Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General today made a very positive announcement that the government will introduce this week legislation to protect Australians against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. This reform is long overdue and too important to be delayed any further. I completely reject the assertion by some in the media and those opposite, including the Greens, that taking this immediate step somehow constitutes a disavowal of the wider antidiscrimination project or a step back from commitment to protect fundamental human rights. For 40 years Labor has promoted principles of fairness and equality by developing the sex, disability and racial discrimination acts and creating the Australian Human Rights Commission. We will not roll back these hard-fought-for protections.

The fact is that the report of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on the draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 recommended significant policy, definitional and technical amendments along with almost 100 further suggestions from key groups such as the Law Council of Australia. These proposals require deeper consideration of how to consolidate five bodies of antidiscrimination law into one. It seems something that we need to get right, which is exactly why we released an early exposure draft. In the meantime, these specific new protections take into account feedback from the consultation process on the antidiscrimination bill to ensure the definitions are meaningful and provide the maximum possible protection. (Time expired)