Loading ...- Category:
- Soap Box
- Author:
- Doug Pollard
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Here it comes, a great tsunami of lerve rolling out of Canberra. 85 laws reformed. Wow! Kewl T-shirts! A Natalie Bassingthwaite single. Let’s all shout “Hoorah” for the 85 reforms.
Except I could swear Attorney-General Robert McClelland mentioned ‘about 100’ laws. Yes, there it is in Hansard: Senator Hanson-Young, congratulating him on reforming ‘more than 100’ laws. So what’s this 85?
Oh, never mind, who cares, it’s time to express our heartfelt gratitude to those wonderful pollies who are standing for re-election gave us … oh yes, right, I get it now … who gave us 85 percent Australian citizenship.
Hang on a minute, that can’t be right. How can we be 85 percent equal, if we’re still substandard goods when it comes to: counting us in the census; recognising our relationships nationally; marriage; recognising our overseas marriages and civil partnerships; recognising our partners interstate; meeting our specific needs in social inclusion policy, aged-care, education, homelessness, depression and youth suicide; passing a federal anti-discrimination law — and a few other trivial matters? Does that really add up to 85 percent?
But what the hell. Let’s not carp. OK, they still have a bit of tidying up to do. So what? We’ve got T-shirts! We’ve got a not exactly gay song (‘cos that way it’ll be more commercial). We’ve a micro-diva in a happy gay vid with lots of buff boys.
Of course it’s true they could have spent the money on doing something useful, like anti-homophobia training for schools or nursing homes, but let’s not quibble. Let’s not be mean.
So what if “some lifelong relationships have disintegrated under new pressures”, like one partner becoming financially dependent for the first time, because the Government wouldn’t grandfather benefit changes (Maree O’Halloran, Welfare Rights Centre). So what if the gay youth suicide rate is still stratospheric?
Send those old couples a T-shirt. No, let’s not be mean — send them one each. That’ll keep them warm this winter. Send those depressed kids a DVD — cheer them up! Enjoy the distraction! Celebrate — even though the job is far from done. Dance! Sing! Cut the Government some slack. Be a bit grateful. Say, 85 percent grateful?
info: Doug presents Freshly Doug, GLBTI news & current affairs, every Thursday 9am-noon on JOY 94.9, streaming at www.joy.org.au/listenlive
Tags: Doug Pollard, Natalie Bassingthwaite, Robert McClelland
