Published
11 September 2002
Ministers
Equality enshrined in WA laws
11/9/02 The State Government's campaign to remove discrimination from all WA laws took another major step forward today.
11/9/02
The State Government's campaign to remove discrimination from all WA laws took another major step forward today.
Attorney General Jim McGinty introduced legislation to Parliament to amend more than 70 pieces of legislation to ensure fairness under the law for all West Australians.
Major beneficiaries of the changes are women and also couples living in de facto relationships, including same sex de facto couples.
Mr McGinty said an analysis of all State legislation found discrimination enshrined in everything from property laws and inheritance to criminal injury and workers' compensation laws, creating a sub-culture of second-class citizens.
"In some cases this has caused real financial disadvantage to individuals, in others the laws are demeaning and archaic, carrying 19th century thinking into today's laws," he said.
"This includes laws that presently protect some people from prosecution for criminal acts, based purely on their marital status. This not only provides a bizarre advantage for these people, it ensures a complete lack of protection for their victims.
"The legislation introduced today will finally remove these and other anomalies and ensure everyone in WA is equal under the law."
Some of the major reforms include:
- expanded rights for de facto couples to access compensation for criminal injuries, a fatal accident or workers' compensation in relation to the death of their partner.
- repeal of Section 35 of the Criminal Code, which presently stops spouses being prosecuted if they steal, damage or destroy their partner's property while the couple is living together;
- repeal of Section 32 of the Criminal Code, which maintains that a married woman is not criminally responsible for any act her husband compels her to do in his presence unless it involves murder or grievous bodily harm; and
- repeal of the Married Women's Property Act 1892. While the Act was drafted over a century ago to provide basic property rights to women, it now simply reflects a bygone era and is not seen as relevant or useful. Amending other laws will ensure equal property rights regardless of gender or marital status.
Other reforms have an important social benefit, such as placing de facto partners on the same footing as a spouse in relation to the medical treatment of a partner.
The changes to compensation laws would standardise the rights of de facto couples who lived together for at least two years to receive the same compensation for the death of their partner as would apply if they had been married.
At present, some compensation laws require a de facto relationship of at least three years, unless there is a child of the union, while others provide no access to compensation for de facto partners.
Mr McGinty said while some of the laws to be amended were clearly unfair in their present form, others were simply outdated and in some cases offensive to women.
"At best, they provide an extraordinary insight into how the law once regarded women, dating back to a time when married women in particular were seen as having no separate legal identity from their husband and no effective rights," he said.
"For example, one law still on the statutes provides special powers to prohibit the transfer of land belonging to people under the "disability" of things such as "lunacy", "unsoundness of mind" or "coverture", which is the state of being a married woman.
"Another law being repealed - the Parliament (Qualifications of Women) Act - had to be enacted in 1920 to enable women to sit in Parliament at a time when judges commonly referred to the proper place of women as being a domestic role, and to the pointlessness of granting rights to single women who would only lose them upon marriage."
Attorney General's office: 9220 5000
