News

Abbot puts scope of liberal reforms in doubt

 

The Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbot, has cast doubts over plans to remove discrimination against same sex couples under the Federal Government's Medicare Safety Net program.

Currently same sex couples may pay as much as twice that of heterosexual couples as their relationships are not recognised as dependant under the scheme, levying an extra cost of $716 on every same sex household each year.

His comments come just two weeks after the Prime Minister said he would finally act to reform laws which discriminate against gay couples in a range of areas short of civil unions or same sex marriage.

The Health Minister's comments may also indicate a reluctance to move on other issues under his portfolio.

Abbot told AAP that he was all in favour of human rights but not group rights, referring to the gay and lesbian community.

Other areas the Government had been tipped to move on include the couples threshold for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, migration law, tax laws including superannuation rebates, and the medical expenses rebate.

Gay and lesbian couples serving in the military are expected to get access to subsidised home loans currently offered to their heterosexual counterparts as well.

Issues surrounding aged care are also on the agenda, including changes to accommodation asset tests, despite the Government last month blocking an amendment to the Aged Care Amendment (Residential Care) Bill sponsored by the Greens which would have solved exactly this problem.

The amendment, introduced by Greens Senator Kerry Nettle would have exempted same sex couples from having the value of their family home being means tested when seeking residential placement in nursing homes as is available to heterosexuals.

Last week Federal Labor joined the push being lead by Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch by calling on the Government to move immediately to reform Federal superannuation laws, something it has failed to do since it first promised to do so in 2004.

Labor's shadow Attorney General Nicola Roxon called on the Prime Minister to fulfill past promises before making new ones, while Nick Sherry, an ALP senator, has lodged a freedom of information application asking for the Government to release documents detailing the potential costings involved in recognising same sex couples under public sector superannuation schemes.

The growing campaign to hold the Government to it's word also comes as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission prepares to hand down itUs report on legal and financial discrimination against same sex couples across the nation.

HREOC will hand it's report to the Federal Attorney General Phillip Ruddock.

The HREOC has no power to force the Attorney General to move but it's recommendations will be public and are likely to garner further attention on the issue in the mainstream press.

Push for civil unions continues in Victoria despite family first smears

 

The Victorian Greens are pushing for the introduction of civil unions under state law as part of a raft of GLBTI policies being taken by the party to the November state election.

The campaign for civil unions in Victoria had been hard fought through most of 2006 but came to a halt in the lead up to the election when Labor Premier Steve Bracks halted any further debate on a bill presented to the parliament by the openly gay, ex-Liberal independent MP Andrew Olexander.

Despite the blocking of the Olexander bill, the Victorian Greens GLBTI Policy spokesperson, Sue Pennicuik said the fight would continue, “This issue is not going away, because the Greens will keep it alive. We won’t rest until same sex couples have equal rights”.

The Greens are expected to pick up at least three additional seats at the November 25th election and have been tipped as a likely candidate to take the balance of power in the Victorian Parliament.

The party plans to use it's increased numbers to force the Premier's hand after the election as he has so far refused to make any commitment on the issue.

Some examples of the Greens other GLBTI policies include:

• amending the Equal Opportunity Act to outlaw all forms of discrimination based on sexuality, gender identity, or perceived sexuality.

• removing exemptions that allow religious organisations to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

• outlawing hate speech where there is incitement to commit violent or criminal acts.

• recognition of GLBTI people’s needs in programs aimed at disadvantaged groups and more research into GLBTI cultural, community, health, welfare and safety issues.

• protecting school students and the children of same gendered parents from homophobic bullying and the implementation of further strategies aimed at preventing youth suicide and self harm through the creation of more accepting school environments.

• the removal of all laws that prevent same sex parents adopting, and ensuring that non-biological same gendered parents can be recognised as parents of their partners children.

• ensuring the removal of all criminal convictions recorded for sexual acts occurring between consensual adults before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Victoria, and improving police and prison officials knowledge and sensitivity to GLBTI issues.

• establishing permanent liaison groups between the GLBTI community and all government agencies.

The Greens also hope to improve acceptance and support within government and the wider community for the needs of transgendered and intersex people and want to promote further research into options increasing their personal well being and quality of life, as well as ensuring that parents of intersex babies have access to appropriate counselling and are made aware of all the issues involved before medical decisions are made.

Unsurprisingly the Family First Party have attacked the Greens as being “anti-family” and “extreme”, and have launched a campaign labelling them the Extreme Greens, mirroring language used by the Exclusive Brethren sect in past campaigns in state and federal elections.

Family First claim that the Greens would “destroy family life” should they get the power to influence policy in Victoria.

They also claim that support programs for GLBTI youth are really about “promoting homosexuality” to children “as young as 13”, despite no credible research suggesting such a thing is possible, and have said that allowing same sex couples to get married would “undermine” the very institution of marriage itself.

Family First had hoped to pick up ALP preferences ahead of the Greens but it seems that the Victorian Labor Party is wary of repeating the mistake they made in 2004 when ALP preferences put Senator Steve Fielding into the Federal Senate despite him receiving just 1.88 per cent of the primary vote.

