Former Democrat Senator Brian Grieg looks back on the movement for federal reform…
When news came through of the sweeping reforms to Federal laws for same-sex couples, my mind immediately turned to that cold wet night in Melbourne in 1994, when I met with Greg Browne for pizza and coffee in Brunswick Street. Greg was founder of ‘Homo Defactos,’ a short lived but important vehicle to highlight discrimination in Superannuation, and along with Rodney Croome and a handful of other GLBT activists, he sparked the national agitation on Commonwealth reform. Until then, most campaigners were rightly focused on state issues and state laws. It wasn’t long after this that Democrat Senator Sid Spindler introduced his ‘Sexuality Anti-Discrimination Bill’, which triggered a nationwide senate inquiry and carried the message of same-sex equality into Federal parliament.
From 1999, as a Senator, I was able to further pursue these issues, push the debate, move amendments and highlight the discrimination in a range of areas. This was complimented by similar actions from other Democrat and Greens Senators, while in the lower House MP’s like Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek showed their colours with some efforts at Private Members Bills. More importantly, activists out there in the cities, suburbs and regional centres, like Stuart O’Brien and Dr Michael Seah, tackled the military. Edward Young took his case on war pensions to the United Nations; John Challis became the friendly, senior face of CommSuper; and Kelly Pilgrim-Bryne highlighted Medicare inequity through public advocacy. They were not alone. It has taken dozens of unassuming and largely unacknowledged activists, some inside parliament and some out, some in political parties and some out, to create the conditions for reform. Rudd Labor can rightly claim credit for changing the laws, but it was a myriad of passionate and tenacious campaigners across the country who changed public attitudes to make all this possible.
Of course, Labor’s reforms are not comprehensive or complete. Marriage remains outstanding and the Federal Attorney’s defence of this discrimination gets weaker and more absurd with each passing media interview. It’s still the elephant in the room that neither Rudd nor Nelson want to talk about. Never mind, the activists and campaigners are not going away. Luke Gahan, Damian Douglas-Meyer and Peter Furness personify the next wave of the equality movement. Again, they are not alone.
The current reforms are no surprise to me. They had to happen. They were long overdue. The surprise has been in the rush of public support for equal marriage, and a deeply cynical media finally (finally!) asking the hard questions of Labor on this particular discrimination. This bodes well for future change.
In the mean time, Federal Attorney McClelland has called on the States to enact relationship registries. Surprisingly, our State Attorney Jim McGinty has rejected this, saying it’s not needed. He’s wrong. They are needed because same-sex couples have no way to formally declare and celebrate their relationships with friends and family. Straight couples can. Bring on the activists.
