The Equality Bill – Stripped-Down, Skimpy but Still Standing

by Barbarella Karpinski

Last night, on October 17, NSW Parliament passed the stripped-down Equality Bill, brought by Independent MP Alex Greenwich.

Claims of sell-out over the Equality Bill

In response to Pride in Protest’s claims on Insta that ‘Sellout on Equality Bill undermines community”, Greenwich retorted: “The option was the entire bill gets voted down on its integrity or deliver 12 urgent reforms including allowing people to update birth certificates without surgery. I chose progress over defeat, and have a commitment to pathways to achieve the rest. You can throw shade; I’ll get the reforms done.” 

Evan Van Zijl, childhood educator and activist in Pride in Protest, said about the palming off of anti-discrimination law changes to the Law Reform Commission: “These carve outs will mean people like me can’t come out without the threat of the sack because almost 90% of early childhood education is privatised … how are we meant to offer the next generation the positive role models in life when we cannot even come out?” 

I commend Alex for trying to get this omnibus bill up in this battle with the Chris Minns government and an antagonistic opposition. But I do get a feeling of déjà vu.

Of note, Minns apologised to 78ers in 2016: “The continued stigmatisation of those who were arrested in 1978 stands as a troubling marker of how cruel this state can be… We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars”. (Or a seaside view if you are the Prime Minister in Copacabana).

At the time, Greens MP Jenny Leong said: “It is clear that any apology needs to recognise the rights of the wronged and the need for compensation.”

Parliament is a process of reforms over time but let’s hope the clauses thrown under the bus don’t fade, like the compensation promise to the 78ers which was originally part of the “living apology” in the parliamentary apology in 2016. 

Sex Worker organisations remain “optimistic”

SWOP NSW and Scarlet Alliance “remain optimistic’.

SWOP said, “We are celebrating the (heavily amended) bill … and the beginning of NSW s3x industry reform required to complete the process of decriminalisation.”

But for now, if your motel takes your rental fee like police used to take your cash, and leaves you in that gutter, then you might die waiting for the full roll-out of justice, like sadly many 78ers have done. 

On the positive, it will now be a crime to vilify a sex worker if your ex-BBF, date or spouse, decides to out you.

Anti-discrimination protections that would make sex work a ‘protected attribute’ will be deferred to the NSW Law Reform Commission Review of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977. The Summary Offences Act 1988 will be reviewed, noting that police corruption led to the original review in 1995!

Syd, a trans* male sex worker/artist said, “The lack of removal of offences relating to street-based sex work will directly impact my ability to work safety. As a transgender sex worker, I am not able to access regulated spaces to conduct my work like parlours and brothels, meaning I often need to engage in different forms of street-based sex work. I am vulnerable in my work”.

The Future – 78ers want a “living apology”

78ers got a cross-party apology for police brutality – with many powerful pollies making heartfelt speeches to say sorry.

Searching for what else is thrown under the bus in the name of political expediency, I found my pasties from my stripper days but no one wants to employ a mature stripper with a walking frame anyway. I might try panhandling or put out Roxanne’s red light on a street corner, while glaring up at the wealth of the Emerald City, as the police arrest me, yet again. 

Alex Greenwich said in 2016: “I acknowledge the leaders, elders and allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [LGBTI] community and the cross-party working group” – that this writer was a part of – “which includes members from The Nationals, the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, The Greens and Independents who have worked together to make this motion happen. Indeed, our Federal politicians could learn a lot from us about working together to achieve important reforms”.

Chris Minns in his apology said: “The 78ers took their freedom and their rights. We owe them a great debt for that. “

I ask that the government repay us by making justice and access possible for future generations. 

I propose ‘The Living Apology 78er Bill’, that also includes all the ‘gunner do list’ from the Equality Bill. Watch this space. 

Barbarella Karpinski is a 78er, a film maker and former striptease artist.