Greens leader Cassy O’Connor has confirmed on radio what the Labor Party has been trying to hide – there was a secret backroom deal between Labor and the Greens to take gender off birth certificates.
On ABC Drive yesterday, Ms O’Connor refuted Rebecca White’s assertion that Labor weren’t actively involved in pushing for this. Ms O’Connor said, "I’ll have to have a chat with the Labor leader and Ella Haddad because I thought we were all on the same page. I’d like to talk to the Labor leader and find out what their position is, because two weeks ago we all agreed on the amendments."
That’s consistent with Labor’s Ella Haddad's previous comments where she has made it perfectly clear that Labor supports taking gender off birth certificates. As recently as last weekend, she was encouraging Tasmanians via her private Facebook account to vote 'yes' to an online poll asking ‘Should we remove gender from Tasmanian birth certificates?’.
Yet on radio yesterday, Ms White blatantly tried to pretend that her Party had never supported taking gender off birth certificates. Directly asked if Labor supported taking gender off birth certificates after Bill Shorten slammed it as ‘nonsense’, Ms White said, "No, it’s not about removing the gender".
Either Ms White is not being truthful about Labor’s position, or Ella Haddad has gone rogue and has agreed to supporting amendments on Labor’s behalf without clearing it with her colleagues.
There is no question that at least some Labor members and the Greens did a deal on this issue without consulting the Tasmanian people, and in fact deliberately chose not to let the public know what they were doing. As Ms O’Connor told Parliament last month, "I do not understand why the Attorney-General thinks it is a matter that needs to be consulted very widely. Who does it affect if, for example, there are no gender markers on a birth certificate?"
Rebecca White’s misleading comments on radio yesterday show that Labor are still desperately trying to cover up their intentions. It’s time for Labor to come out and guarantee, as Bill Shorten did yesterday, that they do not support taking gender off birth certificates.
