Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That is a statement from a government made up in this case of undemocratic wowsers and sad sacks. Why on earth in 2009 can’t this Labor government remove discrimination from people who care to love each other and want to engage in the same rights to publicly celebrating that connection that everybody else in the community has? It is just Howardian hangover by Rudd Labor. It is offensive, it is hurtful and it is destructive. On top of that is this ongoing propensity for Labor to override the will of the elected representatives of the Australian Capital Territory. That is trammelling on democracy itself. This is a Rudd government showing not only its bigotry but its disrespect for a representative assembly. It ought to think long and hard about that. This is the Rudd government saying to the people of the ACT: ‘You are second rate. You don’t deserve the same right to determine your affairs as people in the states do.’ I will shortly be introducing a piece of legislation to help rectify that. It is time the Rudd government treated the people of the ACT—and, indeed, the Northern Territory—with the same respect that all Australians have and that they deserve to have as well.