Convenors’
Report
A year of lobbying: a Committee member's perspective
Mardi Gras Developments
DISCRMN8 INVSBLE CRMNL16
Pride Week 2002
THE LOBBY TEAM
Female Convenor
Somali Ghosh
Male Convenor
Andrew Picklesi
Secretary
Suzy Tay
Treasurer
Luke Gahan
Committee Members
Nikki Maloney
Anthony Powell
Shane Garland
Grant Colquhoun
Paula O'Sullivan
David Scamell
Matthew Baird
Amanda Millar
Robert McGrory
Luca Balboni
Jenni Millbank
To Contact Us:
Phone: 02 9360 6650
Fax: 9331 7963
glrl@glrl.org.au
NEWSLETTER: September 2002 |
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Convenors’ Report
Last year, at our Annual General Meeting, we were elected convenors for a second term. This year, on 22 August, we both stood down and retired from the convenor positions and the Lobby Committee. Our leadership has been characterised by significant effort in recognising the important bonds between legal and social reform, as reflected in the Lobby's superannuation and parenting campaigns.
We have, with our Committee, other volunteers and Lobby membership, fought for our rights to: parent and form families of our choice; love and enter recognised relationships with whom we wish; accurate representation of gay and lesbian interests in the media; and finally to walk the street without fear of harassment or violence.
This year, in particular, has been focused on making social and legal headway with the State election in our sights. Our efforts have concentrated on a number of priority areas including further relationship reform, parenting and age of consent. These remain the Lobby's priorities heading into the State election, due March 2003.
Last August, we secured a personal commitment from the Attorney General Bob Debus for the introduction of what we termed the ‘missing pieces’ legislation - that which was missing from the GLRL secured relationship reform in 1999 [the Property Relationships Amendment Act]. Earlier this year, we were forced to go to the press with a ‘times up’ headline.
Unfortunately the State Government was talking, not acting, and that
is not acceptable to the Lobby, our community or to our sense of justice.
In mid 2002, the Attorney General advised that Cabinet had approved law
reform that recognises lesbian and gay de facto relationships in 23 different
Acts. These ‘missing pieces’ of the Property Relationship
Amendment Act (1999) significantly re-dress much of the inequality faced
by lesbian and gay couples and, when passed by the Parliament, will be
a tremendous victory for lesbian and gay rights in NSW. The ‘missing
pieces’ amendments proposed by the Attorney General are scheduled
to come before the Parliament in September 2002.
We are pleased to say that we also secured a grant this year from the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales to conduct the next phase of our parenting campaigning, which is to research and community focus-test options for legislative change. This work will begin in the next term of the GLRL and we can’t wait to see the results going forward. This project will also support the GLRL submission to the Law Reform Commission review into the Property Relationships Act.
Another priority area for us this year has been the discriminatory age of consent in NSW. The GLRL has continued to campaign extensively in 2001-2002 for the equalisation of the current discriminatory age of consent laws in NSW. NSW shamefully now has the most draconian laws of any Australian State or territory on this issue. The GLRL has been working very hard behind the scenes to assist in supporting the conditions that will best facilitate reform when the matter comes to the Upper House for a vote later in 2002. This strategy has involved demonstrating that an unequal age of consent is harmful to young men, improving our members’ and community’s understanding and literacy of the issue, building networks and partnerships with other organisations in preparation for the campaign, and finally direct lobbying of parliamentarians and opinion leaders. The incoming Committee will be well placed to lead the campaign for law reform in this area in the coming year.
Our decisions to leave the convenor positions are based on our other personal and professional commitments as we both have had long involvement now in the GLRL stretching over many years as both volunteers and Committee Members. It’s been fantastic to work with such a dedicated group of people and a privilege to represent the community on important matters of legal and social reform.
There is still much to be done in NSW for gay and lesbian rights. The
GLRL needs all our members and supporters to rally together. With age
of consent soon to come to a head and the State election only a few short
months away, the GLRL will again be called upon to provide leadership
on these issues. We are pleased to report the GLRL is in an excellent
position to confront and respond to these challenges.
Yours in the fight for equality
Alex Sosnov and Anthony M. Schembri
Former Convenors