Page 2646 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016

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and to give guidance to the ACT government, particularly to our employees and our LGBTIQ fellow Canberrans, what our position is and how we would approach that particular plebiscite.

Some statements of values: we believe that Canberra should be the most welcoming city in Australia for LGBTI people. We believe we have led the nation—our legislative record demonstrates this—in removing discriminatory laws and in championing a broader social inclusion agenda. We fundamentally are committed to ensuring that all Canberrans have the ability to express their love and their commitment in the eyes of the law and nothing less than full marriage equality will do. As Ms Burch said, we have been through more than a decade of stop-gap measures, of concessions, of stalling tactics. The time to vote for marriage equality is now. It is well and truly time. Canberra knows it. Australia knows it.

My government’s support for marriage equality is very clear and we will continue this support if the federal government continues with its plans for a plebiscite. We do so for a very basic reason: no-one should be made to feel different or lesser because of who they love, and we will do everything that we can to ensure a supportive environment for Canberrans through this process.

But there is another clear point of difference: I will be, and I pledge it today as Leader of the Labor Party and as Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, a leading voice in the local campaign and nationally for marriage equality. That is my pledge and commitment to my fellow Canberrans. No-one will be in any doubt about where I stand on the issue, although I do not think anyone would be given everything that I have stood for in my public life. But my pledge today is to not be a passive voice but to be an active voice for marriage equality and that the party I lead and the government I lead will be an active campaigner for marriage equality.

We have an excellent track record in Canberra of supporting our LGBTI communities. We have done this through numerous legislative changes. Over my time in this place it has been pleasing to see that in the past few years at least there has been some degree of bipartisan support for those changes. But I well recall in my earlier time in this place when the Liberal Party opposed every single measure to achieve equality for LGBTI Canberrans. It was too much for the Liberal Party of 10 years ago to even support equality in relation to motor vehicle registrations. It was too hard then, so it is pleasing to see that social change is possible and that if you continue to advocate you will see change even in the most conservative of corners.

We have led this nation in reforms for LGBTI people and will continue to do so. We are proud to work alongside the Safe Schools Coalition to provide our young people with safe learning environments, even when this program has been under the most vicious of attacks from the conservative elements of the Liberal-National parties. We will continue to support our LGBTI students in our schools through the Safe Schools Coalition program. It is an unequivocal commitment from my government because it saves lives and it makes a difference, and that is what we are in this place to do.

We will continue our passionate commitment towards that program, and I will not be deterred from my support and this government will not be deterred from its support for that program by any far right Liberal-National MPs, be they South Australian


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