Labor has been criticised for proposing to ditch a commitment to strengthening legal protections for the LGBTQ+ community, with queer advocates saying the party appeared to have “backtracked”.
A consultation draft of changes to Labor’s national platform, released this week, proposes to remove a commitment from the 2021 platform to “strengthen laws and expand initiatives against discrimination, vilification and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics”.
The LGBTQ+ advocate Alastair Lawrie noted the clause is to be replaced with “Labor will work closely with LGBTQ+ Australians and advocates to develop policy that meets the specific needs of the community to ensure equality with broader Australian society”.
“This clause is so generic, and so bland, as to be almost meaningless,” he said.
Lawrie noted the 2023 consultation draft retained a commitment against vilification, discrimination and threats of violence based on religion. Vilification covers inciting hatred in the public sphere.
Labor has stressed the draft is for consultation only and the platform will not be finalised until its conference in August, but advocates have raised the alarm.
Equality Australia’s chief executive, Anna Brown, said it was “disappointing that Labor appears to have backtracked” at a time of “horrifying public displays of anti-trans hate and an escalation in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and violence”.
“Many LGBTQ+ people face daily harassment, particularly online, simply for being who they are,” she said. “According to a recent study, one in three LGBTQ+ people had experienced verbal abuse while close to a quarter had experienced harassment such as being spat at or offensive gestures.”
Brown said “laws should protect all of us, equally” and LGBTQ+ people should get the “same protections as people of faith” including an anti-vilification clause. “I hope Labor’s final policy document reflects this”.
Lawrie said it is “difficult to comprehend why previous ALP support for vilification protections has been axed in the current political climate”, pointing to anti-transgender activists and neo-Nazis rallying on the steps of Victorian parliament, Mark Latham, and escalating violent threats against local councils hosting drag storytime events.
The Greens MP and LGBTQA+ spokesperson, Stephen Bates, said there was a “complete culling” of commitments to the queer community, including on anti-vilification and protections of intersex people.
Bates said the government doesn’t appear to want to “win over progressives when it comes to issues like LGBTQ+ protections, it seems to me they’re willing to throw those under the bus to court the religious right”.
“Having this draft platform come out at this time, when the queer community needs the government to back them in and actually stand up for them – it could not be a worse time to do it. It’s completely bleak and cold.”
A spokesperson for the Labor party said: “Labor’s national conference will meet in Brisbane this August.
“National conference will update Labor’s platform to set out how the Albanese government will advance our agenda of fairness and create a better future for all Australians.”
The spokesperson noted after submissions from branch members and affiliated unions, the conference of 400 delegates, Labor’s “highest decision-making forum”, will decide on the final wording of the platform.
