The West Australian The West Australian

Gay reforms will help children: McGinty

CHILDREN would get better protection from paedophiles under measures to lower the age of consent for gay men to 16, Attorney-General Jim McGinty said yesterday.

Mr McGinty announced sweeping changes in the Legislative Assembly to a raft of laws to end discrimination against gays and lesbians. The Government would restrict a defence that paedophiles could use in court, he said.

Under the WA Criminal Code an accused can use the defence that he or she was of the reasonable belief that the child was older than 16.

The planned change will prevent the defence being used when the accused is more than five years older than the victim.

"This change should allay some concerns about equalising the age of consent and extend greater protection to young girls at the same time," Mr McGinty said.

Other changes include removing the ban on homosexual people wanting to adopt children, allowing lesbians to use artificial insemination technology and infertile lesbians to use in-vitro fertilisation, and ending discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Opposition Leader Colin Barnett said yesterday he supported equality but the question of right and wrong should prevail.

The Government could not expect the community to absorb such big changes quickly, Mr Barnett said.

He told the Assembly that he acknowledged there was prejudice, assault and vilification of gay people and that suicide was more prevalent among homosexuals.

But he said the equality advisory committee report, on which which the changes were based, was not independent. It was written by gay and lesbian people who represented about 10 per cent of the community.

The Government should release draft legislation to ensure proper community debate and deal with each issue with separate Bills, Mr Barnett said.

Mr McGinty rejected the calls. He said he made no apology for the committee being dominated by gay and lesbians because they were best placed to deal with the issues.

"WA has got the most restrictive and discriminatory laws in Australia," he said.

"I would ask those people who feel uncomfortable about these issues to think about the situation elsewhere in Australia and to think about allowing gay and lesbian people to get on with their lives."

Mr Barnett said he supported lowering the age of consent to 18, not 16, but Liberal members would have a conscience vote.

Premier Geoff Gallop said Labor was united and would vote on block.

Mr McGinty said the package of Bills would be introduced into the Assembly in a few months.

Labor can get its changes through Parliament with the Greens"support in the Upper House.

Cabinet has approved de facto legislation which will provide homosexual and heterosexual couchildren: McGinty

ples the right to resolve property disputes when relationships break down. That will be introduced earlier than the rest of the package.

Adoption laws will be changed to allow homosexuals to adopt children of their partner conceived through artificial insemination or a friend with little or no interest in the child or their partner's children from previous heterosexual relationships.

While the Government will remove the ban on homosexuals applying to adopt other children, it has refused to give them the right to appeal against an adoption agency's decision on discrimination grounds.

Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey is opposed to lowering the age of consent to 16. However, he was unavailable to comment on the other issues yesterday.

Anglican Church social responsibilities commission executive officer Theo Mackaay said the Perth diocese supported lowering the age of consent to 16.

The commission also supported ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and giving homosexual couples access to the Family Court over property disputes.

Greens MLC Giz Watson, who has for many years campaigned to end homosexual discrimination, said that after 112 years of conservative rule gay and lesbians would finally be treated equally.

The report showed that between 25 to 40 per cent of gay and lesbians attempted suicide.

Ms Watson said the legislative change was significant because gay and lesbians would no longer be considered criminals for wanting to love their partner. But she said society's attitudes would need to change before the suicide rate was reduced dramatically.

Australian Family Association president John Barich admitted the changes were not likely to have a big impact on society.

But he opposed them because they would destroy the institution of marriage. He also opposed IVF for lesbians because children needed a father.

Committee member and Gay and Lesbian Equality spokeswoman Maxine Drake said an end to discrimination had support from a broad section of the WA community.

One Nation MLC Paddy Embry said lowering the age of consent would encourage paedophiles.

Change step in right direction: student
THE State Government's move to lower the age of consent is a step in the right direction for 17-year-old law, politics and international studies student Samuel Cutt.

Mr Cutt, of Alfred Cove, said laws which banned gay sex for men under 21 caused untold fear and anxiety.

"My big problem is that anyone who is 16 and gay is said to be unsure about their sexuality whereas if they are heterosexual it is considered absolute - they don't have to justify themselves," he said yesterday.

"Young gays are made criminals by the laws. It is no surprise then that many young gay and lesbian teenagers commit suicide." He said any changes to bring WA into line with the rest of the country were positive.

However, he thought recommendations to ban vilification of gays were unlikely to have a big effect.

"It is not a bad thing but you can't force people to change attitudes," he said.

Mr Cutt, who had a Soapbox article on the age of consent for young homosexuals published in The West Australian on Wednesday, said he had spoken to older gay people who were going to leave the State if gay reform was not successful this time.

"The laws just aren't making it attractive to stay here," he said.

Nation close to sex equality
NEW Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward is confident Australia is close to overcoming gender inequality in the workplace, but a social science and planning expert claims the ideal may be doomed.

RMIT University professor of sociology Belinda Probert claims the push for gender equality has stalled and may never recover unless there is a shift in the way society values child rearing.

In the Clare Burton Memorial Lecture last night, Professor Probert said while men were no longer expected to be the main breadwinners, women were expected to be the primary child rearers as well as share the paid workload. Research showed they were finding it harder, not easier, to combine work and family responsibilities.

Ms Goward, who began her five-year tenure as Australia's fifth Sex Discrimination Commissioner on Monday, received a mixed response when her appointment was announced last month.

Critics argued she was chosen because of her friendship with Prime Minister John Howard and feared she may not be as independent as her predecessors.

But yesterday Ms Goward shook off the criticism as baseless and said her work would prove her detractors wrong.

She said violence against women was one of the nation's toughest challenges because it stemmed from both the physical differences between men and women and the "primeval" parts of the mind that were the hardest to change.

But she was optimistic Australia was close to achieving gender equality in the workplace.

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