WA anti-gay laws set to change
AM
ABC Radio
4 August 2001 at 8:10am
Host: Linda Mottram, AM, ABC Radio
Reporter: David Weber, AM, ABC Radio
Guest: Jim McGinty, WA Attorney General, Labor Party
Guest: Louise Pratt, Member of the WA Legislative Council, Labor Party
Guest: Grant Cottrell, Spokesperson, Gay and Lesbian Equality (WA) Inc.
LINDA MOTTRAM (Host, AM, ABC Radio) - Anti-gay laws in Western
Australia could be set to change, as the State Government proposes wide
spread reforms. But it won't be a quick process with the government
calling for an open community debate before embarking on any
legislative changes.
On the table are laws such as one that allows bosses to refuse a job to
anyone who's homosexual and another under the criminal code that can
put a 20 year old gay man in gaol for up to five years, for the crime
of having unlawful sex.
David Weber reports.
DAVID WEBER (Reporter, AM, ABC Radio) - In Western Australia the age of
consent for gay sex is 21 compared to 16 for heterosexuals. The Equal
Opportunity Act does not protect gays and lesbians from discrimination
and defactos are not legally recognised. The Attorney General, Jim
McGinty, says it's time for WA to catch up to the other states.
JIM McGINTY (Labor, WA Attorney General) - Whether it be in terms of
death, medical treatment, property matters, eligibility for
superannuation, the list goes on and on. The extent to which gay and
lesbian people, every day of their lives, face some sort of
discrimination.
DAVID WEBER - The Opposition has questioned the government's priorities
in this area like 'why is the government making these changes?' When in
reality, this kind of discrimination isn't really a problem in Western
Australia?
JIM McGINTY - This discrimination is a problem in Western Australia and
it was brought into very sharp focus last year, and I think, in a most
hurtful way, when a lesbian member of the State Parliament looked into
the eyes of her parliamentary colleagues as they voted to deny her the
right to her parliamentary superannuation and to share that with her
partner because she was a lesbian. And in the same mood they voted to
extend to their partners, wives and defactos, access to their
superannuation.
DAVID WEBER - Do you accept that opening debate on some of these
issues, or reopening in some cases, will be hurtful for that part of
the community?
JIM McGINTY - A thriving democracy lives off open and public debate and
a frank exchange of ideas. If there is hurt there for either members of
the gay and lesbian community or members of the very conservative side
of the community, that is the price that must be paid to make social
progress.
DAVID WEBER - The government hopes to bring in its legislation by the
end of the year with the cooperation of the Greens in the Upper House.
The Committee on Gay and Lesbian Law Reform only took three months to
complete its report for the Attorney General. Louise Pratt was on the
committee.
LOUISE PRATT (Labor, Member of the WA Legislative Council) - There are
a lot of young gay and lesbian people who've been victims of bullying
at school, of vilification and harassment and we've had no mechanisms
for redressing that. So these wide sweeping broad set of reforms will
go a long way to addressing a wide range of problems that lesbian and
gay people in Western Australia have been living with.
DAVID WEBER - Have those laws been part of, I guess, the marginalisation of gays and lesbians in Western Australia?
LOUISE PRATT - I think that at the moment they go hand in hand. The
discriminatory laws in this state have reinforced negative attitudes
towards gays and lesbians in WA.
DAVID WEBER - Spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Equality Group, Grant
Cottrell, welcomes the coming debate but he expects there'll be
excessive focus on the age of consent.
GRANT COTTRELL (Spokesperson, Gay and Lesbian Equality) - It's being
reported that the age of consent is being lowered for gay men from 21
to 16, but actually it's being equalised with the heterosexual age of
consent.
LINDA MOTTRAM - Grant Cottrell of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Group in
Western Australia, speaking to our reporter David Weber in Perth.
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