The Informer

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual assault, rape, fear-mongering and bad rhetoric.

There was a lot of debate in the Victorian Parliament this past fortnight over the Births, Deaths and Marriages amendment bill. The bill, which would allow someone to alter their Victorian birth certificate to a different sex without having to undergo surgery. We’re joined by Mama Mish from Trans POV who provides reactions to excerpts from speeches in Parliament by Jane Garrett, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Louise Staley, Catherine Cumming and Bernie Finn.

In this longer interview, Benjamin Law discusses The Australian’s gender section, protests in Hong Kong, the complex politics of Qld and NSW as well as whether Beryl Streep from The Family Law was a real person. Toby Halligan, Nicholas Hynes and Arion Potts joined in the interview.

When it comes to LGBTIQ+ rights, the newspaper The Australian is particularly vicious. It campaigned vigorously against Safe Schools, and just recently introduced a “gender” section of the newspaper to focus on its ongoing campaign against the trans community.   

Author and journalist, Benjamin Law, wrote a Quarterly Essay on The Australian’s campaign against Safe Schools, and he recently tweeted, telling people who unsubscribed from The Australia, that he’d donate $36 per unsubscription to the Gender Centre in Sydney.  

 We spoke to Ben to find out what he thinks has gone so wrong at The Australian.

 

 

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual assault and harrassment.

The law often doesn’t keep pace with social change, and in the era of the Me Too movement, survivors of sexual assault and harassment are increasingly telling their stories, to shame predators, and demand justice.  

But that’s almost impossible for survivors of sexual assault in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, because of an archaic law that prevents survivors of sexual assault from being identified in the media – even if they’re the ones doing the identifying. 

As the Morrison government’s attempt to repeal medevac laws continues, human rights advocates have joined calls for the laws to remain in place.

The Medevac legislation, passed in February, allows doctors to recommend people be evacuated from Manus and Nauru to Australia for medical treatment. Just over 100 people have been approved for transfer to Australia in around six months of the laws operating.

A Senate committee is reviewing a bill introduced by the Morrison Government which, if passed, would repeal the laws.

David Burke is the senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre and he says the medevac laws are an important safeguard for refugees on Nauru and Manus.

The Morrison government is currently drafting a bill that they claim will protect religious freedom in Australia, however activists for the LGBTQI+ community say that religious exemptions to anti-discrimination bills in Australia are already abundant and that the current push to extend religious exemptions is a deliberate attack on the rights of gay and gender non-conforming people that were hard won over the last few decades. A protest is scheduled for the 31st of August outside the State Library to try and push back against the religious discrimination bill of the Morrison government, and The Informer spoke to activist and co-founder of the Safe Schools Program, Roz Ward, who is one of the organisers of the event. 

Content warning – this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse.

After Cardinal George Pell lost his appeal against his conviction for sexual offenses this week.  The Informer spoke to Tarja Malone of the Blue Knot Foundation about how victims of abuse react to trauma and why we might see inconsistenies in truthful recounts of abuse. 

The Informer crew was joined by living LGBTIQ+ activist Dennis Altman. Dennis talks about his experience living in the US at the start of HIV/AIDS, Australia’s relationship with the United States, human rights, trans rights and which is more gay – Sydney or Melbourne?

The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria’s annual HEY Grants are open. The grants support organisations to undertake mental health promotion and community engagement activities which focus on LGBTIQ+ young people, aged between 14 and 25 years.

Arion Potts spoke with Thomas Feng from YACVic about the grants.

Raspberry Ripple’s new show, That’s Why The Lady Needs A Ramp, will be on the boards at Footscray Community Arts Centre 17 August. Raspberry Ripple (rhyming slang for “cripple”) is a disability-led theatre organisation f​ormed to address what we see as a big black hole in the mainstream performing arts.

We spoke to actor Kate Hood, director of the show Kim and stage buddy Briony Webster-Wilson about the show.