Letter to Tanya Plibersek.

Andrew — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 04:04:57 +0000

Tanya Plibersek - the Minister for Housing and the Status of Women, also the Federal Member for Sydney, told me in person that the Rudd Government had eradicated all human rights violations surrounding the treatment of homosexual people in Australia. She was wrong, evidenced by the recent complaint rejection I received from www.humanrights.gov.au, the Australian Federal Government department tasked with handling discrimination complaints.

So I’ve sent Tanya Plibersek an email via the ALP website contact form, here it is:

Hi Tanya,

We met at the most recent Glebe Fair day and we had a great discussion about Same Sex Marriage.

You indicated to me that the Rudd Government has systematically eradicated all human rights issues surrounding homosexuality.

Telstra has launched a campaign where they have advertised their next generation mobile content in an advertisement that is quite discriminatory to homosexual people.

When I’ve tried to complain to humanrights.gov.au about the above-mentioned advertisement, they have advised they can only assist with sexual preference discrimination if it is to do with employment.

This is unacceptable. Sexual preference discrimination should be treated the same as any other kind of discrimination, including gender, age, and ethnicity discrimination.

The reason I’m contacting you is because you told me that these issues had been addressed and eradicated, yet a federal government department that deals with human rights and discrimination is itself, discriminating against homosexual individuals by only accepting sexual preference discrimination complaints if they are to do with employment.

How can we feel as though we are treated the same, if the government department which is responsible for assisting in the eradication of discrimination, discriminates against an entire demographic of people?

Please respond as soon as possible.

For your reference I have attached the response I received from Karen.toohey@humanrights.gov.au.

Best,

Andrew James.

I will post Tanya’s response, as soon as I get it.

If you wish to send Tanya Plibersek a letter, you can do so here :
ALP website contact Tanya Plibersek form

Homophobic Telstra Advertisement

Andrew — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:24:27 +0000

The Government won’t assist us.

I woke up this morning and logged in to www.smh.com.au to read the news. Telstra pays a fortune to advertise on fairfax, and in their most recent campaign for Next Gen Mobile coverage they try to be funny in a homophobic and utterly stupid way.

Here is the ad (click the speaker to enable sound, although I don’t recommend it)

It shows people in tents at night in a camping ground. One of the men in the tent looks at his phone and then asks his tent mate ‘Gibbo’ what he’s doing. He replies and says he is doing nothing. The first man asks Gibbo what Barry is doing, and Gibbo says he does not know. We see an empty tent. Inside it, Barry is no where to be found. We then see another tent with shadows moving inside it in a way that suggests more than one person is inside it. We then see inside the tent that has two people moving around, and two men look up as though they have been caught doing something untoward. They look very worried they have been caught doing something their friends would dislike. It then turns out they are watching football on a mobile phone.

This ad implies that Barry is gay, and he has been caught having homosexual sex in a tent. Gay men who do choose to have sex in a tent should not have to be afraid of getting ‘caught’ by their friends. The ad implies that being gay, or having homosexual sex is something to be ashamed of. The look on Barry’s face and his friends face when they realise they have been caught is the reason we assume they are gay. They are scared, and ashamed. This was the intention of the advertiser. The audience see’s that they are scared and ashamed and is led to believe they have been having sex with each other, the audience is then supposed to be relieved when they realise Barry is not in fact having gay sex with his friend, but instead they are watching football on their mobile phone together. The men and their reputations are saved. This is blatantly homophobic and very offensive.

So I went to www.humanrights.gov.au to make a discrimination complaint. But it turns out that the Australian Federal Government Department tasked with eradicating discrimination, is itself, discriminating against gay people.

They only deal with sexual preference discrimination if it is to do with some kind of employment issue. If you’re being discriminated against by a company who offers a service, or by any other organisation, they will not assist you. Your complaint is void. Here is the options you get to choose from:

As you can see, pregnancy, marital status, race, disability, age, sex, gender are all issues that you can make a complaint about. But if it is sexual preference, you are on your own.

So I decided to lodge a complaint with humanrights.gov.au about humanrights.gov.au.

Here is a copy of my lodged complaint:

PART 1 – COMPLAINANT: Andrew James
Complainant’s Suburb: Glebe
Complainant’s Postcode: 2037
Complainant’s State: NSW
Complainant’s Email Address: andrew@engayment.org
____________________________________________
PART 2 – RESPONDENT’S NAME: HREOC
____________________________________________
RELATIONSHIP TO RESPONDENT?: The relationship to me is this is an Australian Government Department.
____________________________________________

PART 3 – REASON FOR COMPLAINT: My human rights have been breached by a federal government agency
____________________________________________

DATE OF EVENTS BEING COMPLAINED ABOUT: Today, the 11th of December 2008.
____________________________________________

DESCRIPTION Description of the event?: I came to this site to make a complaint about a homophobic Telstra Advertisement, when I noticed Part 3 of your complaint form states that discrimination complaints based on sexual preference can only be made if it is to do with employment.

This is not acceptable. Sexual Preference discrimination complaints should be able to be addressed regardless of whether they are to do with employment or not.

____________________________________________

PART 4 – LOSS OR HARM EXPERIENCED?: You’re the one place that should stand up for my rights and my equality, and your own website is discriminatory in nature.
____________________________________________

PART 5 – DESIRED OUTCOMES/ RESOLUTION?: I want you to update your policies and your website to reflect that Sexual Preference Discrimination complaints can be addressed by your department even if they are not to do with Employment.

We will see what they say.

Update 12:09pm 11 December 2008: Karen from www.humanrights.gov.au responded to my complaint – view it here.

Engayment.org » Sent

Letter to Tanya Plibersek.

Homophobic Telstra Advertisement

The Government won’t assist us.