What does it really mean to vote for Labor or the Liberals or the Greens? Chair sniffing and teeth whitening stories aside, OUTinPerth sat down with a candidate from each party to find out what a vote cast for them would mean for the people of Western Australia. From GLBT issues to the broader party platform, OUTinPerth has put together your guide to finding out where the parties stand before going to the polls on September 6.

GREENS – GIZ WATSON, MLC Member for North Metropolitan Area

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Key Election Issues

Climate Change – ‘We have an enormous carbon footprint, per capita the highest in the world. The Labor Government wants to build new coal-fired power stations, no progressive government is building new coal-fired power stations because we are going to get a carbon-trading scheme and we are going to have just invested all this money in dirty old technology and they are going to cost the state… A low carbon economy produces more jobs. At the same time you have this crisis with global warming you have the cost of energy going through the roof. Sooner or later we are going to have to make this transition and our point is sooner is better. Every delay increases the cost. We are the party that has been thinking about these issues for three or four decades. We have the answers. We have a plan for a light rail network that links into the railway line and more public transport to actually network the city… [In energy,] we can actually make a difference very quickly because we have great resources – sun, wind, waves, geothermal.’

Housing and Services – ‘It is shameful that in a state as rich as ours you have a growing number of people who are unable to secure affordable housing. Those people are in acute housing stress and then you get all the flow-on effects – poor health, difficulty with kids in school… We have more and more people coming to Western Australia and these problems are only getting worse in terms of sheer numbers. We have to invest in public housing stock, those houses, those places for people to go and the people to run those services because that is the other issue that the service provision sector is being squeezed and they are not being adequately paid for the work they do.’

GLBT Platform

Same-sex marriage – ‘I attended a rally down in Fremantle of young student activists who are really fired up about this. It is the issue of the day, especially for gay and lesbian people and rightly so. Our policy is unequivocal – equal rights, nothing short of full equality… The Labor Party has, to their credit, done the right thing with laws here in Western Australia, but they need another project in this area, and that project is to convince Kevin Rudd and all the other Labor states that marriage is something that should be equally available.’

Diversity Education in Schools – ‘The government urgently needs to commit to a program that deals with bullying in schools and in that to make a priority to deal with bullying on the grounds of sexuality or perceived sexuality or gender identity.’

EOC Funding – ‘The other thing [the state government] said they would do is increase the resource to the Equal Opportunity Commission to actually have a dedicated officer in there to deal with gay and lesbian issues. That hasn’t happened, and in fact, the whole Equal Opportunity Commission should have a boost in funding because they struggle to cover all the things they do. You give people the rights in law, but if you don’t give them the means to actually have those rights active on the ground, then it’s a problem.’

Trans* Rights – ‘[The law reforms] don’t protect pre-op trans* people and that’s where a lot of the work needs to be done. It’s also one of the critical issues in terms of schools because that issue of identity is so critical at quite an early age… The state government needs to target specific resources for counseling and health for trans* people.’

Surrogacy & Adoption – ‘There is no doubt that the Liberals if they got in would roll back the adoption and the IVF reforms. My understanding is that Barnett is on the public record saying that, although he now acknowledges equality in finances, when it relates to children and family, he would work to roll those [reforms] back.’

Final Thought

‘Our role is to be a catalyst for progressive change in the Parliament, and we have been absolutely critical in pushing the Labor Party for changes. They couldn’t have done it without us in pure numbers, and they couldn’t have done it without our foot firmly in their back… It will be the Greens and the ALP or it will be the Nats and the Libs. It is a clear choice. People need to understand that they can vote Green 1 and Labor 2, and if we don’t get in, the Labor Party gets the vote in full, it just gets transferred. In that way, you are doing everything you can to keep the conservatives out of the council and to make sure that gay and lesbian issues are top of the Parliament. Unless that Green Party vote is high, the Labor Party can be complacent on these issues.’

