On 9 September 2019, the LGBTIQ Justice Working Group held its twelfth meeting.
The list of members, terms of reference and communiques are available.
The Attorney-General, the Hon Jill Hennessy MP attended the meeting, providing an important opportunity to discuss Working Group priorities. The Attorney-General thanked members for their work and advocacy on reforms to birth certificate laws, which removes barriers for trans and gender diverse people who wish to change sex in their birth registration.
Working Group priorities discussed with the Attorney-General included:
- amendments to the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 to improve protection from discrimination for trans and intersex people, and to strengthen the enforcement and compliance powers of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission;
- development of new legislation to prohibit conversion practices, in particular the timing and consultation process to inform the development of the legislation;
- review of funding agreements to ensure that services funded by the Government are delivered by organisations in a non-discriminatory way, in particular to LGBTIQ Victorians; and
- work being undertaken to scope a service model to provide tailored and specialist legal information, education, referrals, and legal advice to LGBTIQ people in the proposed Victorian Pride Centre.
Working Group member also discussed with the Attorney-General, their concerns relating to the Commonwealth Government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill 2019 and its impact on LGBTIQ people.
The Commissioner for Youth Justice also attended the Working Group meeting to provide an update on work to develop a Youth Justice LGBTIQ strategy. The aim of the strategy is to provide policy and operational guidance on how Youth Justice will respond to and support the needs of LGBTIQ young people in the youth justice system.
The Working Group will next meet on Thursday 17 October 2019.
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