ࡱ> -/.` bjbjss .2222222  6 """"""""  $u h *. 2""""". 22""C "2"2" " 22" P8F Y 0  ~4  28""""""". .  """ """"666dd666F$j222222 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. My name is [name withheld] I have a daughter with a gay man. I was in a same sex relationship when my daughter was conceived and born. I am no longer with that person. Because of the changes to the law here in WA (which I fully support), my daughters' father had no rights and my same sex partner had more rights than the biological father. This is a great example of changing laws to reflect changes in our society but not actually making sure that everyone wins. Whilst I was in this relationship my partner and I discussed doing extensions to her house. We decided that I should go on the title of this house in case anything happened to her, we decided to put the mortgage in joint names and get the title changed on the house. I then had to pay stamp duty on the money that I borrowed. She had already paid full stamp duty on the original purchase of the house. If we were a heterosexual couple and had been married, I understand that I wouldn't have had to pay stamp duty on my share of the mortgage and that the title change would not have cost so much. I am currently in a new committed same sex relationship. My current partner and I live in separate houses however, we are looking at moving in together. I rang Centrelink to let them know, as my partner has her own business and earns a lot more money than I do and they were not interested because we were not of the opposite sex. This actually works out better for me financially as it won't change the level of childcare support that I currently receive. It does not however assist my partner as she will be supporting us as a family, but not entitled to any tax breaks. We will also pay two lots of Medicare contributions. Changes also need to be made to superannuation both for contributions and access to payments. We have discussed as a couple showing our families and friends that we are in a committed relationship, we could have a commitment ceremony that would have no legal standing. What we want is to have our relationship acknowledged to the full extent of the laws in this country. I want to know that if anything happened to either of us that our wishes could not be overridden by someone in our families that may not accept our relationship, I also want to know that we do not have to do anything different to be treated equally. I want my partner to be acknowledged as my next of kin in a hospital setting as she knows what my wishes are. I used to work in HIV and saw lots of cases of long-term relationships and partners being evicted from their family home, not having access to their partner in hospital, not having access to superannuation (even though this had been discussed and decided before the partner died), not having any say in the funeral and sometimes not even being acknowledged by the families that were left behind. I am sick and tired of feeling that I have to defend my rights to have a child and that we are damaging her because we are homosexual. My daughter is a very lucky girl with two loving devoted, committed parents. She lives between her fathers house and my house. She does not know any different. She is the focus of our lives and we have lived for the last ten years sharing the care. Her father contributes financially to her upkeep. We get a lot of comments from heterosexual friends that we have a great set up and sometimes they are quite jealous. Families come in all different shapes and sizes, I fully support same-sex people having children, having access to IVF (and Medicare rebates) and being treated with respect. Fortunately for me I work for a union that recognises same sex relationships in its application of carers leave etc. I want to be able to get all the benefits that married heterosexual or de-facto couples automatically get. Once again thank you for the opportunity to make this submission.      VW35h}hCJOJQJ^JaJhhM<hM<CJOJQJ^JaJ   W5gdM< ,1h. A!"#$% @@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DAD Default Paragraph FontRiR  Table Normal4 l4a (k(No ListB^@B M< Normal (Web)dd[$\$H@H  Balloon TextCJOJQJ^JaJ "& "&5 W 5r v:r v r v:r v:r v:r v:r v:r v:r v:r v:r  W 500000000000 W 5@00@00@00@00@00@00@00@00@00@0000U  Z^lt1> ::::: 5c(aQCn}(M<T@|p@UnknownGz Times New Roman5Symbol3& z Arial5& zaTahoma"qhT3T3  4  424d2QP)?M<2Oh+'0d   , 8DLT\ Normal.dot4Microsoft Office Word@@pM@pM ՜.+,0 px  4   Title !"#$%&'*Root Entry F,1TableWordDocument.SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8 CompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89qRoot Entry F`Š11TableWordDocument.SummaryInformation( 0DocumentSummaryInformation8pCompObjq  FMicrosoft Office Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q՜.+,D՜.+,< px  4   Title4 $,