Green GLBT Candidates or Representatives

• Giz Watson, MLC, Member for North Metropolitan Area
• Lynn McLaren, MLC, Candidate for South Metropolitan Area
• Damian Douglas-Meyer, MLC, Third Candidate for East Metropolitan Area
• Jonathon Hallet, MLA, Candidate for Perth

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LABOR – LISA BAKER, MLA Candidate for Maylands

Key Election Issues

Education – ‘A dollar spent in education is worth $100 patching up problems that go wrong. Educating and giving children support in the school system, giving parents support so they understand the issues the children are going through are really vital in stopping health problems and law and order problems… We have to make sure that there are support structures all the way through to help low-income or vulnerable West Australians get their kids into good education and through the education system because education is the key predictor of economic success. Indeed, I think we have done some really great work in education and training and there is more work that can be done. Some of the package that Carpenter has announced around uniform allowance and those sort of things are really going to help low-income families and vulnerable families.’

Health – ‘We have a massive program for health in WA and are committed to building new hospitals, allocating funds for more nurses and doctors and reducing waiting lists. I look forward to working with my party to make sure the commitment is there for preventive strategies and innovative, grassroots community-based initiatives as well.’

Law and Order – ‘If you look at the crime rate, you will find that there has not been a huge blowout in crime in WA. I think what’s happening in law and order is we are seeing the negative results far more quickly through media. The beat up around that is sometimes clouding the reality of the progress we have made… Labor’s policies around law and order need to make sure that interventions are in place and well-resourced that keep people out of prison. So, go back to saying what are the basic human rights that are required to make an individual healthy, happy and well-adjusted in your community and make sure your policies are addressing those things.’

Indigenous Rights – ‘It’s been pretty disgraceful what has been happening in Australia, not just Western Australia, and I often feel quite hopeless on behalf of some of my friends who see half their families die before they are 40… To see that reality for people puts a direct responsibility on the Labor Party to make sure their policies are sound and are helping indigenous Australians achieve and be the best they can be… The best thing we can do is engage as closely as possible with indigenous leaders and get their strategies up and fund them and help them move forward and move the whole community forward.’

GLBT Platform

History of GLBT Reform – ‘I’ve watched with great pride on some of the more innovative policies that we’ve brought in and I’d like to think that Labor will continue to set the pace on these things in WA and to lead the agenda. For me the most important issues that we’ve been able to look at are things that ensure economic equality and don’t disadvantage you because of your sexual preference.’

Relationship Register – ‘I would want to be part of a party that saw itself as being able to take the agenda forward in a progressive way and that would include looking at what are the highs and lows of having a registry. And rather than just saying “no, we shouldn’t have it” exploring all the ins and outs of that and come out with a position.’

Same-sex Families – ‘On a personal basis, I believe that same-sex couples should have the right to adoption and the right to parent and be supported in those roles. Certainly my experience in life has shown me that if parents are good, it doesn’t matter what their gender is.’

Potential Reform Rollbacks – ‘My most recent memory of the Opposition’s platform is back in 2005 when they were saying they were going to repeal some of the incredibly progressive work that the Labor government had done and that is a matter of deep concern.’

GLBT Homelessness – ‘I would guess young gay and lesbian people would be suffering from homelessness because of being locked out of a more mainstream system. Whether they do that consciously or unconsciously is irrelevant really, if they don’t feel like they are part of the mainstream system, then we need to work with them to bring them the same level of support that other youth have.’

Final Thought

‘You look at what the Liberal Party are standing and what the gender mix is and there is no doubt that the Labor Party has attracted a far more broad base of female candidates… ALP candidates are definitely a broad cross-section of the community, and they represent lots of different positions within the ALP’s broad church of membership. Clearly, we are talking about progressive policies versus conservative policies and progressive politics versus a more conservative political regime. I see a lot more progressive, visionary leadership around issues from the ALP than will ever get reflected from the current Liberal policies.’

