Growing Together: ALP Releases Policy Agenda For Tackling Inequality

The ALP has released a policy agenda for tackling inequality.

MacklinThe document, Growing Together, was launched by the Shadow Minister for Families and Payments, Jenny Macklin.

Macklin said inequality is at a 75-year high and 2.5 million Australians live below the poverty line, whilst hundreds of thousands are unemployed.

The Growing Together statement puts forward seven key pillars for tackling inequality: jobs, early childhood, life-long education, work-life balance, longevity, communities and modernising policy development and governance.

It argues that “the current social policy framework was built for, and belongs to, a different era”. The statement claims Growing Together “is an integral part of modern Labor’s policy renewal”. [Read more…]


Governor-General Quentin Bryce Calls For A Republic And Same-Sex Marriage

The Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, has called for an Australian republic and same-sex marriage in the last of her Boyer Lectures, delivered just four months before she retires from the Vice-Regal role.

Bryce

Bryce’s remarks came at the end of a speech titled “Advance Australia Fair”. She concluded by imagining a nation of care and equality, “where people are free to love and marry whom they choose and where, perhaps, my friends, one day, one young girl or boy may even grow up to be our nation’s first head of state”. [Read more…]


House of Representatives Debates Gay Marriage Resolution

An impressive debate began in the House of Representatives tonight on a motion by the Greens member, Adam Bandt, calling on parliamentarians to gauge their constituents’ views on the issue of marriage equality.

Bandt’s motion reads:

That this House:

(1) notes there is:

(a) a growing list of countries that allow same-sex couples to marry including the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, SPain, Canada and South Africa; and

(b) widespread support for equal marriage in the Australian community; and

(2) calls on all parliamentarians to gauge their constituents’ views on the issue of marriage equality.

Speaking to the motion, Bandt said, “there have been many attempts through history to limit love and all have failed”. The text of his speech is at the end of this page. [Read more…]


New Conversation About Equality Needed, Says Plibersek

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of WomenTanya Plibersek, the Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women, has delivered an interesting speech about the need for “a new conversation about equality”.

Speaking at the Sydney Institute, Plibersek said “the fact remains we cannot yet say that equality has been won”. She cited income differentials, the lack of women in the higher echelons of business, and violence against women as evidence.

The minister argued that “there is a solid body of evidence that gender equality is good for the economy as a whole” and outlined a range of measures in support of this. [Read more…]