Creating an Australia where everyone is treated equally and fairly regardless of their sexuality or gender identity
TASMANIAN GAY AND LESBIAN RIGHTS GROUP STATE ELECTION SURVEY 2010
The Greens Response
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Jen Van Achteren & Rodney Croome
Tasmanian Gay & Lesbian Rights Group
GPO Box 1733
HOBART TAS 7001
Dear Jen and Rodney,
Thanks for seeking the views of the Tasmanian Greens on the issues of concern to the LGBTI community. We have enclosed responses to your questions.
If you have any further queries please contact me.
Warm regards,
Nick McKim MP
Greens Leader
Member for Franklin
Law reform
1. Will your party amend the Relationships Act so that relationships formally registered in other jurisdictions will automatically be recognised as registered relationships in Tasmania.
Yes
2. Will your party amend the Anti-Discrimination Act to create a new ground for discrimination - gender identity - to provide more effective protection from discrimination for transgender and intersex people.
Yes
3. Will your party commit to not providing any more exemptions on the grounds of religion in the Anti-Discrimination Act.
Yes. The Tasmanian Greens will not support any further legislative exemptions and believe existing legislative exemptions should be periodically reviewed.
4. Will your party amend the Adoption Act to allow same-sex couples to be assessed, on the same basis as opposite-sex couples, as potential adoptive parents for the children relinquished by other people.
Yes. Based on the recommendation of the report of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute into same-sex adoption, the Tasmanian Greens attempted to enact this reform during debate on the Relationships Act in 2003 but both major parties opposed it. We continue to support eliminating discrimination from the Adoption Act.
5. Does your party support a state Charter of Rights.
Yes.
Policy
6. Will your party review and resource formal liaison between the LGBTI community and government agencies, especially health, police, education, tourism and justice, to ensure it is as effective as possible.
7. Will your party create policy positions within existing government policy-making bodies to ensure policy on LGBTI issues is on a par with policy for other minority and disadvantaged communities.
8. Will your party create a ministerial portfolio on LGBTI issues to ensure there is high-level leadership on these issues within government.
Yes. While the Tasmanian Greens acknowledge the progress that has been made in formal liaison between government and the LGBTI community, we also believe this progress has been slow, ad hoc and under-resourced. We will seek to develop a properly-resourced whole-of-government strategy on LGBTI issues which is guided by key principles developed through consultation with the LGBTI community. One model for such a strategy is the Quebec Provincial Government's Policy Against Homophobia released in December 2009.
Services
9. Will your party increase funding for existing LGBTI community support, counselling and education services, or fund new services, where an unmet need has been shown to exist.
Yes. If formal needs analysis shows that there is unmet need in this area, the Tasmanian Greens support funding increases.
Tackling prejudice and fostering inclusion
10. How does your party intend to meet the Tasmanian Together goals of reducing discrimination and violence against LGBTI people.
In the 2009/10 Alternative Budget the Tasmanian Greens allocated $150,000 for a special fund to which community groups can apply for one-off project funding to help meet the Tasmania Together LGBTI targets (to be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services)
11. Will your party allocate funding for police, health worker and teacher training in sexual and gender diversity to meet relevant Tasmania Together goals.
Yes. In the 2009/10 Alternative Budget the Tasmanian Greens allocated $100,000 for development and implementation of sexual and gender diversity programs for teachers and health workers, and $50,0000 for the expansion and promotion of the Tasmania Police GLBTI liaison program.
12. Will your party provide funding for class-room anti-homophobia and affirming diversity programs which have been proven to reduce levels of prejudice and bullying in school environments.
Yes. In the 2009/10 Alternative Budget the Tasmanian Greens allocated $300,000 for a three year program to implement school anti-homophobia programs which have been proven to reduce levels of prejudice, discrimination and bullying, including the Pride and Prejudice program.
13. Does your party commit to not authorising, publishing or distributing, or helping other organisations or individuals to authorise, publish or distribute, election materials which appeal to fear and hostility towards LGBTI people and their human rights.
Yes.
Other issues
14. Please feel free to outline commitments in areas that may not be listed above.
The Tasmanian Greens have a strong commitment to legal equality for same-sex couples. As part of this commitment we were the first party in Australia to introduce state same-sex marriage laws. We commit to the re-introduction of these laws in the next term of government.
The Tasmanian Greens are also committed to the recognition of other significant personal relationships apart from marriages. In 2006 we introduced the Significant Personal Relationships Bill which was the model for Tasmania's ground-breaking Relationships Act. In the 2009/10 Alternative Budget we allocated $50,000 for the production and distribution of educational and promotional materials for the Relationships Act and the relationships registry established under that Act.