On September 28, more than 50 people, including guest speaker Rodney Croome, attended the launch of the Greens Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex policy. Green Left Weekly's Rachel Evans caught up with Jenny Leong, Greens candidate for Sydney and John Kaye, who is the Greens lead NSW Senate candidate.
"Today, the Greens say enough is enough, full equality — no more excuses!", Leong said. "The Greens are committed to repealing existing laws or practices in Australia which discriminate against LGBTI people in any area including employment, accommodation, the provision of goods and services, education, health care, family law, legal status, compensation, superannuation, pensions, immigration and law enforcement — full equality."
Sitting ALP members for Grayndler and Sydney, Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek, have argued that, as ALP left candidates, the Greens shouldn't run against them. When asked to respond to this, Leong argued that Sydney residents deserve "a real alternative" to the Coalition and the "weak opposition of the ALP". She pointed out that, unlike the ALP, the Greens had committed to ending mandatory detention of asylum seekers, abolishing tertiary education fees and ending logging of old-growth forests.
When I told Leong that I had asked Albanese to sign a petition to repeal the same-sex marriage ban, and he had replied, "Go ask the Greens", she was not surprised. "If elected as the Greens member for Sydney I will introduce legislation to amend the Marriage Act, redefining marriage as 'the union of two persons, regardless of their sexuality, gender or gender identity'", she promised. "Selective equality is not equality."
As an active member of the Socialist Alliance, which has worked with the Greens in campaigns to defeat the marriage ban, I asked John Kaye about the Greens preference policy. He pointed out that the Greens NSW had preferenced "several progressive minor parties, including the Socialist Alliance, before the Democrats and Labor", adding that, "the exact order isn't really an issue".
"The real issue comes lower down the ticket", he said, "where the Greens NSW made sure that left-wing parties came ahead of the Coalition and parties of the religious right. The Democrats, on the other hand, preferenced Fred Nile, Family First and Liberals for Forests ahead of the Greens; and Labor is sending one-third of their Senate preferences to Fred Nile before the Greens."
From Green Left Weekly, October 6, 2004.
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