Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Anti-vilification legislation

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:07): (638) My adjournment matter is for the Attorney-General, and the action that I seek is for the Labor government to expand anti-vilification laws as a matter of urgency to protect trans and gender-diverse people from the growing anti-trans hate. Trans people want to live authentically, but right now just being yourself as a trans person puts you in danger, and there is so much more that can be done to help. In 2019 – that is four years ago, for those who are not counting – the Greens supported a bill in this place to expand anti-vilification laws, which would have included gender identity. During that debate in Labor’s contribution they said:

There is no disagreement that these issues are critical and that fundamentally we need to dive right in and go further ‍…

Yet the Victorian Labor government then voted that bill down. Following that there was an inquiry into this issue, which took place soon after, and in 2021 the report from that inquiry was handed down. That report urged, in a shock to no-one at all, that anti-vilification laws should be expanded to cover a range of attributes, including gender identity. But when asked this year, 2023, the Victorian Labor government advised that these changes are at least 18 months away.

So let me get this straight. It is going to take a full six years from when Labor said we need to ‘dive right in and go further’ to see trans people protected from vilification. Just recently we saw a trans day of remembrance, a day to honour the memory of trans lives lost to acts of transphobia and vilification. For this I attended a beautiful and, frankly, heartbreaking vigil. Six years is six different days of remembrance coming and going. How many people will the community have to honour before we see action? How many lives do we have to mourn? This is a plea, and I know the government has the ability to do more than what is currently being presented. I am not saying that you do not care; I am not saying you are not trying. I am saying you can do more, and the trans community knows that you can do more.

Trans people are seeing more and more hatred in person and online as each day passes from the mainstream media, from far-right groups and even from members of this Parliament. A report by the Trans Justice Project and the Victorian Pride Lobby into anti-trans hate found that one in two trans and gender-diverse people have experienced anti-trans hate in the past 12 months, nine in 10 have witnessed anti-trans hate online and one in 10 have experienced anti-trans violence. These are harrowing numbers. Trans people want to live authentically. I urge this government to please, please do more to protect trans and gender-diverse people from vilification.