Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. But I do want to make the point that 4.7 per cent of Tasmanians, which is the percentage of Tasmanians that identify as LGBTIQA+, is more people than the population of Burnie, which is the fourth-largest town in Tasmania. Senator Chandler is coming in here today and basically saying to a group of people in her home state—a state that she is supposed to represent in this place and a group that has more people than the fourth-largest city in Tasmania—that an organisation that represents them and that advocates for them extremely effectively, I might add, does not deserve DGR status.

There is barely a front that the coalition will not engage on to try and fight the culture wars. We're seeing it with their attempts to deny Australian women and Australian children who are currently in Syria the support they need in order to safely return to our country, and here we are again today facing amendments from Senator Chandler that seek to deny DGR status to an organisation that represents and advocates for around 22,000 Tasmanians as well as the many, many hundreds of thousands of other Australians who identify as LGBTIQA+.

I do note that One Nation have circulated a similar amendment to Senator Chandler, and I will say to the opposition that, when you find yourself lining up with One Nation on issues around a fair go for LGBTIQA+ Australians, you know you're on the wrong path—or you should know you're on the wrong path. Senator Roberts might think it's funny, but we know that One Nation regularly come into this place and seek to demonise queer folk and—in particular, I might say—trans folk knowing full well that, as a collective, trans folk are amongst some of the most vulnerable people in our country. They are a group of people who deserve our love and our support, not our hatred, and who absolutely do not deserve to be thrown under the bus in the never-ending culture wars in this country. We know what Senator Roberts and his colleagues in One Nation have got in terms of a track record of transphobia. Frankly, I don't think that will ever change, and I don't expect we'll ever see anything different from One Nation. I think transphobia is baked into who they are. But, honestly, there are good people in the opposition who shouldn't be fighting this front of the culture wars in this way, in a coalition of the nasty with One Nation.

We, I'm sure it is clear, will not be supporting either Senator Chandler's amendment or the One Nation amendment. We will proudly vote with the government to ensure that Equality Australia does receive DGR status, and I say to all LGBTIQA+ Australians: the Greens will always have your back.