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Australia:Govt to recognise same-sex couples
By DAVID McLENNAN
Wednesday, 30 October 2002
The Government will consider introducing same-sex partnerships and adoption rights as part of an overhaul of ACT law to remove discrimination.
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the Government aimed to achieve equal legal status for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people by eliminating discriminatory references in legislation. More than 70 ACT Acts and regulations contained potentially discriminatory provisions.
There would be a two-stage process. The first stage involved 39 pieces of legislation that were relatively simple to deal with through non-controversial amendments.
"The focus of the first stage of the strategy will be to remove discriminatory language from legislation," he said. "Much of the current legislative language refers to 'spouse' or 'de facto spouse', when the phrase 'domestic partner' is more appropriate."
The Legislation Act would be amended to adopt the term "domestic partner" as a standard term for a spouse, de facto spouse or same-sex partner. It would also allow transgender and intersex (those with an ambiguous gender) people to self-identify when they were required to be searched by a person of the same sex.
An exposure draft of these changes would be introduced to the Assembly in December, with a final Bill presented in the autumn sittings, before the second stage began.
The second stage would involve the more controversial and complex matters and those likely to cause considerable community debate, such as those involving children.
It would look at recognising the same-sex partner of a birth mother as a parent of a child, adoption by same-sex couples, and succession matters.
The review can only affect ACT laws. Same-sex couples will still be affected by Commonwealth laws, such as taxation, social security, superannuation and industrial relations. The Commonwealth also has power over marriages, but the review will look at registered relationships or civil unions.
"The Government proposes to progress the second stage of the strategy through establishment of an inter-departmental committee, convened by the Department of Justice and Community Safety," he said.
"The committee will allow advice from all relevant agencies to feed into the reform process."
The committee would seek public comment on the issues.
The Assembly called on the Government to report by May on discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people, and ways to remove this discrimination.
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