Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
The revelation through Right to Information that only one of 80 submissions to government supported changes to the State's anti-discrimination law is further evidence that the Liberals are on the wrong track.
RTI documents obtained by Civil Liberties Australia (Tas) expose an opaque process where submissions were not made public.
They also confirm this is a deeply unpopular push by hard Right Liberals which should be abandoned.
The Anti-Discrimination Amendment Bill appears to have stalled on the Second Reading in the lower House of State Parliament.
It was not put on the agenda for debate last week. Stakeholders who fear the harm these changes could cause to vulnerable groups of people are starting to ask questions.
Their great hope is that the Bill is dead. If so, this would be a cause for celebration among LGBTI Tasmanians, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people living with disability, women and the list goes on.
The proposed changes were condemned by the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Women's Legal Service, Law Society, Community Legal Centres, Civil Liberties Australia (Tas) and LGBTI advocates.
In politics, there should be no shame in admitting you got it wrong and hitting reverse because it's the right thing to do.
The Greens urge the Premier to have the courage to admit he got it wrong and pull this divisive, dangerous and unjustified Bill off the Parliamentary Notice Paper.