Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Ministers statements: Midsumma Festival

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:20): I rise today in my capacity as Minister for Equality. Midsumma, which includes the Pride March, is Australia’s premier queer arts and cultural festival, and this brings together a diverse mix of LGBTIQA+ artists, performers, communities and audiences.

The Pride March, which occurred on Sunday, is about our LGBTIQA+ communities coming together to be proud and to be visible. Pride events play a really crucial role in building a more inclusive and cohesive Victoria and in breaking down the misinformation that continues to fuel discrimination, stigma, injury and distress across our LGBTIQA+ communities. It was a privilege to march again at Pride on Sunday and to be joined by so many colleagues from this place, and indeed to join around 400 organisations participating – the largest number of organisations on record. It was a privilege to announce the latest round of the Pride Events and Festivals Fund, with 30 organisations from the middle of Melbourne right out to the edges of the state receiving grants to help connect and improve visibility and celebration of and to tell the stories of LGBTIQA+ people everywhere.

Part of what we celebrate is change and progress: where we have come from and where we are going. This includes Victoria Police, as acknowledged when former commissioner Graham Ashton made a formal apology in 2019 for the harm caused to LGBTIQA+ people and communities caused indirectly or directly by Victoria Police. This was again reiterated by Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton following the events at the Pride March on Sunday. The Pride March on Sunday importantly included for the very first time the 78ers: people who, more than anyone, know and understand the difficult history of this issue. There is so much work to do, but I do want to see a police force that understands and reflects the community that it serves and the LGBTIQA+ officers, PSOs and unsworn officers who are part of the work to make our force more inclusive.