Minors supportive, majors tight-lipped
| 09 March 2010
A questionnaire sent to the major and minor parties in the lead up to our state election has elicited encouraging responses from the minor parties, but theLabor and Liberal parties have remained curiously silent.
Let’s Get Equal (LGE) sent a series of nine questions to Labor, Liberal, Democrats, Greens and Independent MLC David Winderlich.
The survey included questions on presumption of parentage for non-biological parents, access to IVF, changes to the anti-discrimination act and partnership registration.
Both the Democrats and the Greens gave full answers to all of the questions, while the Labor and Liberal parties provided no or a scant response.
On the question of presumption of parentage, Winderlich said he would be happy to introduce a private member’s bill on the issue and the Democrats said likewise. The Greens agreed, saying they had already made an undertaking last year to LGE to introduce a private member’s bill on the subject.
All three also agreed on access to IVF for same-sex couples and committed to introducing legislation.
“Access to reproductive technology should be available on the same basis as for heterosexual couples,” the Democrats’ Sandra Kanck said.
The Greens said they supported equal access to IVF, adoption, fostering and artificial insemination.
Both Winderlich and the Democrats supported the implementation of a partnership registry, with the Greens answering “Yes, but we would prefer equal marriage rights.”
The Greens spokesperson pointed out that at the federal level, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s private member’s bill to introduce equal marriage rights recently failed to get a second reading in the Senate, but would be re-introduced at the earliest opportunity.
Disappointingly, neither of the major parties responded adequately to the survey.
The Liberal Party issued a single-line statement to cover all nine questions:
“The Party Room does not have a policy on issues that are considered to be a “conscience” vote the questions you have asked would all be decided by each member without party room debate,” the statement read.
LGE received no response at all from the Labor Party before blaze went to print.
LGE’s Terri Mitchell-Smith said that while good progress had been made in some areas, other areas, such as private schools being able to discriminate against gay teachers and lack of access to reproductive technologies and surrogacy had been disappointing.
“LGE hopes that no matter who wins government, the process of providing legal protection and recognition for gay couples and family continues and that the existing discrimination is removed,” she told blaze.
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