Response from
the Australian Labor Party
(Tasmanian Branch)
Equality Tasmania LGBTIQA+ Community State Election Survey 2024
Introduction
Equality Tasmania has surveyed parties and candidates on issues of concern to the LGBTIQA+ community during each state election since 1989. We ask for your responses to the following questions to better inform the LGBTIQA+ community and our families and allies about their voting options.
The relatively large number of questions in this survey is because we seek your views on services as well as law reform, and because of the ongoing threats to landmark reforms already achieved.
We urge you to answer each question with:
Yes
No
Undecided, uncertain or need more information
You are welcome to add any additional information.
The deadline for responses is Monday March 4th 2024.
If you have any questions please contact Rodney Croome on 0409 010 668
PERMISSION
To ensure we meet our obligations under the Electoral Act we ask for your permission to publish your responses to our questions. Please write your name below to give us permission to publish. If you are not an independent, please indicate your party or grouping.
Name: Ella Haddad MP
Party of grouping: Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
***
1. LEGISLATION NEEDED IN THE NEXT TERM OF GOVERNMENT
a. Conversion practices
Questions
Do you want to see an end to conversion practices in Tasmania?
Will you enact or vote for a prohibition on conversion practices based on the recommendations of the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute?
Do you believe this should be high priority?
Yes to all the above three questions. Tasmanian Labor recognises the life long trauma and harm that many LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians have endured due to the unethical practices known as conversion practices.
Tasmanian Labor is committed to legislating to ban these practices, specifically to protect Tasmanians from the harm they cause.
Tasmanian Labor recognises that conversion practices do happen in Tasmania and are often shrouded in pseudo science and pseudo religious practices. Banning them will not stop LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians from speaking to their parents, carers, health professionals, religious leaders, friends, teachers or other community supports about their sexuality or gender identity. Rather, banning these harmful practices is about protecting people from harm and respecting the sexuality and gender identity of every Tasmanian.
b. Intersex surgeries
Questions
Will you enact or vote for a prohibition on medically-unnecessary interventions on children with innate variations of sex characteristics based on the recommendations of the TLRI?
Do you believe this should be high priority?
Will you support the provision of redress for those who have undergone damaging, medically-unnecessary and non-consensual medical interventions?
Yes to the above three questions. Tasmanian Labor recognises this is a complex area of medical and law reform and has for many years been meeting with intersex people, their parents and advocates to understand the issues around medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex people, in particular infants.
Tasmanian Labor is committed to continuing to work with the intersex community and advocates, to ensure Tasmania has best practice laws to protect the rights of intersex people to choose when and if they undergo surgeries that are not medically necessary
c. Hate crime
Questions
Will you enact or vote for reform of the Sentencing Act that allows for aggravated sentencing when a crime is motivated by hatred on the basis of a range of attributes including sexual orientation, gender identity and variations of sex characteristics.
Will you support more resources to enable police to be trained to identify, collect data on, and prosecute crime motivated by hate?
Tasmanian Labor recognises the reality of hate motivated crime and offending in our state and wants to see this seriously addressed in our criminal justice system.
Right now the Tasmanian law only allows for race to be considered as a motivator for criminal offending. And even than, it can only be considered right at the end of the criminal justice process when an offender is being sentenced.
Labor will make a number of changes in this area:
1. We will amend the Sentencing Act to expand the motivations that the courts can consider. At the moment only racial motivation can be considered but we will expand this to include homophobia, transphobia, sexism, disability discrimination and other protected attributes.
2. Labor will introduce new offences in the Police Offences Act and Criminal Code to allow for police to be able to charge offenders with offences that recognise that the relevant offending was motivated by racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, disability and so on. It isn’t right that when crimes are motivated by hatred that this is only considered at the very end of the criminal justice process at sentencing. Labor will amend our laws to ensure that hate motivated crimes can be addressed right at the beginning of the criminal justice system. This will be accompanied by community education campaigns.
d. Stalking law reform
Question
Will you support changes to section 192 of the Criminal Code to ensure victims of those crimes can be sure police are empowered to gather evidence and bring charges without having to seek prior consent of the DPP?
Yes, Tasmanian Labor would support changing that provision. It is important that when deficiencies are identified in our existing laws, that they are amended so they are fit for purpose and this is an example of a simple change that is required that would make the lives of LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians safer.
e. Expungement of historical criminal records
Questions
Will you enact or vote for the review’s recommendations to be implemented?
If you indicated support for the recommendations, does this include in-principle support for financial redress for survivors, of an amount to be determined by a parliamentary inquiry?
Tasmanian Labor supports the review’s recommendations and would work to implement all of them in Government.
Tasmanian Labor also supports financial redress for people who have their past convictions expunged. We have looked at similar redress schemes in operation in other jurisdictions around the world and we are committed to working with community to implement a scheme that recognises this harm and suitably compensates Tasmanians.
f. An LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Act
Questions
Do you support an LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Act similar to the proposed Disability Inclusion Bill?
If unsure, do you support an inquiry into the need for an LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Act?
Yes. Tasmanian Labor recognises the value and importance of the Disability Inclusion Bill and would definitely be keen to do the work required to introduce a similar act to support LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians.
g. A Human Rights Act
Question
Will you enact or vote for a Tasmanian Human Rights Act in line with the recommendations of the TLRI?
Tasmanian Labor is committed to a Human Rights Act. It was under a previous Labor Government that the initial Tasmanian Law Reform Institute research was conducted back in 2007. It is disappointing that there has been a lack of action from government to legislate human rights in Tasmania since that initial research.
