The NSW government has announced its support of the proposed amended Equality Bill, designed to offer protections for members of the LGBTIQA+ community.
First introduced to NSW parliament in August 2023 by the Independent Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, this Bill has been subject to extensive consultation, including a parliamentary inquiry.
The NSW government says it has worked with the Member of Sydney on a number of proposed amendments. The amended Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023 proposes various legislative changes, including:
- Allowing people to change their registered sex through an administrative process, without requiring surgery.
- Making hatred for or prejudice against transgender, gender diverse or intersex people an aggravating factor in sentencing.
- Updating terminology in laws to replace terms such as “HIV infection” and “suffering with AIDS” to “living with HIV/AIDS”.
- Clarifying in the Mental Health Act 2007 that expressing, or refusing to express, a particular gender identity does not that someone has a mental illness.
- Enabling a parentage order to be made for a child born through international commercial surrogacy, if it is in the best interests of the child and other criteria and important safeguards are met.
The changes to allow people to register a change of sex without surgery are simple changes that will bring NSW in line with all other jurisdictions across the country.
Ongoing work
The NSW government says this follows ongoing work to progress reforms that ensure all members of our community feel valued, respected and equal, having already fulfilled an election commitment to ban ‘LGBTQ+ conversion practices’ through the Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024, which passed the NSW parliament in March.
Premier Chris Minns also issued a formal apology in June to people convicted under discriminatory laws that criminalised homosexual acts, and passed legislation this year that meant more of these offences were able to be extinguished.
In September, the NSW government supported all 19 recommendations delivered by the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes, which examined the unsolved deaths of LGBTIQ people and found shortfalls in historical responses by the NSW government.
The Minns government has also announced that it is establishing the LGBTIQ+ Advisory Council, which will provide a mechanism for ongoing community consultation.
Penny Sharpe, Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council said, ‘The changes proposed by the Equality Bill will make NSW a safer and more inclusive place – and they’ve been a long time coming.
‘People in every other state of Australia are already able to change their sex without requiring surgery, and this legislation will bring us in line with the rest of the country.
‘As a government, we’ve been committed to equality for a long time. Supporting this bill is our latest step to ensure every citizen in NSW is valued.’
Michael Daley, Attorney General of New South Wales said, ‘The Equality Bill seeks to change multiple pieces of legislation to make NSW a more inclusive place.
‘As legislators, it is our job to reflect the views of the community, and in this instance, it is clearly time for these pieces of legislation to be updated,’ he said.
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