A criticism of the Federal ALP on LGBTQIASB+ people

PS - note also: 

• “Hate crimes bill: LGBTQ+ and Jewish groups disappointed Labor has dropped plan to outlaw vilification | Australian politics | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/12/labor-hate-crimes-bill-lgbtq-jewish-groups      

but   “Labor bill proposes up to seven years’ jail for doxing but drops promised new hate speech laws”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/sep/11/government-doxing-bill-prison-time-new-laws   “Legislation will be introduced on Thursday along with a children’s online privacy code and misinformation laws   ...   with a penalty of up to six years in prison or up to seven years for targeting a person because of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality or national or ethnic origin”     

 

The following article contains some insightful commentary that deserves to be read and given genuine consideration: 

“Time to change direction on campaign for national issues”   https://qnews.com.au/time-to-change-direction-on-campaign-for-national-issues/   The article nominates three reasons for what described as “Labor’s betrayal on the Census”, including “Labor’s Catholic right is resurgent.   Members of Labor’s Catholic faction attended rallies against the proposed religious school reform and spoke against it.   If they are so willing to openly defy Labor policy publicly, imagine what damage they’re doing behind the scenes”, fear of losing votes in western Sydney, and “weak and ineffective campaigning”, exemplified by “In 2017 the Equality Campaign had an opportunity to directly challenge prejudice in Sydney’s west but made a deliberate decision not to, leaving it to drag down every subsequent bid for LGBTIQA law reform nationally and in NSW” - which is well analysed, with a call to return to grassroots campaigning, and states that the [ALP] government “... repeatedly balks at meaningful law and policy reform.   Clearly, there is a systemic problem requiring a tough, unsentimental campaign response.   We need to show Labor that it will lose votes if it continues to betray us.   A Just.Equal Australia survey of LGBTIQA+ voters after the last election showed 21% had shifted allegiance from Labor to the Greens and Teals because of Labor’s support for Scott Morrison’s anti-LGBTIQA+ Religious Discrimination Bill.”     

It is noteworthy that outcomes have been far better for LGBTQIASB+ people at a state level - and. although not mentioned in the article, I am extremely grateful for the support shown by a series of ALP government in my adopted home state of Victoria over the last quarter century. 

The author of the article is one of, if the the, most respected and successful LGBTQIA+ campaigners in Australia: Rodney  Croome. 

I did some internet research after reading this, and found - much to my surprise - that Prime Minister Albanese is officially (nominally?) from the socialist left faction of the ALP, but has become more centrist during and after the 2022 election. 

I would not have been surprised to discover PM Albanese was from the right faction (and I was similarly surprised that Bill Shorten was from the right).  

I did find one leftist article that was extremely critical of Albanese’s history as he rose to power - see: 

“Labor’s Anthony Albanese Is Not a Friend of Australia’s Left — And He Never Was”   https://jacobin.com/2020/11/australian-labor-party-anthony-albanese-new-south-wales-right-wing-politics     

I am regretting that we lost (for very understandable, important, and valid reasons) the chance to have Tanya Plibersek as our Prime Minister - as she, despite also being Catholic, shows more signs of being genuinely supportive of LGBTQIA+ people and of having a spine - including in her portfolio. 

Unfortunately, a change of leader is only likely now if the federal ALP loses an election ... but Rodney Croome’s advice on better campaigning still holds. 

And PM Albanese’s decision to announce his abandonment of yet another promise to the LGBTQIASB+ people of Australia being made first to Sky News is an action that will rankle for years to come ...

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

 

If they are of any use or interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post.  

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/