Motions

Premier's Commemorative Committee

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (16:00): I move:

That the report of the Premier's Commemorative Committee be tabled in the Legislative Council and ordered to be printed and posted to the Parliament of South Australia's internet site.

On 16 September 2024, Premier Peter Malinauskas proposed that I establish the Premier's Commemorative Committee. Its sole function was to oversee a series of events commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality in South Australia. The committee consisted of myself as chair, the Hon. Robert Simms, the Hon. Michelle Lensink, the Hon. Lucy Hood and the Hon. David Pisoni.

I have spoken in this chamber numerous times about the pathway to decriminalisation and its impact on our South Australian queer community, so I will not speak further on that today. But what I will do is briefly comment on the work of the committee in creating what turned out to be quite an impressive celebration of this historic milestone.

The committee published a historical program of significant events from 1972 to the present day, including a variety of events commemorating the passage of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act 1975, and a digital version of the program is available on the Department of Human Services website for posterity.

A special pin was commissioned, which I am wearing today, Mr President—I am sad to see you are not wearing yours; I will have to get you another one—to join the many others I have in my collection in celebration of the 50^th anniversary. Notably, the pink colour of the pin is as close as we could possibly get to match the tone of the shorts of former Premier Don Dunstan. That historic event itself was reprised by the minister in the other place, the Hon. Blair Boyer, with great flair and style out on the steps of Parliament House.

We also coordinated a reenactment of the parliamentary debates held in this place on 2 October 2025. This date coincided with the proclamation of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1975. The event was followed by a reception at Government House, kindly hosted by the Governor, and we thank her for her invitation to join her at that event.

I would also like to thank the many queer groups from Adelaide and South Australia for their engagement in support of this initiative. It has been great to see the community come together to celebrate this occasion. I was, I must admit, in the early days quite surprised and overwhelmed by the desire by the community to participate in what was going to be a very small commemorative event in parliament, and it blew out to a much bigger statewide event, really.

I would like to extend particular thanks to Tim Reeves, Will Sergeant and Simon Royal for their individual contributions to the commemoration. I am also very grateful to you, Mr President, and the Speaker from the other place for the important role that you played in support of our commemoration, allowing the Legislative Council chamber to be used for the re-enactment and for flying the rainbow and progress flags from the top of Parliament House.

I would also like to thank the other members of the committee and their staff for their support in organising a wonderful year of events. As is true most of the time, whilst honourable members here will take a lot of the credit for what we did, it was our staff who actually delivered on these events and did the hard grunt work, and I thank them on behalf of all the honourable members.

Finally, on behalf of the committee, I would like to extend our thanks to the Premier for proposing its creation and to appropriately recognise the landmark social reform of decriminalising male homosexuality in South Australia. It became a much bigger event than it was really originally designed to be, and it was very welcomed by the community in South Australia.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (16:03): I will not speak very long on this motion. As a fellow member of the committee, I would like to endorse all of the comments that have just been made by the Hon. Ian Hunter as the chair. I particularly commend him and his leadership of that group. I know these things can sometimes be like herding cats. There are a lot of cats to be herded. I think we did our best to pull it all together—or, as he has intimated, the staff did. Certainly, we have all been very pleasantly surprised at the response to letting everyone in the community know that there was going to be a celebration for the 50^th anniversary and the huge number of events that came out as a result for people to participate in.

I must admit it has been a little bit exhausting at times trying to get to some things. I did not end up making it to Feast in the park, which is a separate event anyway, but we will probably tack that on as part of the 50^th. I think it has certainly been an extremely positive opportunity for the queer community to be able to highlight, celebrate and commemorate this event. I commend everybody for their work on it.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (16:05): I rise to endorse the comments made by the Hon. Mr Hunter and the Hon. Michelle Lensink. As a member of the committee, while I say it was a great privilege to serve on this committee, I do want in particular to acknowledge the leadership of the Hon. Ian Hunter. I think it is a testament to the high regard in which the honourable member is held by the LGBTI community that so many groups across our state were keen to participate in this year's program. It was a really broad cross-section of the LGBTI community. I think that is a credit in particular to the honourable member.

One of the elements I thought was really powerful about the committee was the multiparty way in which it operated. As has been reflected on multiple times during the year, I think the story of LGBTI law reform in South Australia is one that involves all political parties. Well may that continue to be the case because, through working together, that is how we are able to advance the rights of LGBTI people and cement those rights, particularly at a time when we are seeing those coming under assault in other places around the world.

I also want to thank the Premier for setting up the committee and, as other members have done, acknowledge the work of the staff across all of the offices. In particular, I want to thank and acknowledge the Hon. Ian Hunter's office team for all of the work that they did and also acknowledge the work of my office, too, who assisted in getting a lot of this stuff on the ground. I also acknowledge, of course, the work of Kirby, who was assigned to us by the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, who was excellent. Thank you to everybody involved. It was a really positive event, and I really look forward to being part of the 100-year celebrations here in the parliament in the future.

Motion carried.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (16:07): Pursuant to the resolution of the council, I lay upon the table the report of the Premier's Commemorative Committee.

Report received.