STATEMENT: Greens respond to gutting of Equality Bill
This week, the NSW Parliament is set to debate important legislative changes for LGBTQIA+ people after the Minns Labor Government and the Member for Sydney have agreed to cut a whopping 35 pages out of the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTQIA+) Bill 2023.
Critically, proposed changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act have been dumped, including the expansion of protection from discrimination on the grounds of homosexuality or being a transgender person to broad protection on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Proposed protections for LGBTIQ+ teachers, staff and students at non-government schools have also been dumped amongst a raft of other changes.
What remains in the bill includes the ability to change gender on state documents without the need for surgery - something the trans community has campaigned for years for. It would also allow courts to recognise the parents of children born of commercial surrogacy when this is in the best interest of the child, designate threats to ‘out’ someone as coercive control, and remove some outdated offences associated with sex work.
Quotes attributable to Dr Amanda Cohn MLC, Greens Spokesperson for LGBTQIA+:
“The Greens can be counted on to vote for equality for LGBTQIA+ communities in the NSW Parliament - every MP, every vote, every time.
"The Equality Bill as it was originally drafted would have passed in full, if the Minns Labor Government chose to support it. The rights of LGBTQIA+ people should not be negotiable.
“The Greens will ensure that the carcass of this bill passes the Parliament. This will improve the safety and rights of LGBTQIA+ people in NSW - but this is not full equality.
"This bill now doesn’t even bring us up to speed with other Australian states and territories. There is so much more work to do.”
Quotes attributable to Jenny Leong MP, Greens Spokesperson for Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination:
“The review of anti-discrimination laws in NSW should be used to put an end to discrimination, not as an excuse to further delay protections and enable ongoing discriminatory exemptions.
“If the bill is amended to remove all changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act, then we would no longer be able to call this an Equality Bill. We can’t call it LGBTQIA+ equality if some workers still risk losing their job when they come out.
“The Labor Government are claiming that they can’t make any changes around anti-discrimination protections until after a law reform inquiry. This is a hypocritical double standard.
“Minns has readily made changes around religious vilification and anti-discrimination protection at the request of some religious leaders and powerful lobby groups, yet is telling queer people that they need to wait again and again.
“Through these delays, Labor is furthering the parliament’s willingness to entrench discrimination, and failing to stand up against powerful homophobes and transphobes.”
CONTACT: Alice Gifford, Parliamentary and Policy Adviser, Office of Dr Amanda Cohn
PH 9230 2566