Comment by Rebecca Meckelburg and Jen Crothers
HOBART — After six years of campaigning for gay law reform in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group (TGLRG) has announced a victory with the release of the federal government's Human Rights Bill. However, it is not all over, as some mainland press has been reporting.
The bill is a politically astute way of pleasing as many people as possible without rocking the boat. Cabinet had two bills to consider. One would have annulled the state laws that mean that anal sex and any other sexual contact between men is illegal. The bill which is now before parliament is based on the right of an individual to privacy. It does not directly invalidate Tasmania's anti-gay laws.
By hanging the bill on privacy rather than on gay sexual practices, the federal government can avoid asserting that lesbian and gay rights are human rights. The federal law can be used as a defence in court, but men can still be arrested and harassed under the state laws. TGLRG is planning to use the federal law, once it is passed, to mount a High Court challenge to the state laws.
State Liberal government representatives have revealed that they will not challenge Canberra's privacy legislation in the High Court (as previously stated) because, as attorney general Ron Comish put it, "It's political window dressing. It doesn't make our law invalid, and it doesn't affect the way it has been applied for decades."
The main "application" has been use to use the laws to justify discrimination against lesbians and gay men.
On September 22 the Greens introduced legislation into parliament that directly overrides Tasmania's anti-gay laws. Unlike the Labor Party's bill, the Green proposal takes away the powers of the Tasmanian authorities to enforce the anti-gay laws.
The state Liberal government stands condemned on all fronts. Its refusal to repeal the laws gives fuel to the burgeoning anti-gay movements to promote hatred. The federal Labor government has promoted the legal rights of lesbians and gays, but only by implication. The Greens and Democrats are not in any position to make an impact on the bill. It's therefore clear that we need to look further than parliament for solutions.
As well as the High Court challenge we need to continue to build an inclusive campaigning movement for lesbian and gay rights. Basically, it is up to us. Governments won't do it for us.