ࡱ> NPO` bjbjss .4   < < &h        p%r%r%r%r%r%r%$'h)n%V  VV%  %8V"  p%Vp%#$ ^W x#p%%<&#]*]*($]*$ Zr @ 4 p   %%    &VVVV   dp $   p     27 May 2006 Same-Sex Inquiry Human Rights Unit Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001 Via email: samesex@humanrights.gov.au Dear Sir/Madam Re: National Inquiry into Discrimination against People in Same-Sex Relationships: Financial and Work-Related Entitlements and Benefits Thank you for the opportunity to submit to this inquiry. I would like to draw your attention to the following discrimination in federal laws I have incurred. I have been in two long term same sex relationships one for 15 years and my current relationship for 9 years. In both these interdependent relationships, I have had periods where I have had to be dependent financially on my partner these were because; My partners federal government job moved them to a country area for 3 years and I was only able to get causal or no work. Currently I am completing my PhD fulltime. In both these situations in my respective partners personal income tax return for the time I was/am financially dependent on them they could have claimed the following if the definition of spouse was different (eg Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) Section 159J(2) section 6); as we had met all other qualifying criteria. Federal employee moving and disturbance allowances and payments, Personal income taxation - dependent spouse offset Family tax benefits (FBT), Medicare - Safety Nets, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Public Sector Superannuation Superannuation contributions-splitting etc At the same time, support from the federal government for being a low-income earner under federal Social Security law I am denied because; Financial support or equivalent from another person (the gender is irrelevant in this situation) is income and would have precluded me from government support. Some well-meaning public service officers in the irrelevant department and other advisors have noted (but did not recommend) the following anomaly: As same sex relationships are not recognised and therefore nor is the interdependency this lack of acknowledgement of dependency would quite conceivably benefit in getting around these particular social security laws. This type of action would have required my partner and I to lie and we do not lie; we have an interdependent relationship. It is abhorrent to any reasonably ethical person that the Australian government would happily support an inequitable system and foster lying simply because the federal laws do not recognise the person whom I am dependent on is the same gender as mine. The discrimination in federal law for same sex relationships and their family is an abuse on a minority who have the same obligations and responsibilities as every other Australian and therefore the same rights must apply. These discriminations in federal law are therefore I believe contravening Australias obligations under: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): Article 26 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Article 2 sections 1 and 2 Please support removing these discriminations in federal law by including; Interdependent relationship category in the definitions - that include same sex and their spousal rights. National Civil Union scheme giving equal entitlements to those of marriages My preference is for a National Civil Union scheme. It is not the place of the Australian federal government to enact or maintain laws in our secular society that discriminate based on what goes on in the private life of its citizens. Thank you for this opportunity. 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