long inquiry into the discrimination faced by GLBTI couples in this nation, hearing evidence from 600 written submissions and scores of individuals at meetings right around the nation. It is the most comprehensive report into discrimination faced by our community since a 1996 Senate Inquiry which sought the same information.
A decade on, what’s changed? Well, the rhetoric certainly hasn’t.
Mr Howard’s words repeat over and over like a scratched record. He has said that he doesn’t support discrimination against GLBTI couples and their families consistently over the past five years, but has done nothing to fix these endemic problems faced by same-sex couples.
Indeed, his government has continued to entrench this discrimination even after recognising our relationships for the meagre reforms in private sector superannuation. His government begrudgingly included ‘interdependent’ relationships in super then conveniently forgot about those same couples when it came to superannuation contribution laws.
Despite the issue and inquiry being known about for 14 months, the man who promised to ‘govern for all Australians’ – Prime Minister John Howard – has come up with a glib reply to the media: ‘We certainly aren’t a government that supports discrimination.’
Our esteemed PM also said he wanted to read the report thoroughly before outlining the Government’s response. ‘As to particular action we’ll have a look at the Human Rights Commission report, but I’m not making any promises on the run in relation to something like that,’ Mr Howard said.
The PM told Sky News: ‘Let’s have a look at the report before we start making any commitments.’
On the run? I bet he is. Commitment? I bet that’d be a challenge for him, given his incessant claims with no action.
The PM has been avoiding this issue in his party room for over a year. Backbenchers ranging from Warren Entsch, Peter Lindsay, Petro Georgiou, and WA members Dr Mal Washer and Judi Moylan have all been pushing for change. Even the once Parliamentary Secretary to the PM and now Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thrown his weight behind reforms.
And now more MPs are joining the chorus of change as they see the writing on the wall – especially in marginal seats. The first to change tunes today was Liberal MP in the marginal seat of Canning – Don Randall.
At a doorstop interview at Parliament House today, Mr Randall said: ‘We’ve got to be looking at all Australians equally and I think there’s room for reform in that area because they pay taxes and we shouldn’t discriminate against our fellow countrymen.”
Fellow countrymen, indeed! Maybe some backbenchers in the Coalition are starting to think of us as equal and not second-class citizens, perhaps? The issue has been kicking around in the Coalition party room for months and months. It’s even been kicked around the Cabinet room once or twice, I bet.
Federal Parliament now has a break for about two months. All those Federal MPs have the ability to kick back at night during the parliamentary recess, snuggle up with a good book – I’ve got some suggestions – and come to grips with the fact that ignoring this report just might add to the annihilation the PM has been warning his MPs about.
In fact, former National Party Leader John Anderson could do with a copy of the report for some fireside reading during the cold winter nights. He seems to think that GLBTI couples have no discrimination in federal law: ‘… apart from anything else, that I find it very hard to identify any rights that they don’t have.’
I’d like Mr Anderson to point out where I can claim a partner as a dependent for such things as Medicare, pharmaceuticals, taxation and other such laws. I’m sure the HREOC report could set him straight on the 58 laws that currently discriminate directly.
The PM says he needs time to read the report and time for the Government to formulate a response. But time will be up for Mr Howard soon on this issue.
He says that his government certainly doesn’t support discrimination. If he truly believes in that principle, he will have a timeline to implement all the reforms of this report. There is no reason that the Coalition party room can’t come to a decision quickly. The same can be said for the Cabinet.
If Prime Minister Howard doesn’t have a plan, and one soon, then he’s not solving the endemic discrimination faced by Australia’s GLBTI couples. If so, then the blame should be sheeted home to this man who promised to govern for all of us.
Fixing the problem, rather than talking about it, is doing something. On the other hand, if you do nothing, PM, then you are supporting discrimination.
