Help! The Coalition government is hell-bent on destroying any opposition to its neo-conservative, homophobic, war-mongering, business-first agenda. They want to silence organisations that have defended workers, students and marginalised groups.
Life for many queers is a living hell. A survey of 900 queers in Australia found that 53% had been discriminated against in employment and 11% physically abused or threatened.
Young queer men are up to seven times more likely to commit suicide.
But these statistics are not new. They are repeated time and again when research is carried out. This is why battling homophobia is so important. You being called a fag or a filthy dyke might not have much of an effect. For a young man who is scared of being outed at home, for a young woman who self-mutilates, it might be the last straw that tips a young life over the edge into suicide.
There are laws against outright discrimination. Under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), it is against the law to victimise queers at work. But it still happens. Queer teachers can be legally dismissed from private schools and can do little about it as these institutions are allowed to discriminate under the act. Religious bodies in many cases also operate outside the law.
Whether it is employment, leave, education, accommodation, or full legal recognition of our relationships, hardcore discrimination still occurs. That's why organisations such as student associations and trade unions that protect and resource our campaigns are so important.
PM John Howard is supporting mis-named "voluntary student unionism" legislation. VSU aims to get rid of a political and social space for students. Without student organisations, Mardi Gras might not have existed, as the Sydney University student association was key to the first (illegal) Mardi Gras protest in the late '70s.
If VSU is introduced, after leaving a union-free university, you might graduate into a union-free workplace. Howard wants to change trade union laws, too, and these changes would mean that union organisers could not enter the worksite of their members — an essential need in dangerous jobs such as building and mining. He plans to force as many workers as possible on to Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts).
Howard plans to eliminate the number of matters in employment awards, which has the practical effect of taking long-service leave, superannuation and accident pay out of agreements. Small businesses will be given exemption from
unfair dismissal laws, so that you can be sacked on a discriminatory basis. The role of the states has been more sympathetic than the federal government, but will be taken out of the industrial relations system altogether.
If Howard gets away with these attacks, all workers will be worse off, not just those in unions. How will it affect queers?
- Creating exemptions from unfair dismissal laws for small business will make it easier for queers to be sacked from small businesses for being gay, as they would lose recourse to these laws in court.
- Lesbians will be affected because women are disproportionately represented in unskilled and casual jobs and will be worse affected by the gutting of awards.
- This is the single largest attack on unions in 100 years and is a brazen attempt to destroy hard-won union gains. Militant unions have fought for queers and other minorities and are still our best defence. The militant Builders Labourers Federation of the 1970s instituted green, black and "pink" bans. In June 1973, the NSW BLF placed a "pink ban" on all new construction work at Macquarie University over the expulsion of a gay student from the Anglican residential college on campus. The student was a leading gay-rights activist.
With Howard gaining control of the Senate in July, it's clear that if we're to defend our rights, let alone win new ones such as same-sex marriage, repeal of anti-gay laws and an end to the censorship of queer books and TV programs, we need strong organisations to do it. We need an active campaign of street marches, public meetings, fiery debates and unity amongst queer groups to bring this together. People's power is key and strong action can stop such attacks.
Rachel Evans
[Rachel Evans is a member of Socialist Alliance. Join Socialist Alliance and the campaign to defend the unions and queer rights. Email <grrrach@yahoo.com> for more info.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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