Over 40 community organisations have written a joint letter to Premier Roger Cook and Attorney General John Quigley urging them to take action on long promised reform of Western Australia’s Equal Opportunity Laws.
The community groups that include Rainbow Futures, Equality Australia, Pride WA, Health Equity Matters, and WAAC say the government needs to take action to remove unfair and outdated legislation that impacts the LGBTIQA+ communities every day.
They call on the politicians to take action on the removal of the WA Gender Board, bring in protection from discrimination against students and teachers in religious based schools, end conversion therapy practices, and tackle the lack of protections from discrimination for gender-diverse people.
“Our community deserves equality and protection under the law. WA has worked for decades to become a fairer and inclusive society for all, and these reforms are the next step forward. We urge the Government to honour its commitments to our community as a matter of priority.” the organisations said.
The long list of unfulfilled commitments from the government stretches back to when Labor came to power almost seven years ago.
Speaking to OUTinPerth Rainbow Futures spokesperson Misty Farquhar said people were losing faith with the government over their lack of action.
“It’s been two terms of the government where they should have been able to make these changes, and for those of us who’ve been involved since Labor came in, it’s mind-blowing that these changes haven’t happened yet.”
Farquhar said rights advocates have tried to work with the government, but diplomacy was not getting the outcomes the local LGBTIQA+ communities need.
“To be honest I’m at a loss as to why this is so far delayed. It is something that I think they could easily push through, given the power that they hold.”
While a report from Law Reform Commission was tabled in parliament in 2018 the government is yet to take action on making any of the recommendations. Farquhar says while Attorney General John Quigley has given a number of reasons why there has been little progress, the truth might be that Western Australia is not a very progressive state and this has led to the government inaction.
Cook gave ‘slippery’ answers during meeting with community leaders
A coalition of community groups met with Premier Roger Cook in October last year, and the Premier visited Pride Fairday in November. Following the meeting there was criticism that details of what was discussed with the Premier were not made public.
“He’s such a nice man – but a politician. All of our conversations about law reform – the answers were a bit slippery.”
“He’s such a nice man – but a politician. All of our conversations about law reform – the answers were a bit slippery.” Farquhar said, sharing that a lot of the conversation was about the development of a ‘whole of government’ approach to supporting the LGBTIQA+ communities.
“A whole government approach is a longer term more strategic piece of work, that perhaps they can talk about as part of an election campaign. We did we had good conversations around that, and I think it’s something that the community really supports, but not instead of law reform. The law reform is so overdue.”
Equality Australia’s Anna Brown says the WA government needs to act
Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown spoke to The West Australian about the government’s lack of action saying while the community has waited for the laws to be changed “more people have lost their jobs, more children have been forced to leave school and more young people have been damaged for life by cruel practices that deny their humanity”.
“Every student should be able to go to school and feel supported to learn and safe from discrimination, no teacher should feel they might lose their job because of their sexuality and no queer person should be told they are broken or disordered,” Brown said.
The signatories to the letter urging action include Bi+ Community Perth, Centre for Human Rights Education – Curtin University, Equal Voices WA, First Peoples Rainbow Mob WA, Flying Free, Gay Dads WA, GLBT Rights In Ageing (GRAI), Living Proud WA, PFLAG+ Perth, Perth Inner City Youth Service (PICYs), Playgroups With Pride, Busselton Pride Alliance Inc., Pride WA, Rainbow Futures WA, TransFolk of WA, WAAC and Youth Pride Network.
Several national organisations have also raised concern including Ambassadors & Bridge Builders International (ABBI), Aurora Group, AusPATH, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Equality Australia, Fair Agenda, Health Equity Matters, Intersex Peer Support Australia, Minus18, PFLAG Australia, Pride Foundation Australia, Rainbow Families Australia, Trans Justice Project, Transcend Australia and United Workers Union.
Many prominent interstate organisations also added their names to the letter. They include ABSTARR Consulting, Dowson Turco Lawyers, Invictus Health, South Australian Rainbow Advocacy Alliance (SARAA), Stonewall Medical Centre, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Thorne Harbor Health, Transgender Victoria (TGV) and the Zoe Belle Gender Collective.
Graeme Watson
Declaration: OUTinPerth Co-editor Leigh Andrew Hill and advocate Misty Farquhar are both employed by Curtin University.
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