The federal Attorney-General’s Department is in the early stages of drafting broad anti-discrimination legislation.
This legislation would make it illegal to discriminate on gender or sexuality grounds and includes a policy suggestion that is a step towards legalising gay marriage.
In its secret Red Book to the incoming Gillard government, the department proposed prohibiting marital and relationship status discrimination “in consolidated bill to include same-sex couples”.
The Attorney-General’s Red Book says that while commonwealth law prohibits sexuality discrimination in employment, it does not prohibit gender status discrimination.
“This policy commits to including new protections against sexuality or gender status discrimination in the consolidation of commonwealth anti-discrimination laws, which is currently under way,” it says.
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