"Equity/Equality" Bill NSW - Orange Christian Alliance

Independent MP for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, has consistently been responsible for some of the worst laws in New South Wales.

Mr Greenwich introduced a bill that passed both houses later titled the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019, decriminalising abortion in the state.

In 2021, he introduced the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, which passed the following year, making assisted suicide accessible in NSW as of late last year. Now, Mr Greenwich is proudly pushing the Equality Legislation Amendment Bill 2023, which makes 80+ amendments across 20+ NSW laws, including, but limited to, reforms that:

Decriminalise Commercial Surrogacy

Restrict Freedom of Religion and Speech

Liberalise Prostitution

Violate Women’s Only Spaces

Update:

The Equity Bill, was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 16 October 2024, supported by Labor and the Greens, albeit in a very MINIMAL form. Philip Donato voted against the bill. It was passed by the Legislative Council the following day, without amendments. Praise the Lord that the majority of the most worrying and egregious parts of the bill were removed and even the parts that remain have been improved from the initial version. The bill will become law in July 2025 This is what Mike Southon from Freedom for Faith had to say about it:

Removed from the bill:

All changes to the anti-discrimination act that would have stopped faith organisations and schools from requiring staff to live according to their faith in matters of sexuality and gender.
Provisions allowing children to bypass their parents to get medical treatment – including puberty blockers.
Changes to definitions of sex and sexuality throughout the law
Elevating prostitution to a “protected category” in discrimination law
Most of the changes to prostitution laws

Remains: “sex self-ID” section, which allows a person to change their sex on their birth certificate.

The age to be able to make a change easily has been raised from 16 to 18
The process for under 18s has been made more rigorous – it is harder to bypass parents, requires support from a qualified counsellor, and requires the District Court to make the final ruling.

Most significantly, the Bill now states:

"Nothing in this part changes access to toilets, change rooms, sport, allocation in correctional facilities, women’s refuges or any other place.”

Religious institutions and faith-based schools will still be able to treat people according to their biological sex, because the exemptions to the Anti-Discrimination Act still remain.

It is not a win, but not as great a loss as we feared.