Labor’s anti-discrimination reform has passed through parliament after a heated first day of sittings

Parliament gives Territorians new protections under landmark changes to Anti-Discrimination laws. Read what it means for you.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles will be busy in the last week of parliament. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Landmark changes will give a swag of new rights and protections to vulnerable Territorians after the NT government passed more than 50 new amendments to anti-discrimination laws.

On Tuesday, renewed legal definitions for disability, gender, relationship status, employment status and sexuality were passed through the Northern Territory parliament.

The law also broadened the application of sexual harassment definitions, while giving greater access for those requiring assistance animals.

The maximum length of time a government can appoint an Anti-Discrimination Commissioner was increased to “up to” five years, which is in line with other commissioners’ terms in the NT.

Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the legislation was about “fairness, equality and inclusion”.

“We’re doing this because we believe that the Territory deserves contemporary anti-discrimination legislation that meets the needs of our community,” Mr Paech told parliament.

“We’re really in a territory where every person, no matter who they are, is afforded equality of opportunity and equality before the law.”

Members of the Territory's disability and queer community filled the parliamentary gallery through the day and night to watch new laws that will affect them passed. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

While many changes to the law were unopposed, amendments to section 18c and 37a caused dissent from the Opposition and crossbench that continued well into the middle of the night.

The debate began a little after 10.30am on Monday and throughout the day all members on the floor rose to voice concerns and add their opinions to the record.

The parliamentary public gallery was never empty, with multiple parties watching on.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the law put politics in peoples’ lounge room and they did not want politics intruding on their “family values”.

“If we are elected in 2024, we absolutely would reverse these revisions in respect to those two particular issues,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“We could go back to the drawing board and consider what the Australian Law Reform Commission has advised the federal government.”

The Albanese government has engaged the Australian Law Reform Commission to review the commonwealth anti-discrimination laws.

Parliament continues at 10am on Wednesday.

Labor defends sweeping changes to Territory Anti-Discrimination law

The Chief Minister has delivered a valiant speech to parliament defending proposed amendments to the anti-discrimination law in the Northern Territory.

Rising to rebut Member for Nelson, Gerard Maley, Natasha Fyles said her government was “unafraid” to stand up for vulnerable Territorians.

“I don’t think it is too much to ask for this house to pass this legislation and support the most vulnerable in the Northern Territory,” she said.

“Those who for far too long have had the threats of discrimination hanging over them.

Those who couldn’t be who they wanted to be to their community, the discrimination that they face … that they are somehow second-class citizens.”

The bill proposing more than 50 amendments across definitions for protected attributes, disability reform, employment, vilification and removal of faith-based discrimination has faced widespread public scrutiny.

However, Mr Maley accused the government of “ramming” through legislation because the draft tabled during October sittings contained significant changes from the one released for public consultation in July and August.

“The latest changes potentially … use the extension protection as a Trojan horse to sneak in oppressive restrictions on free speech and the violation of freedom of religion,” he said.

“The majority of people want nothing to do with these because it is not treating people fairly.

Mr Maley said while there were a set of “common sense” protections the Opposition supported if they were elected the CLP were committed to removing amendments to section 37a and 18c.

Mrs Fyles quickly rebuked the comment stating that was a “clear point of difference” between the parties and Territorians would “not forgive them”.

The debate will resume after Parliamentary question time at 3pm.

EARLIER: EQUALITY UNDER SCRUTINY

Territory parliament will commence its last sitting dates for 2022 on Tuesday with a number of key reforms slated for the six-day period.

The government’s controversial Anti-Discrimination Amendment Bill is expected to face scrutiny from the Opposition and crossbench with the Country Liberal Party and independents already expressing concerns to amendments in section 37a and 18c.

The exclusion of section 37a by the Labor government is a first in any Australian discrimination law and aims to remove the right for faith-based schools to discriminate on the basis of sexuality.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the changes aimed to strike a balance between providing exemptions under section 35 and section 50 while also removing the right to discriminate under section 37.

“We will still allow religious schools to operate, but they won’t have a broad brush exemption to discriminate and in the Northern Territory, we have some remote communities where a religious school is the only school in that community,” she said.

Chief Minister Natasha Fyles hopes anti-discrimination laws will pass in parliament. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

A draft of the bill was released in July for public consultation and received 172 submissions.

Ms Fyles said overwhelming feedback was to remove the section as there was “no way of drafting around it”.

However, independent Member for Araluen Robyn Lambley said the sweeping changes were “radical Labor values”.

“Under this radical left Labor regime we will be forced to adopt ‘Labor values’ rather than the values Territorians choose for ourselves,” she said.

Ms Lambley said amendments to 18C would broaden the definition of “offensive” to mean anything anyone finds “offensive” could be anonymously reported to the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for investigation.

Attorney-General Chansey Paech has assured Territorians they would still be enjoying jokes at the pub.

“We … like to joke in a in a pub with family, this isn’t cancelling that out in no way, shape or form,” he said.

“This is ensuring that we award the protections of vilification laws into the Territory, there is an extremely high threshold.”

The NT is the only state or territory in Australia that does not have laws covering hate speech or vilification.

The government is also expected to repeal some mandatory sentencing and lift the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 during the next two weeks of sittings, as recommended by the Royal Commission into Protection and Detention of Children five years ago.

“We will not be removing the mandatory sentence aspects from murder, sexual assault or frontline assaults on frontline workers but we’ll be removing it on other offences,” Ms Fyles said.

“In the Northern Territory, the judiciary, those that work in this space, have made it clear that we need to allow each individual case to go before our justice system … we don’t see that longer term reform that we need when someone has a mandatory jail sentence imposed on them.”

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said raising the age would not reduce youth crime and has said if the CLP won the next election she would repeal the law.

Deputy Opposition Leader Gerard Maley said Labor’s agenda for this fortnight’s parliament was completely out of step with Territorians.

“The people have spoken loud and clear – they reject attacks on freedom of speech and religious freedom,” he said.

All the remaining government department annual reports will be tabled and made available to the public this week.