Labor GLBT Candidates or Representatives

• Lisa Baker – MLA, Candidate for Maylands
• John Hyde – MLA, Member for Perth
• Sally Talbot – MLC, Member for South West, Labor Party WA President

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LIBERALS – CHRISTIAN PORTER, MLA, Member for Murdoch, Shadow Attorney General

Key Election Issues

Education – ‘It is [the Liberal position] to bring stability back into the curriculum and syllabus for secondary students after the OBE disaster and the provision of proper facilities during the boom time. Infrastructure is not what it should be, and the proper payments for the retraction and retention of teachers has been mishandled by the Labor Party. We have spending initiatives that are above and beyond Labor’s in terms of provisions for new schools and the repairing of old schools. We have also offered a considerably more generous pay package for teachers.’

Law and Order – ‘There are some significant differences on law and order between the two parties. The first is that we will – without any ifs, ands or buts – remove the One-third Labor Discount that has existed in the State since 2003 for sentencing… We will remove it for all offenders across the board. Another significant point of difference is that we would introduce mandatory prison sentences for people who assault police officers. We will also seek to build two new prisons, one specifically for juvenile males between 18 and 22 with a strong focus on rehabilitation, education and employment.’

Housing Affordability – ‘The failure to adequately stockpile land and release land ready for development by the Labor Party in the last five years has contributed significantly to the quantum increases in land prices and property prices that we have experienced. That has pushed a range of first homebuyers out of the market. We would seek to reform the land administration and approval process, and we would get more land on to the market at the north and south corridors.’

The GLBT Platform

Marriage/Civil Unions – ‘Civil unions is something we would look at but with a very cautious eye, keeping in mind that there is strong community sentiment that marriage should be a distinct entity.’

Relationship Register – ‘The Liberal Party do not have specific policy on registers but we are open minded as to the mechanics of registers, particularly if we are in government we would look to see how registers of partnerships between gay couples could practically help to alleviate disadvantage in a variety of legal settings… As I understand it, the register is not just about gay and lesbian couples but great aunties who live together and we would consider it as means for alleviating legal disadvantage… the registry component of the Civil Partnerships Act looks like a reasonable mechanical model.’

Same-sex Families – ‘Colin [Barnett]’s position is that he is not going to roll back the legislative reforms. It is safe to say that there was the recent case of gay men being enabled by those laws to adopt and it is very difficult to comment on the specifics of that situation because by legislation the details are not openly available… In circumstances where you have about five local children put up for adoption every year and hundreds of perspective parents, we have serious concerns about the practical effect of child welfare in those situations of children being adopted to gay parents.’

Surrogacy – ‘Part of that package of legislation in 2002 which enhanced homosexual rights were issues pertaining to surrogacy. We recently had a piece of legislation that passed through the House which would have enabled any woman to avail herself of a surrogacy situation. That was a conscience vote in Parliament. That legislation now gets put into the dustbin by the calling of this election. It has to go through the whole thing again… Mr McGinty said, “For those women for whom the biological clock is ticking, we don’t want to delay them.” Well, for those women now, many of them may have lost their chance. That’s a real human cost to calling a strategically early election.’

Trans* Rights – ‘I am aware of the HREOC report and have read summaries of it, and it is more of a federal than a state issue.’

Homelessness – ‘The homelessness issue is one Colin Barnett takes very seriously and he is keen to institute a fairly strong welfare agenda for the Liberals if elected. The crossover between mental illness and homelessness would be a priority for the Liberal Party. I understand there is some statistics that say it has a disproportionate effect on youth of diverse sexuality. I don’t think we would necessarily tackle that as a gay and lesbian or sexuality issue but would seek to tackle it across the board.’

Final Thought

‘The single biggest implication for this election is about open accountable government which welcomes scrutiny. I think that calling an election before the report into the Varanus Island gas explosion, before seven reports of the CCC, the Crime and Corruption Commission are handed down – I think these are indicative of a government that expends enormous energy avoiding scrutiny.’

Liberal GLBT Candidates or Representatives

None known