Politicians' discourses of lesbian and gay law reform in Western Australia

Summers, M. (2003) Politicians' discourses of lesbian and gay law reform in Western Australia. In: 38th Annual Conference of the Australian Psychological Society, 2-5 October 2003, Sheraton Hotel, Perth, Western Australia.

Abstract

Over the period from the end of 2000 to March 2002, Western Australia experienced a great deal of debate revolving around the newly elected state Labor government’s plans to address various legal inequalities affecting same-sex couples and gay and lesbian human rights. This article examines data drawn from Western Australia’s Hansard archive, and consists of members’ contributions to the second reading stage of parliamentary debates in the Legislative Assembly concerning the proposed Acts Amendment (Lesbian and Gay Law Reform) Bill. Members who voiced opposition to the Bill drew on a number of discursive resources to present the legislation as immoral, while attending to the rhetorical demands of appearing to be competent, unprejudiced and representing the concerns of their electorate. Members’ management of issues of stake

Item Type:	Conference Item
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Psychology
Publisher:	Wiley
Copyright:	Australian Psychological Society
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/20779

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