Had they directed preferences to the Greens in that instance it is likely that there would have been another two Greens Senators elected to the Federal Parliament which would have denied the Coalition an outright majority in the Senate, forcing negotiation on Government bills and allowing for more Senate inquiries.

Premier Bracks has said that he does not agree with Greens policies but was more likely to send preferences their way than to Family First which would risk putting the Victorian Upper House under conservative control.

Family First will now most likely do a deal with the Victorian Liberals, or the state National Party which has already received the endorsement of the Exclusive Brethren.

Ultra-orthodox jews riot against Jerusalem pride

 

Thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi sect of Judaism have taken part in a week of rioting in an attempt to force the cancelation of this year's Jerusalem Pride march, due to occur on November the 10th.

The riots began in Mea Shearim, an Orthodox suburb of Jerusalem on the last day of October, with hundreds of Haredi protesters throwing garbage bins into the street and setting them on fire and rolling them towards police lines.

Protesters also attacked police officers with rocks, bricks and concrete blocks and at one point turned on a cab driver who had accidentally stumbled into the midst of the protest.

The crowd on the second night was smaller, with just one hundred taking part, but by the third night of rioting, on the 2nd of November, the protesters ranks had swelled into the thousands, some now armed with steel pipes and pieces of furniture, others throwing gasoline, at which point police brought in mounted officers.

In the ensuing violence, five police officers and a journalist from the Haaretz newspaper were injured, with 25 Haredi rioters taken into custody.

Later that night an explosive device was left at the door of a police station in the settlement of Eli in the Samaria district with the words “Sodomites Out” painted on an attached sign.

A bomb disposal squad was quickly called who destroyed the device in a controlled explosion.

Having analysed the device, Israeli police later said that it was home made, “but dangerous”.

The bomb may have been intended as a revenge attack after someone smashed the windows of a Tel Aviv synagogue a day earlier, spraying the walls with the slogan "if we can’t march in Jerusalem, you won’t walk in Tel Aviv”.

A pamphlet has also been distributed by anti-gay elements in the city offering a reward of 20,000 shekels a head to anyone who kills a gay man or lesbian.

Since police have begun arresting rioters, posters have also been put up in some Jerusalem synagogues calling for Ilan Franco, the Jerusalem Chief of Police to “Go back to Germany”, comparing him to a famous SS officer who was stationed at the Triblinka death camp.

The World Pride march that was to be held earlier this year in the city was also the focus of mass protests and court challenges by the religious right but it Us eventual cancellation came as a result of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon, rather than as a result of domestic politics.

If this year’s event takes place, it will be the fifth Jerusalem Pride march to go ahead since 2002.

Religious Jews have pelted marchers with rotten vegetables and bottles at every year in the event’s short history, but last year's parade was the first to see a serious risk to marcher lives, when a Haredi protester, Haggai Schlissel, ran into the crowd, stabbing three marchers and a bystander.

Schlissel is currently serving a 12 year sentence for this attack, while another dozen religious protesters were arrested for lesser violent offences.

Nearly a thousand anti-gay protesters turned up to blockade the event last year, with many having bottled and bagged their own urine and faeces to throw at protesters.

Conservative Jewish leaders believe that such gay pride marches are an abomination and a desecration of their holy city, despite the route for Jerusalem Pride avoiding all holy sites and Orthodox areas, and will not enter any part of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Secular Jewish groups have countered the conservatives by saying that it is immoral for gay and lesbian Jerusalemites not to be able to stage an event in their own city.

The content of the Jerusalem Pride march has always been much more subdued and conservative compared to similar marches in Tel Aviv or those held in Europe and North America.

Despite this, nearly 70 Knessit MP's from across the political and ethnic spectrum have signed a petition against this year’s march, resulting in a rare allegiance between ultra-nationalist Jews and Arab-Israeli parliamentarians, with some conservative Jewish leaders also calling on Arab-Israeli Muslims to join them in the streets to stop the parade.

Such has been the backlash that even Collette Avital, a Jerusalem Labor MP who in the past has been a supporter of Israel's gay and lesbian community, is now opposing the march.

This year’s march is expected to attract over 7,000 participants despite death threats against participants, and city emergency services have already set aside 200 medics and 47 ambulances to treat any victims in the result of an attack on the parade.

The number of police to be allocated has been increasing by the day, along with the addition of members of the Israeli armed forces who will be deployed along the parade route.

Jerusalem Pride organisers feel confident these numbers should keep protesters away, however following a week of violence, they have also offered those opposed to the march a way out- If members of the Knessit's conservative religious faction agree to abstain on an upcoming vote legalising same sex civil unions in Israel, then they will cancel the march.

Italy Pinkas, an advisor to the Mayor of Tel Aviv on gay and lesbian issues, told Israeli Army Radio that, “The parade is just a means to an end... All they need to do when the civil-law marriage bill is read at the Knesset, is to say “we’re not here, this doesn’t concern us.

It is thought unlikely that right wing MP’s will accept the offer.

The week of rioting has gone largely uncovered in the international media as it has been overshadowed by an ongoing military offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza strip.