The agenda for state Labor’s upcoming annual conference addresses a number of social justice initiatives, potentially signalling aspects of its platform for the next state election.
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State Labor secretary Stuart Benson said the party’s campaign would be “built on providing opportunity, standing up for Tasmania and tackling inequality”.
Rainbow Labor, an LGBTI branch of the party, will call for an equality portfolio to be established in the Tasmanian cabinet.
The call comes after Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews became the first Australian cabinet Minister with a dedicated LGBTI portfolio and federal Labor MP Terri Butler was appointed the Opposition spokeswoman for equality.
A Tasmanian Equality Minister would provide a parliamentary voice for LGBTI citizens, examining legislation through a lens of gay, lesbian and transgender rights.
Furthermore, the party will use the conference to call for a Royal Commission into violence and abuse against people with disability.
“People with disability suffer far higher rates of violence and abuse than the rest of the community,” the party said in the agenda.
“Only a Royal Commission has the weight, authority and investigative powers to examine the horrific accounts of violence and abuse against people with disability.”
A central platform of Tasmanian Labor’s conference is set to focus on the status of women in our society, vowing to provide greater opportunities for women to enter the workforce and to ensure they receive equal treatment to male workers.
The party will seek to address issues of domestic violence by promoting “positive” male behaviour and “enhanc[ing]” economic independence for women.
Moreover, the conference will endeavour to determine a way forward for regulating the sex industry, so that Tasmanian sex workers can feel safe in their workplace.
It will also reiterate Labor’s stance that sex work should be decriminalised in the state.
“Tasmanian Labor recognises that criminalising brothels only ensures the existence of brothels where workers are not guaranteed workplace safety, do not have protected conditions, are not protected by fair work laws, can be denied legal justice and are unable to unionise or collectively bargain,” the agenda read.
The state Labor conference will take place in George Town and run from July 1-2.