With just a day remaining before the Secret Harbour by-election in Perth’s southern corridor this Saturday, none of the key candidates have responded to a two-question survey on LGBTIQA+ law reform.
One month ago, Just.Equal Australia contacted candidates from Labor, Liberal and One Nation, to ask whether they supported the special religious exemptions within WA law or would vote to repeal them.
The exemptions allow publicly funded faith schools to reject LGBTIQA+ teachers and students. Two high-profile cases of this discrimination have occurred in the school catchment zone of this electorate.
No response was forthcoming from Georgia Tree (ALP), Ryan Robertson (Liberal), or Luke Herdegen (One Nation).
WA spokesperson for Just.Equal Australia, Brian Greig, said that while this issue was not top-of-mind for voters in Secret Harbour, it was incumbent on political parties to state their policy in this area – especially with Attorney General Tony Buti flagging reform legislation by Christmas.
“These candidates all chose to hide from the issue. None of them had any courage to state a clear position or outline a principle,” Greig said.
“This is concerning because it illustrates that these political parties are worried about how this issue is received in the electorate. Rather than taking a stance and defending it, they chose instead to go silent and hope it all goes away.”
Brian Greig said it was unacceptable that candidates had failed to state a position given that whoever gets elected may be confronted with a reform bill in the next three months.
“For too long candidates and political parties have failed to address LGBTIQA+ policy issues during elections, only to announce anti-LGBTIQA+ positions, broken promises, or half-hearted reform after an election.”
Greig said that when parties took unambiguous LGBTIQA+ policy positions to an election it gave them the mandate and confidence to proceed once elected.
“Political strategists need to remember that the YES postal vote in WA for marriage equality was higher than the national average, while Galaxy YouGov polling in 2024 found that almost 60 percent of voters were opposed to any public funding going to schools that discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. This included 71 percent of Labor voters.”
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia. While it is considered to be a safe Labor seat, there has been speculation that One Nation could take the seat from the government, giving them their first ever seat in the Legislative Assembly.
