Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by commending the member for Chisholm for raising the important issue of women's health. We are, of course, in Women's Health Week. We have just been at the launch with a number of colleagues in this place of the Jean Howells Foundation, an organisation that does terrific work. I commend them for raising a number of issues, including heart health and reproductive health, which I have a great passion for as well—along with women's proper access to medical and surgical terminations in this country. We still have a long way to go with that.

Tonight I want to speak about marriage equality and its relationship to health. Right now, across Australia, we are having a discussion about marriage equality and, frankly, it's an unnecessary discussion, brought on by a Prime Minister who has been too weak to do the right thing and who has denied us the opportunity to have a vote in this place and get the matter sorted once and for all. As shadow minister for health and Medicare, it is incumbent upon me to talk about the impacts of this debate, and of marriage equality in general, on the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ communities around the country—because marriage equality is undeniably a health matter.

According to Beyondblue, the mental health of LGBTIQ people is among the poorest in Australia. Same-sex-attracted Australians are up to 14 times likelier to attempt suicide. Young same-sex-attracted Australians are six times likelier to attempt suicide than their peers. Let me be clear: the reason for these statistics is not due to sexuality, but to persistent and reinforced exclusion. Failing to implement marriage equality is a form of social exclusion, a discriminatory environment that has been documented to foster feelings of rejection, low self-esteem and a lack of acceptance. And, sadly, the postal survey has provided a platform for harmful views that reinforce this discrimination, views that will promote prejudicial, stigmatising and harmful views about LGBTIQ people, their relationships and their families.

Tonight I'd like to share a story of one of those families. Last Friday, Amy Coopes, a journalist, medical student and, along with her same-sex partner, the mother to a young son, wrote a letter about the experience of the marriage equality postal survey. This is an extract of what she wrote to her son:

I never truly believed that it would happen, in 2017. That our government would actually bring this down upon us, invite 16 million people to debate our lives and our love for a bit of sport. And that they would unleash this without any kind of protections on what could and couldn't be said. There are no limits to what lies are being peddled, nor to the terms in which we are permitted to be discussed.

This was always going to be about everything other than the simple question — should two consenting adults be allowed to wed — because every poll across the political spectrum shows this is a foregone conclusion: the answer for many is yes, of course, yes. The naysayers are desperate to dehumanise us, to imply that we are a radical and remote minority because it's so demonstrably untrue.

Amy says that she is comforted by the fact that her son is so young that he won't remember people campaigning about the right of her family to exist.

This family is not alone—their experiences are replicated across the country by LGBTIQ people and their families. And there will be many children and young people who are of an age that they won't forget. They will see the advertisements, they will hear the hurtful messages and they will absorb them.

Tonight, I want to send a very strong message of support to all those people who are watching this debate unfold. To those who are seeing their lives attacked by opponents of equality, I want to assure you that there are people fighting for your equality and standing alongside you in this fight. It is a fight of inclusion and it is a fight we will win. This isn't a debate we should be having, but now that the government has brought our country to this place, it is a debate we are determined to win.

As opposition health spokesperson, I will always fight for and protect the health of every single Australian, whether they are LGBTIQ or they do not identify as such. This means, of course, fighting for marriage equality.