Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The other week I got a chance to read a really powerful piece written by Shannon Molloy. He wrote it in February 2016. He wrote openly and courageously about his life as a teenager realising he was gay. He wrote about not only the physical response he had to endure, but also the response he had to feel at being betrayed by people in positions of trust. I would urge people to read this piece, because it is a deeply moving piece. If it were not hard enough to read that, it was especially hard this morning to read in The Australian a story by Emily Ritchie, which contained the words, 'They win—I am done'. Shannon resigned from the board of the New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, reportedly pressured to step down from his role by activists who complained that his employment with News Corp presented a conflict of interest with the lobby. This is just wrong. Shannon, opening up publicly to what you had to endure was enormously brave, and you have a courage that would surpass that of many of us. Your voice is hugely important, and I cannot believe there are those who would want to silence that voice. What has happened to Shannon is wrong, and he should get a place back on the New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. I want to send my voice of support to him through what he is going through.