Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I will take Senator Wong’s question first. I am not aware of that, but I am happy to take that on notice. In response to Senator Bartlett, this government has already indicated publicly that it is in favour of removing any discriminations against interdependent relationships, including same-sex couples. As Senator Bartlett indicated, the Same-sex: same entitlements report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was tabled on, I think, 21 June this year, and we are looking at those recommendations very carefully. I think it would be fair to say that, in response to a number of Democrat amendments over a whole suite of legislation, we would only make broad changes to government programs after we had considered all of the issues and ramifications. That has been our consistent response to the Democrat amendments in this regard. It is important to remember that we have an obligation to consider a whole range of interrelated areas of law to ensure that there are no unintended consequences. That is the reason that we will not be supporting this amendment.