Labor actively awaits the updated research currently underway at the TLRI, as well as learning from the experiences of jurisdictions with Acts in place, so that we can finally have a human rights act in Tasmania.
2. PROTECTING EXISTING RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
a. The Anti-Discrimination Act
Questions
Will you vote against any attempt to remove existing protections for students, staff and clients of faith-based schools and services?
Will you vote against any attempt to weaken or otherwise amend section 17 of the Anti-Discrimination Act, including any attempt to allow intimidation and humiliation etc in the name of religion?
Tasmanian Labor was the architect of the Anti Discrimination Act which remains nation leading even after more than 25 years of operation. A Labor government would act only to strengthen, not weaken, the provisions of the Act and we would vote against any attempt by other parties to weaken or amend section 17 or otherwise weaken the Act.
b. Gender recognition laws
Question
Will you vote against any attempt to weaken or otherwise amend Tasmania’s gender identity recognition laws?
Tasmanian Labor will not weaken, amend or repeal these laws. Labor will also not support any attempts from other parties to do so. It was because of the Labor Party that these protections could be legislated in the first place. And to achieve that from opposition, with support from the cross benches, was historic and something to be proud of.
c. Respecting parental rights and opposing censorship
Questions
Will you respect parental choice and freedom, and oppose censorship, by allowing schools and libraries to include age-appropriate LGBTIQA+ books in their collections?
Will you respect parental choice and freedom, and oppose censorship, by not speaking out against age-appropriate drag story time?
Tasmanian Labor will not support these types of right wing moral panic campaigns. Age appropriate LGBTIQA+ texts are a vital teaching aid and drag story time is simply great fun! It is sad to see public figures on the far right fringes of society try to whip up unnecessary fear about these things.
3. LGBTIQA+ HEALTH AND WELLBEING
a. Government LGBTIQA+ Framework and Action Plan
Question
Do you give in-principle support to the development and implementation of an Action Plan and Framework with appropriate funding based on the Telling Us the Story report?
Yes Labor supports this.
b. Mental health
Question
Do you support a dedicated Tasmanian LGBTIQA+ mental health service?
Yes Labor supports the establishment for dedicated LGBTIQA+ mental health and health services and this is something we want to progress from Government.
c. Service delivery and policy-making
Question
Do you commit to maintaining funding that will enable statewide service delivery by Working It Out?
Labor is committed to increasing WIO’s funding. They do incredible work on a low budget and Labor is committed to an annual increase of $95,000 per annum indexed, to be added to WIO’s existing funding grant deed.
Question
Do you support a continuation of this funding?
Yes see above.
d. Community fund
Questions
Do you support this fund?
Yes Labor supports this fund.
e. Housing and substance abuse strategies
Question
Will you support LGBTIQA+ people being a priority group in Tasmania’s housing and substance-harm strategies?
Yes Labor supports this.
f. Trans and gender diverse health care
Question
Do you support increased funding for the Sexual Health Service to meet demand and reduce wait times, as well as ongoing professional development for healthcare providers working with the trans and gender diverse community?
Yes Labor supports this as well as supporting dedicated LGBTIQA+ health and mental health services (see above answers)
Question
Will you oppose an inquiry into health care for young trans and gender diverse people?
Yes Labor would oppose any inquiry that would do harm or runs the risk of becoming a platform of hatred. Rather, Labor would be guided by the evidence based research that already exists on health care for young trans and gender diverse people, as well as being guided by the Tasmanian trans and gender diverse community and advocates.
g. Clinic
Question
Do you support a dedicated, multidisciplinary, LGBTIQA+ healthcare centre?
If not, do you support a needs analysis to determine if such a service is required?
Yes Labor supports dedicated LGBTIQA+ health and mental health care services (see above answers) and would look forward to progressing this work in government.
h. Legal Service
Question
Do you support a dedicated LGBTIQA+ legal service?
If not, do you support a needs analysis to determine if such a service is required?
Tasmanian Labor is not opposed to a dedicated legal service and recognises the value of such services in other jurisdictions. Labor also recognises that the broader community legal assistance sector is under funded and in need of increased resources to meet demand.
In Government, Labor would seek to address this through a review in to community legal assistance funding to make sure Tasmanians get access to the dedicated legal assistance they need.
4. GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT AND THE LGBTIQA+ COMMUNITY
a. Professional development for government employees
Question
Do you support funding to ensure all school staff, health staff, police and emergency services staff, prison staff and Service Tasmania staff have professional development in the issues facing LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians?
Yes, Labor supports this.
b. Consultation and representation
Questions
Do you support the continuation of the existing government / LGBTIQA+ reference groups in the departments of education, health, police and emergency services, justice and across the whole of government (some of which have been in place for a quarter of a century)?
Yes, Labor supports the continuation and strengthening of the whole of government working group as well as the Agency specific working groups.
Do you support the appointment of an equality minister in the State Government?
Yes, Labor has had a dedicated Shadow Ministry of Equality and is committed to continuing this with a dedicated Minister for Equality in government
Do you support the appointment of an LGBTIQA+ Commissioner (see LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Act above)?
Yes, Labor supports this and would want to do the work in Government to determine the role and scope of work a Commissioner would have. Labor is familiar with and supportive of the work that the Victorian Commissioner has achieved and would like to see Tasmania benefit from something similar. This is something Labor would seek to work on in Government.
Do you support the establishment of a Parliamentary LGBTIQA+ Friendship Group?
Yes, Labor supports this.
Do you support a Tasmanian LGBTIQA+ Staff Pride Network across the public sector (there are already agency specific networks in Police and Emergency Services, State Growth and Health?
Yes, Labor supports this.