‘Dominic Perrottet And Chris Minns Need To Get Behind Proposed Anti-Discrimination Law In NSW’

By Evan Van Zijl

Each day that I come home from work I am exhausted – there’s a small stabbing pain in my lower back from picking up children, and my head feels a bit like a lemon that’s been squeezed out over a salad after skipping my lunch break to get my planning done. I’m an early childhood educator.

I love my job, and I love educating and caring for the kids, and so do my co-workers, but we have some of the lowest pay in the country and most burn out within two to three years.

We’re getting to a point where if we keep going then we can’t afford the lettuce, let alone the rent. It’s not much better for my colleagues who teach in the schools and generally burn out in five years.

Blatant Attack Under The Cover Of ‘Parental Rights’ And ‘Religious Freedoms’

It’s macabre that the Liberals and One Nation have been stirring up a culture war against queer and trans educators and students like me in the past few years as they gnash their teeth over the marriage equality victory. The bigots were not satisfied with the existing exemptions in NSW that allow them to discriminate in the hiring, firing and expulsion of queer and trans workers and students in private schools and religious backed institutions, and their previously implemented cuts to Safe Schools.

They went on a blatant attack to bolster the powers of management to be blatant bigots under the cover of ‘parental rights’ and ‘religious freedoms’.

Exhausted and living on a wage only a little above the poverty line, educators like me are labelled ‘gender whisperers’ and vilified in the press by this process while we wonder if we can be out at work or not. This is not the pay rise we need to change things in the sector, and it is not even thanks for keeping things going during the lockdowns. There’s no respect or recognition here.

This is an attempt to drive some of us out of the job when there is a literal shortage. It is the sharpest insult to not only queer and trans people in the sector but all of us who are reliant on the sector to be more than a plaything in the hands of disgusting bigots trying to create a second-class section of society.

Labor Has Tried To Play It Both Ways

Albanese’s Labor have tried to play it both ways and appease both bigotry and the queer community by ultimately offering their support for Morrison’s religious freedoms bill despite also offering support to an amendment by independent MPs to prevent trans students from being expelled.

There have been some moves since then by Labor in state governments in Victoria, ACT, NT, WA, and Queensland to prevent queer teachers being fired, but some shamefully fall short of guaranteeing a non-discriminatory hiring process or extending commitments to anti-vilification laws as in Tasmania. These reforms are an improvement, but nowhere near good enough.

The Albanese government have now also committed to bringing back Morrison’s religious freedoms bill and have pledged an inquiry to discuss what it will contain. While the details are scarce, we do know the following: that Labor is committed to maintaining a discriminatory hiring and enrolment process but opposes firing and expulsion; they intend to create exemptions to prevent clashes with state legislation; and, introduce mild anti-vilification clauses that they say may support Muslims as a kind of left cover.

That might seem like a win on the surface as does the consultation, but this is not a progressive move and our community should be clear to the Greens and the independents that we don’t want them to vote it up, nor should the NGOs who claim to represent us validate the bill.

Content Improved But the Purpose Of The Bill Remains The Same

The content of the bill is likely to be somewhat improved, but the purpose of the bill remains the same: to legitimise the idea that queer rights are a threat to be addressed, and that therefore even a limited right to discriminate is justified. Limited or otherwise there should be no right to discriminate, nor should the rights of religious minorities and queer people be pitted against one another in this bait-and-switch.

It also is a way for Albanese to make reform a state-by-state issue that places responsibility instead upon Perrottet’s minority government in NSW, where our rights as queer educators and students languish far behind every other state, and therefore neutralise it as an issue in the next federal election.

I Deserve Better, My Co-Workers Deserve Better, and My Students Deserve Better

As an educator, I deserve better than Labor still trying to have it both ways in yet another re-draft of this awful bill. My co-workers deserve better. My students deserve better.

This year Mardi Gras will coincide with not only WorldPride but will be only a few weeks before the NSW state election where Labor and Liberal will be begging for us to pick which of them will impede our rights for the next four years.

Each of the major parties has promised us almost nothing.

A Glimmer Of Hope

The teal independents, like Alex Greenwich, have said nice words despite being open to offering support to the Liberals who promoted the religious freedoms bill and suppressed the wages of educators in the first place.

The Greens have good policies and are the only party to rule out support for the Liberals, but their MPs in the federal parliament have been too nervous as of yet to block any of federal Labor’s policies.

I hope dearly that proposals from teals like Alex Greenwich, and those of the Greens, manage to gain traction so that educators, students, and sex workers amongst others get anti-discrimination protections.

We Need To Take Up The Fight For Our Rights Ourselves

It is heartening that there is now consensus amongst NGOs like ACON, Equality Australia, Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, [though there is a noticeable silence from Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, who refused to discuss the issue at the latest AGM] as well as pretty much every crossbencher likely to be elected in the next parliament except for One Nation. But if we want these proposals to come to life and force Premier Dominic Perrottet and Opposition leader Chris Minns to get behind them, then offering support in a minority government to whoever backs a watered-down version of the bill is not the way. 

We will need to take up the fight for our rights ourselves if we want to put the politicians on notice.

It’s what we’ve had to do for our wages by going on strike, and it’s what we’ll need to do for our rights.

This is one of the reasons that I will be marching with pride as part of my union to launch the WorldPride season at 12 pm on, the 19th of February at Newtown Hub. If you want to join a protest march for our rights to launch the season, then check out the Mardi Gras march by Pride in Protest here.

Evan Van Zijl (they/them) is a unionist, educator, writer, and member of Pride in Protest & CARR