Tony Lupton - Speech
Relationships Register
12 March 2008
This bill is about treating people with dignity, respect and fairness. Domestic relationships, whether they be heterosexual or same-sex relationships, have been recognised as being on an equal legal footing in this state since 2001, when this government passed groundbreaking relationships legislation which removed from Victorian laws discrimination against people who were in domestic partnerships, no matter what the sexual orientation of those people might be. That applied to all domestic partners, and it applies now.
What this bill seeks to do is not confer new rights or responsibilities but clarify existing rights and responsibilities and make the process of providing proof of an existing relationship simple and easy to do rather than, as is often the case for people at the moment, a very cumbersome, complicated and often embarrassing process. In particular, same-sex couples living in Victoria at the moment often need some form of documentary evidence when dealing with employers, service providers, government departments, administrative bodies or the legal system. To establish the fact of an existing domestic relationship can in those circumstances often be difficult, time consuming and embarrassing for the people involved. The lack of documentary proof means that partners may not have access to rights in property and estate settlement, life insurance and superannuation. Those are rights which they have at law, which this Parliament has already recognised, but which they have difficulty accessing.
Because of the burden of gathering proof of their partnership, people in that situation may not be able to tackle unlawful discrimination by their service providers, employers, landlords or others. In these circumstances they may miss out on the protection of the law that the law owes them as citizens of this state.
This issue is not at all about new rights; it is about a simple and clear process for gaining access to existing rights. The domestic partnerships that we are talking about, be they same-sex partnerships or heterosexual partnerships, are fully lawful in this state.
Some people are nonetheless prevented in certain circumstances from gaining full access to those rights and the full responsibilities that those partnerships require. In essence a legally recognised right that is very difficult to access becomes in fact a hollow right. It is a right that people are not able to exercise in a full and free manner that most of the members of society take for granted.
This government has consulted very widely about the development of this legislation. In the first instance the government appointed me to chair a working group of members of Parliament who would consult on this issue. I thank the member for Northcote and Jenny Mikakos, a member for Northern Metropolitan Region, in another place, for also serving on that working group and for the contribution they made. The working group consulted with numerous groups and organisations in the community. The government, subsequent to our report being delivered, has also furthered that consultative process.
The Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby has been consulted, numerous faith groups have been consulted and the Law Institute of Victoria has been consulted. I note that the Law Institute of Victoria supports this bill -- and I am pleased that that is the case. Also the Australia Christian Lobby is supportive of it. I am also happy that is the case. In fact many faith-based groups in the community are not opposing this legislation. I think it is right that they should take that constructive approach.
The journey that we have taken as a community to understanding and acknowledging the equal rights for all our citizens has been a long but not easy one. It is one that has taken numerous paths; I suppose some people started on their path towards recognising and understanding equal rights at earlier times than others. But I strongly believe that the time for deliberating about whether people are entitled to equal rights and equal treatment has passed. That debate has been had and been won.
We believe properly and strongly that people in this state no matter what their race, gender or sexual orientation are entitled to equal treatment and equal protection of the law. If there is evidence to the effect that people in certain situations are not able to gain proper access to their rights and obligations, then the law needs to be clarified in order for the situation to be remedied.
It is clear from reading the legislation that is before the house that we are not dealing with marriage or anything approaching marriage on this issue. In fact some people from one side of the debate have criticised these relationships because they are not marriages, but on the other side of the argument, some people criticise these relationships because they are too close to marriage. I make this point very clearly: these relationships are not marriage and they are not meant to be anything like marriage.
This legislation is about making sure that people have a clear and unambiguous ability to prove that they are in a domestic relationship by clear conclusive proof. It is as simple as that. It does not make any difference to the nature of the relationship that people are in -- people are already in domestic relationships in Victoria and need to make sure that their relationship is recognised appropriately so that the way in which the law acts in relation to them is fair and appropriate.
The attitude of the opposition in relation to this legislation is something worthy of some comment. The member for Box Hill said that members of the opposition parties will have a conscience vote in relation to this legislation. While many people would regard a conscience vote as the most appropriate approach when dealing with matters of life and death, nonetheless the opposition obviously feels such difficulty between the coalition parties and within each party that they need to allow their members a conscience vote.
That is a matter for those parties.
But when the opposition comes into this chamber and says that people in domestic relationships who are not married, whether they be heterosexual or same-sex partnerships, have no commitment, have no obligations and that they enter into domestic partnerships without any particular care for the future, then the opposition is disparaging many thousands of people who are in committed domestic partnerships in this state.
A de facto relationship in this state can in fact be terminated at the will of the parties -- there is no doubt about that, but what is needed in same-sex partnerships or heterosexual de facto partnerships is a simple conclusive legal process that enables a partnership to be recognised and also to be dissolved. The length of time that a relationship may exist cannot be predetermined but this legislation clarifies entering into that partnership, the rights and obligations of the people involved in that partnership, and the termination of that partnership.
These are situations that occur every day in Victoria now, and I believe the law should reflect that appropriately; it should determine that these relationships be recognised in this way so that the rights and obligations of people in domestic relationships in this state are clear, simple and well understood and so that people are able to gain access to them appropriately.
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