Last week, Labor attempted to quell community concerns by partially backflipping on their proposal to remove gender from birth certificates – but one week on, Tasmanians are still no clearer on what they are actually proposing, how it will work, and what their amendment or amendments will look like.
Once again, Labor is trying to keep Tasmanians completely in the dark about their intentions. With less than a week to go until the Bill is likely to be debated, Labor needs to come clean and outline what they are proposing to change in relation to how Tasmanian parents register their child at birth.
The lack of transparency by the Labor Party on this issue has been astonishing. First, they did a secret backroom deal with the Greens to support removing gender from all birth certificates and Ella Haddad urged her Facebook friends to vote yes to removing gender from birth certificates.
When there was a public outcry, Labor then attempted to pretend this was never their position, despite Cassy O’Connor confirming they had agreed to those amendments. Labor’s latest comments last week were that they would move amendments with “a slight nuanced difference” to the Greens’ position after they had “come together” with the Greens to discuss their new position.
What this actually means is anyone’s guess.
It’s well past time for Labor to release their full amendments so the public can see what they plan, or commit to the sensible option of referring these matters to the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute so all consequences can be considered.