|
Katrina Fox
Key members of the Australian
Council of Social Services (ACOSS) have agreed to work with ACON to ensure the
GLBT community is included in its submission to the government’s social
inclusion agenda.
ACOSS is the peak body
representing the community sector in Australia.
Mark Orr, President of ACON,
gave a presentation to delegates of the ACOSS conference last week detailing
the negative impact of social exclusion on GLBT people and outlined strategies
for ensuring our inclusion.
These include removing all forms
of legal discrimination against GLBT people, funding and implementing programs
to address discriminatory behaviour, the introduction of a national homophobia
campaign and decreasing levels of homophobic bullying and youth homelessness
with GLBT youth recognised as one of the priority groups.
David Scamell, Manager, Policy,
Planning and Research at ACON’s said the organisation was “happy with the
reception we got from members of the ACOSS leadership”.
“ACON was invited to
speak to broad range of community sector from refugee groups to church groups,”
Scamell told SX. “The feedback from
them was pretty positive; there was no one who disagreed that GLBT people
should not be recognised in the social inclusion agenda.”
During the conference feedback
was given to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Inclusion Julia
Gillard, who attended the conference. Scamell said ACON is seeking a meeting
with Gillard to discuss the issues further, as well as continuing to work with
ACOSS members.
“We’re working with them to make
sure what they put forward to the government around social inclusion does
continue to include the GLBT community. We are quite confident that they’ll be
considering GLBT people as a community they should be including.”
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
