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Since October 1999 Victoria has had a Labor Government. Â After the long haul with Jeff Kennett1 as premier, the state dumped the Liberals and went Labor.
It’s been a bumpy ride.
Then on the eve of the election, in comes the Premier – John Brumby2, riding on an alpaca, hunting down the queer vote, the pink vote, the noisy homosexual vote!
Suddenly it’s important to deliver some ‘stuff’ for them.
Lets look at this stuff:
Review the Adoption Act 1984, which prevents same-sex couples from adopting children.
Review? C’mon, this doesn’t need reviewing, it needs fixing, and FFS – what have you been doing with your time? Has this just occurred to you now?
Create a government advisory committee to advise cabinet on key issues affecting the gay community, and provide $400,000 over four years for a peak body to represent its interests.
Advisory Committee – that’s a bit like praying, you can either do something useful with your time, or create an advisory committee.
Reform the law so couples who marry overseas can have their relationship – though not their marriage – registered in Victoria.
Reform? Didn’t you think of this when you created the relationship register3?
Allow partnerships to be legally registered even if only one partner is connected to Victoria (at present, both have to be).
Oh, wow. Big deal. Just fix it, no need to tell us and make it sound like a major shift. You just fucked it up the first time. Perhaps if you had that Advisory Committee in place before and listen to it, you may have got it right.
Strengthen laws against homophobic harassment, and invest $100,000 over four years in a campaign designed to reduce attacks on gay people.
What? Homophobic harassment is new? FFS – what have you been doing?
Require all government funding and service agreements to adhere to the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, meaning government-funded bodies will no longer be able to discriminate on the basis of sexuality or gender identities.
What? You fund organisation that don’t subscribe to the charter of human rights? You already fund them? WTF?
No, no, really, it’s great. Â At last a government that sees the importance of ensuring that all of it’s citizens have the same rights and that when a portion of it’s population is victimised and denied those rights it’s the job of the government to fix it up….. wait on a minute…. why do we have to wait for an election to be called? Â Surely these things haven’t just occurred in the last month….
- Premier from 1992 – 1999 – dumped at the 99 election after he ‘cleaned up’ the mess of the former labor government SOURCE ↩
- Brumby took over from Steve Bracks in 2007 SOURCE ↩
- Â The Relationships Bill was the State Governments attempt to give some sort of marriage rights to the states gay couples or those that didn’t really want to get married. Â My blog ↩
It’s all very offensive.
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I tend to agree with Michael that Bruce Llama’s blog is very offensive.
Dozens of queer activists have engaged the state government to progress policy beyond the many law changes already enacted by them and the reviews and research initiated and commissioned by them. We have met, organised, worked tirelessly to achieve change and now we see ground breaking change and the Bruceys of the world go toxic.
If you want to slap the government Bruce, don’t slap down the community groups and individuals who have worked hard for these proposed changes – and many of us have undertaken this work as community volunteers rather than paid for our time.
Take a cold shower mate – a long cold shower – and add your voice to the discussion of how we progress these advances after the election. After all, if you know down the Labor government, there’s no other political party stepping up with GLBT vision and shifts the ground for any successive government.
Thanks for your comments Greg.
I have no problems with and have supported many organisations that have fought the good fight. I am not an object for the government to try and impress me one month out form an election. These matters have been known issues for years and they have done nothing, despite the lobbying of many organisations. It’s only now that they pick to tell us what a great job they will do when re-elected. The Bracks/Brumby government should have all this already in place, before the election.
So perhaps you should remove yourself a step and see how bad this makes the labor party look.
I am a long time supported of the labor party, but I know a bribe when I see one.
..and another gay elder has been quoted elsewhere:
“I hope people will realize that in spite of the headline (in the Age newspaper, Saturday 23 October), John Brumby’s policy announced today builds on a ten year project in Victoria of significant reform in laws and practices, so that it is solid and embedded, and no flash in the pan.” – Jamie Gardiner, human rights and GLBTI activist (and former VEOHRC Member, Vice-President of Liberty Victoria & Secretary of the ALP’s GLBTI Affairs Policy Committee)
Greg Adkins, you misconstrue my words. I don’t find this blog offensive in the slightest. What I find offensive is the Labor party’s promise to ‘help’ the GLBT people *only* if people vote Labor. That’s what’s offensive, and honestly, it stinks.
Why should we have to vote for a party to get the outcome? Why don’t they just up and make good if they feel things are so unfair?
And as for a party that refuses to come to the party on marriage equality, well honestly, that just stinks. Here you homopoofs, take our generosity, but don’t expect we really like you because you’re still second-class citizens, and you’re not as worthy as heterobreeders.
The Labor party and those who defend them are just arse-kissing wankers without an ounce of integrity or back-bone.
If you as a gay man want to be treated like a second-class citizen then fine by me but don’t expect the rest of us to go along with you.
The timing is too cute. One smells a rat. The first Victorian election where Labor could lose a swag of inner-city seats to the Greens and… well… if it has a pointy nose and a long tail it is probably not a bilby…