Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Ministers statements: LGBTIQ+ community safety

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Water, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Equality) (12:29): I rise today in my capacity as Minister for Equality to talk about a round table that occurred last week at the Victorian Pride Centre. This was a really important further conversation about the impact of vile, bigoted and targeted harassments, threats, discrimination and just awful, awful conduct from a very small but very vocal minority and the damage that they are causing, as well as the work that we are continuing to do around the development of legislative protections as well as building on the work within the operational space and with resourcing to community organisations to deal with the inevitable uptick in violence and in perceptions and realities of threats and intimidation against LGBTIQ+ people and those who love and care for us and want to see us able to participate in community life. The work that came to this table was informed by many decades of lived experience that harassment and discrimination are an endemic part of seeking to be visible and to be recognised.

I was very grateful for the opportunity to join member for Albert Park Nina Taylor, who is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, to talk through the priorities and concerns and the opportunities for suggestions and for input presented by this group. People from the Pride Centre, from Switchboard, from Libraries Victoria, from the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and from so many other parts of Melbourne but also from further afield in rural and regional Victoria – and I am indebted to LINE Wangaratta and the Gippsland Pride Initiative for also attending and making that trip to Melbourne – were part of understanding for us the work that needs to go on to make sure that LGBTIQ+ people are seen, respected and reflected in legislative reform. This is difficult work and it is intricate work, and we are determined to make sure that when and as it is developed we do so in a consultative fashion and a way that is fit for purpose.