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Same-sex adoption plan under threat from Nile-Rees deal
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on Premier Nathan Rees to publicly declare that he will honour his government's commitment to legalise same sex adoption following reports that he has done a deal with Rev Fred Nile and plans to break this promise.
(See SMH 26 May 2009, page 3)
"Premier Nathan Rees will have sunk to a new low if he is willing to buy off Rev Nile by promising to scrap Labor*s plans to support same sex adoption," Ms Rhiannon said.
"The Premier should respect the role of the Legislative Council to debate and vote on bills on their merit, rather than do deals with Rev Nile.
"NSW is already behind on gay law reform. In Western Australia same-sex couples can adopt children.
"If the Premier has done a deal it will set back progressive change for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in NSW for years.
"The gay and lesbian community have put years of work into building support for same-sex adoption. The Attorney General, John Hatzistergos, and other key ministers have been lobbied and an Upper House Inquiry has spent months working on this issue.
"If the Premier drops plans to introduce legislation to allow same-sex couples to adopt it will be a return to the dark days when the catholic
church had a major hand in Labor Party decision making.
"The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, would be pleased if Rev Nile has pulled off this deal.
"Rev Nile regularly votes with the government on their conservative legislation. He voted with the government when they weakened workers' compensation laws; watered down community consultation in the planning process; dismantled public ownership of Sydney*s water supply; restricted the availability of public housing; and made it harder to stop land clearing.
"There have been previous reports that Rev Nile has done deals with the government. In 2007 he was made Assistant President of the NSW Legislative Council.
"If the government backed a same-sex adoption bill it would easily pass in the Upper House on the combined votes of Labor and Greens MPs," Ms Rhiannon said.
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