A proud day
Feb 2nd, 2008 by Rebecca
Today’s Civil Unions rally was more successful than we could have hoped.
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell just stood in front of the television cameras and declared the absolute commitment of the ACT government to enacting civil unions with ceremonies in the face of federal pressure. He spoke at length about the government’s desire to see the bill passed urgently, and demanded that the federal government conclude any negotiations over the bill within two months, so as to allow the bill to be tabled before the end of March. He spoke of his frustration with the federal government’s intransigence over the bill - and to the surprise of a lot of us, basically announced that the territory government was fed up with federal government interference in their affairs and wanted the federal override powers abolished. ACT Education Minister Andrew Barr, who is openly gay and in a long-term relationship, spoke beautifully about the need to see real change in recognising gay relationships, and Greens MP Deb Foskey spoke quite well about just how the federal government’s preferred model of a relationship registry just doesn’t cut it, and makes the gay community second-class citizens. After months of doubt as to the future of the Civil Partnerships Bill, this was just what we needed to hear.
I’m amazed at how fast everything for this rally just seemed to fall into place. I blogged about one of the early meetings a few weeks ago, when things seemed pretty hopeless. I was worried few people would show, and I certainly didn’t expect us to actually get Labor MPs to come and speak - but then, to my surprise, we got them. Once Corbell had announced his intention to address the rally, it rolled from there. In a city with a small and notoriously apathetic gay community, we managed to get the word out, and had somewhere in the vicinity of 130-140 people show up. We’ve always struggled to get media attention to any protests in Canberra, but we had both newspaper and television coverage of this rally before it had even happened. We had both WIN and ABC News taping the entire rally, plus the Times and perhaps one other paper. A story about it has gone out on the AAP wire, and has been picked up by The Age in Melbourne. All in all, I’m very impressed.
We’ll have to see what happens from hereon out. It’s clear now that the bill will not be debated, as previously suggested, in the February sitting of parliament. My guess, after hearing Corbell’s speech is that the rumors we’re hearing here (as has Rodney Croome, apparently) - that a residency requirement may be instituted in exchange for the federal government pulling its head in - are probably on the money. It’d be disappointing to see such a step, as it would stop the sort of mass convergence that we saw when San Francisco legalised gay marriage, but it’s hardly unexpected, and I actually thought it was already included in the bill after the last round of federal negotiations in 2006. In any case, it looks pretty clear now that civil unions will be legalised in the territory before the end of the year. For that, I’m incredibly proud to be a resident of this place.
On a final note, congratulations to Rhian, whose efforts went a long way towards making today the success it was.
congrats! i’m glad you feel good about it - i would have looked out for it on abc, but i missed the news because i was cooking cake. mmm, cake.
mmm, cake indeed. what sort of cake?
With an election in the ACT before the end of the year, it is not very surprising that 2 ACT Labor Ministers were at the rally. It is a wonder the whole cabinet wasnt there! With Federal Labor’s proposed cuts to the public service and very close relationship to the religious right, I am sure that ACT Labor will be after every vote they can get for the election. It will be wonderful if the Civil Partnerships Bill is passed as soon as possible but the gay community will still need MPs in their local assembly that will fight for their rights for the long term. Great to see that Greens MP, Deb Foskey attended and spoke at the rally. I like many other people will be watching events in Canberra with great interest.
You’re quite right: I’ve been meaning to make a seperate post as to why the government is holding the line on this, but it’s pretty clear to me that it’s because they’re scared of the Greens in November.
If the Senate polls were reflected in the territory election, the Greens would be standing to gain 2-3 seats as well as retaining Foskey’s - and there’s also, as you mention, the complicating factor of the backlash against Labor over school closures and job cuts - and a protest vote sure ain’t going to the Liberals in their current state. So a Green success would well and truly mean the end of the Labor majority in the Legislative Assembly - and those seats would also probably come at the cost of Labor members. It’s not surprising that they’re starting to panic.
That said, I think you’re being a bit unfair on ACT Labor - this government has been so supportive of gay rights issues right from their initial election (well before such a stance started to become electorally important), and they’ve fixed a lot of stuff without the need for a lot of prompting. I’ve got a lot of respect for most of this government in that respect, even though I’ll probably vote Green on election day.
You are quite correct Rebecca, the Stanhope Government is to be congratulated for it’s active support of gay rights issues. The interference of the Howard Government set back the Stanhope Government’s progressive agenda and thus from enacting passed legislation. So I give credit where credit is due. However, I suppose I am very unsure as to what to expect from the newly elected Federal Labor Government and there have been so many disappointments in the past, even when they were in Opposition.
I love your blog , newly discovered! I hope you will keep us all informed about these issues in the ACT as the year progresses? Kind Regards. Brenton.
You’re certainly correct on that front - I have absolutely no faith in the ability of the Rudd government to deliver anything much on LGBT rights at all, apart from removing some of the most ridiculous areas of trans discrimination (which they have previously suggested that they’ll do).
And thanks! I’ll be blogging about the progress of the bill as news comes in, as I was part of the organising collective of this rally, and I’ll be closely following any further developments. Hope to see you dropping by again!
If it’s something in the water down there, the federal government needs to spend a greater proportion of the year sitting.
Congratulations on a positive rally and I wish you the best of luck getting some decent legislation enacted.