ࡱ> 132` tbjbjss 7t**** 6 E,NNNNNNNN$q h tNNNNNNNN NNNNB @ jo*X 0EM b(M M 0NNNNNNN NNNENNNNDFF Dear HREOC, Thank you for the opportunity to make a public submission to the National Inquiry into Discrimination against People in Same Sex Relationships: Financial and Work-Related Entitlements and Benefits. I am a 24 year old lesbian in a four year relationship. I work for Child Protection on a casual basis. My partner and I want to have children and are looking into donor insemination. We have also been foster carers for adolescents. In the meantime we lavish love on our three cats, one dog and two chickens, as well as my partner's mother, who lives with us. I believe that to achieve full legal equality all Federal legislation should have terms such as spouse, partner dependent , family and couple redefined to include same sex partners and, where relevant ,their children. I believe that Commonwealth legal recognition of same sex relationships including families parented by same sex partners would have a positive impact on my mental health, relationships, family life, productivity at work and financial status, among other areas of my life. I have experienced discrimination in the context of social security benefits where the terms partner, husband or wife, spouse or member of a couple does not include same sex couples. I left home at 17 to live with my long term partner of the time. Neither of us could become independent under Centrelink's definition due to marriage or cohabitation because we were of the same sex. This caused us significant financial hardship and we were living well below the poverty line for some time, until we qualified through other means. Yours sincerely, Katherine Raymond  : /MsthLJhW" CJOJQJ^JaJhLJCJOJQJ^JaJ  ; < ! 1 2  NO`ast 7$8$H$gdLJt50P:pLJ/ =!"#$% @@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DAD Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No ListH@H = Balloon TextCJOJQJ^JaJt ;< !12NO`asv000000000000000000`asvj0h0j0j0`h0h0j0htt t vv::LMsvvW" Kf&LJr:P=+@mm+P((mmt@@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial?5 z Courier New5& zaTahoma"hrfJ&~ ~ !r4qq2HX(?LJ2 Dear HREOC,Samantha Edmonds Emily GrayOh+'0ld   , 8DLT\ Dear HREOC,Samantha Edmonds Normal.dot Emily Gray5Microsoft Office Word@Ik@@@I@`o~Oh+'0h\$D  4 T < , L Dear HREOC, Normal.dot1Microsoft Office Word~   !"#%&'()*+.Root Entry F@|jo0Data  1TableWordDocument7SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8$CompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qRoot Entry F`k҆h5Data  1TableWordDocument7 4$ SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8lCompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q՜.+,D՜.+,8 hpx   q  Dear HREOC, Title 4 $,