Delayed Bill ‘manageable’
Missed deadline on same-sex law
PREMIER Will Hodgman says Tasmania will “manage” being out of line with commonwealth laws related to same-sex marriage after debate on legislation that would have brought the state in line with the rest of the nation was delayed until March.
The Legislative Council was on Thursday scheduled to debate a government Bill that would have changed state laws that require people who transition genders to divorce.
Labor and the Greens with Speaker Sue Hickey heavily amended the government Bill in the Lower House to change a suite of other laws related to transgender and gender diverse Tasmanians.
The Upper House debate was delayed, but the Govern- ment, which does not support the changes, pledged to provide MLCs with help drafting amendments and to bring the debate again in March.
Mr Hodgman yesterday said Tasmania being out of line with federal laws as a result of the delay was “manageable”. The state was given a December 9 deadline to get in line.
“The advice we’ve got is that it is [manageable] and that will be assisted by the office of Births, Deaths and Marriages,” Mr Hodgman said yesterday.
“We’ve approached this on the basis of getting the best possible laws through our parliament, and whilst opposition parties brought in changes, amendments, new laws that they wanted to pass at the eleventh hour, that’s not how you pass good laws in our parliament.
“We are confident that whilst we are not in synch with commonwealth laws, that does not negatively impact on people’s circumstances here.”
Many MLCs were emotional on Thursday as they apologised to transgender and gender diverse advocates for being unable to debate the legislation this year. Most said they were concerned about the unintended consequences of the proposed reforms as currently written.
The delay was welcomed by Women Speak Tasmania, which has lobbied hard against the proposed changes.
“We believe a full parliamentary inquiry is necessary to allow the Tasmanian people to better inform themselves and have their say about any significant amendments to birth registration and anti-discrimination laws,” spokeswoman Bronwyn Williams said.