Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This report, Same-sex: same entitlements, is a very important report and a very welcome one. It is the result of a national inquiry into discrimination against people in same-sex relationships and particularly deals with their financial and work related entitlements and benefits. The report is a very comprehensive one and I really would recommend it to people who have an interest in this area. Any issue that deals with discrimination against same-sex couples or issues relating to gays, lesbians and transgender people often get mired in some degree of controversy. But I believe this report is valuable because it cuts to the human reality, and that is what we are debating here: the human reality of a significant proportion of the Australian community who have fewer entitlements than everyone else in the community purely on the basis of the gender of the person to whom they are partnered—and I believe that is an unacceptable situation.

It should be noted, indeed, that no less a person than the Prime Minister himself—back around the end of 2005, I think it was—said that that was an unacceptable situation and he did not think that people should have fewer financial rights and financial entitlements purely because they were in a same-sex relationship. Unfortunately, whilst he made that statement, he has not actually done anything to remedy that longstanding discrimination.

This area is one that the Democrats have a very longstanding interest in. Indeed, it goes back to the era of Don Chipp, the founder of the Democrats, some of these issues having been raised in the Senate in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In terms of more specific legislative reform going right to the heart of what this report is about, the Democrats have had legislation before the Senate since 1995 that seeks to remove discrimination against people on the basis of sexuality from all areas of Commonwealth law. That mechanism has been before the Senate for 12 years now. It was first introduced by former Victorian senator Sid Spindler—and I am pleased to note, as an aside, that I saw him just last week at a function marking the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Democrats, an event that Sid Spindler himself was very heavily involved in—and this area is a key legacy of his six years in the Senate. That legislation has been updated once or twice. It was the subject of a very comprehensive Senate committee inquiry that was the precursor in many ways to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry that is before us here today. The report of that Senate committee inquiry—by the legal and constitutional references committee, from memory, chaired by former Labor senator Jim McKiernan—is another very worthwhile document, not just because of the technical details but because of the human reality, the human stories that are within it.

I note the introduction to the community guide of this HREOC report. For those who do not want to wade through a large, voluminous document, there is a very nice thin community guide for this report which basically gives the guts of it. It gives the recommendations. It outlines the areas of discrimination: discrimination in employment, discrimination in workers compensation, discrimination in tax benefits, discrimination in social security benefits, discrimination in veterans entitlements, discrimination in healthcare subsidies, discrimination in family law, discrimination in superannuation entitlements, discrimination in aged-care fees, discrimination in access to visas—and those are just the broad oversights. You drill down, and there are a range of different areas there.

Indeed, the inquiry found 58 different federal laws that deny same-sex couples and their children financial and work related entitlements which are available to opposite-sex couples and their children. That is a totally unacceptable situation. I know many other people from all parties have spoken about the need for change in this area, but we have not had action. Despite many efforts by the Democrats over many years, moving amendment after amendment, we have not had that. This report has now been tabled, and it is now no longer any excuse for any of us not to act.

I mentioned that the Democrats will be introducing new legislation that we have given notice of today to fully implement the recommendations of this report straightaway. It is very simple to implement. It basically just means amending the definition describing de facto relationships to include same-sex couples. That can be done. We will introduce the legislation to show how it will be done, how it should be done, and I urge all senators to support it as soon as possible. If nobody else is going to speak to this report, I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.