*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of Queensland, Australia - A campaign to remove our Sodomy Law (which was enacted in 1990).

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3rd April 2008 Email to Editor of the Courier Mail (C.c. Premier Anna Bligh, Attorney-General Kerry Shine, ADCQ Commissioner Susan Booth). "Bligh should be as proud as Goss of our Anti-Discrimination Act". I refer to a recent statement on the ABC TV’s 4 Corners by former Premier Wayne Goss that he counted the Anti-Discrimination Act as one of his proud achievements as Premier. I point out that it is now nearly 3 years since Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth wrote to the Premier and Attorney-General calling for urgent equal age of consent reform. I state that: “The Bligh Government ought to prove that it continues to respect and take pride in our Anti-Discrimination Act by finally responding to the Commissioner's recommendation - with the knowledge that they will be doing a great good by allowing necessary legal equity for all Queensland youth.”

----- Original Message -----

From: John Frame

To: cmletters@qnp.newsltd.com.au

Cc: Susan Booth ; Attorney-General Kerry Shine ; Premier Anna Bligh

Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 1:58 PM

Subject: Bligh should be as proud as Goss of our Anti-Discrimination Act

To The Editor of The Courier Mail

C.c.: Premier Anna Bligh, Attorney-General Kerry Shine, Qld Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth 

for publication:

"Bligh should be as proud as Goss of our Anti-Discrimination Act"

Four Corners recently aired a retrospective of Joh Bjelke Petersen's 20 year legacy as Premier. From the ABC website for that program we can read reporter Chris Masters' interview with former Premier Wayne Goss, who identifies the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act as being one of the great achievements of his own government. This makes the Bligh Government seem all the more at odds with progress through their ongoing refusal to follow Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth's July 2005 recommendation that the age of consent be truly equalised at 16.

(Read the Commissioner's 15/7/05 letter here: http://www.queerradio.org/AOC150705_ADCQ.htm)

Queensland is already five years behind the rest of Australia on equal age of consent reform - and yet all of the arguments in favour of that reform were considered in the majority Recommendation by the 1990 Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee which was supported by Committee Chairman (our former Premier) Peter Beattie.

The Bligh Government ought to prove that it continues to respect and take pride in our Anti-Discrimination Act by finally responding to the Commissioner's recommendation - with the knowledge that they will be doing a great good by allowing necessary legal equity for all Queensland youth.

(The Chris Masters interview with Wayne Goss for Four Corners is at:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2175500.htm )

Yours sincerely,

John Frame
jvframe@ozemail.com.au
www.queerradio.org/JohnFrame.html
Ph: 07 3350 1562 / mobile: 0409 501 561
Post: 82 Main Avenue, Wavell Heights 4012, QLD, Australia.

----"There is no substitute for equality"----