When Trent Zimmerman won the North Sydney byelection in December, it was the first time an openly gay man or woman had won a House of Representatives seat.
After the July election, there are now three gay Liberal lower-house MPs: the former “freedom commissioner” Tim Wilson, a former head of the National Retail Association, Trevor Evans, and Zimmerman.
After speaking with all three, it is clear they are proud of this achievement. But – perhaps unsurprisingly for a party that claims liberal individualism as one of its bedrocks – they view it as three separate acts by individuals for whom sexuality is only one part of their politics and personal story.
Some of their policy priorities are standard Liberal fare (freedom, small business) but they also have ambitions that extend to issues considered more progressive, including the environment.
Wilson enters parliament with a high national profile from his time at the Institute of Public Affairs and a stint on the Australian Human Rights Commission.
He tells Guardian Australia that sexuality informs his politics but, asked about the core of his political philosophy, he gives a textbook answer about creating a “free society where people can live their lives and pursue opportunities and enterprise”.
Sexuality “encourages a sense of empathy and understanding of difference in society”, Wilson says.
“It has also increased my strong view that society should respect the individual. When people are treated as a collective ... that’s when you get demonisation, stigmatisation and corrosion of individual rights.”
Wilson cites the criminalisation of homosexual acts as an example of the evils of “public collective morality”.
He speaks with equal passion when he says his grandmother would not be able to make sandwiches in her home kitchen for Country Fire Authority volunteers because of food safety laws – the nanny state interfering with nanna.
Evans is a less familiar face, coming from the retailers’ peak body. Before that, he worked as chief of staff to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.
He puts even less emphasis on sexuality, telling Guardian Australia it plays a “very little” role in his political consciousness and agenda.
“I’m not an activist in any area – I’m very focused on the intricacies of policy, of reform, so I’m not usually a person with an extremely activist bent.”
Zimmerman puts sexuality more front and centre.
In his inaugural speech to parliament, he reflected on his historic election and said Australia had come a long way but discrimination and disadvantage persisted. He cited Australia’s law denying gay people access to marriage and higher rates of depression and suicide among LGBTI people.
Before his speech, some people had advised him that his sexuality was not an issue he needed to reflect upon, he says.
Asked why his colleagues might have told him that, Zimmerman replies: “their message was that I shouldn’t allow myself to be defined by my sexuality”.
“The point I would make is this: it’s part of who I am. I am not in parliament as a gay activist but it is part of who I am. I thought the fact I got there as an openly gay person was worth celebrating.”
Zimmerman says sexuality “doesn’t define me in terms of my approach to politics – but you have a heightened sense of equality and fairness, particularly growing up at a time that change is happening but it is still hard to come out and identify as gay”.
He says that to avoid being stereotyped, gay politicians have to show they are “there for a whole broad range of policies, including economic governance and other social issues”.
How did this trio arrive in politics in general and the Liberal party in particular?
Wilson was attracted to the Liberal party at the age of 18 because of the Kennett government’s efforts to “liberalise the state away from the power of bureaucratic control and the union movement”.
For Evans, it was his family’s background as retailers and shopkeepers that taught him “the value of hard work, reward for effort, jobs and prosperity”.
In his inaugural speech, Zimmerman said he did work experience in year 10 with the then opposition leader, Nick Greiner.
He tells Guardian Australia he identified with the Liberals because of “the values of liberalism, the focus on the individual, freedom, and equality of opportunity”, although he says he was more conservative in his teens.
A defining issue for all members of the Turnbull government – gay or straight – will be the marriage equality plebiscite, expected in late 2016 or early 2017.
Wilson says the plebiscite was “not my first preference but it’s the only way to get it done and dealt with in this parliament”. Same-sex marriage has “distracted the country for too long”, he adds.
Evans says the plebiscite will be the way the social reform is achieved, and that the divisive or offensive public debate feared by opponents will surround a parliamentary vote as well.
Zimmerman says he would have advocated for a free parliamentary vote in the Coalition party room but was “relatively relaxed about the plebiscite as a second option”.
“I have no doubt that comments made during the plebiscite will be undesirable, and hurtful in some cases.
“What public figures participating in the debate see on the Twittersphere and Facebook can be horrendous, people hiding behind the anonymity that social media provides.”
But he agrees with Evans that such material would precede a parliamentary vote and the most important thing is that those leading the yes and no cases do so with respect.
I ask whether the trio’s new constituents are aware of their small part in sending a record number of gay MPs to Canberra.
Evans says he can count on one hand the number of times sexuality has been raised on the campaign trail. That is despite his opponent, Labor’s Pat O’Neill, also being gay, a fact noted in profiles of the contest for Brisbane.
Wilson says some voters counted his sexuality as a positive, some as a negative. The latter gave him a spray at train stations but he “wished them a good day and count it as a privilege that I’ll be in the last generation that has to put up with that”.
Zimmerman says he had positive and negative reactions but the majority were positive.
“Before my election, there was a perception it would be difficult for a gay MP to stand for a lower-house seat, because there could be backlash,” he says. “What excited me about my election is breaking through that, showing it need not be a barrier.”
Wilson says the trio’s election is a sign the Liberals are a “party that represents the whole of Australia, not just minority groups”.
“Every person who got there got there on merit, not because of quotas, or a decree from the leader due to perceived political advantage to hold them up as a standard bearer.”
Similarly, Evans says “my sexuality has not come up as an issue for me through the preselection, or my involvement in politics beforehand”.
He says preselection and election of the three “just reinforces what I said earlier – about the sexuality of candidates not being an issue, not in the Liberal party”.
In terms of what they want to achieve in parliament, Wilson has an ambition “to deal with areas that Liberals have struggled with like health and the environment”.
“People need to see their lives lived through our values. I want to follow through with a social and environmental narrative that takes society forward together rather than feeding vested interests.”
When pushed for details, he says he won’t be giving spoilers for his inaugural speech in parliament.
Zimmerman says his policy priorities are innovation, looking at the role of the federal government in the development of cities and his “strong interest” in the environment.
“We have an intergenerational responsibility – to hand the planet on in better shape than we inherited it. My belief in that arises from my liberal values and from my time as an adviser in the environmental portfolio to John Howard.”
Evans says his priorities are small business, jobs and economic opportunity – concepts very familiar after an eight-week election campaign that focused on the government’s proposed $48bn tax cut.
“I suppose I see what I can offer locally in Brisbane as a style of representation, because I’ve worked on the fringes of politics a few times and I know what makes a good or bad representative,” he says. “It’s about being accessible, visible, responsive and thoughtful.”
Evans expects to campaign actively for the marriage equality yes case and promises to “step in and intervene if some of the public debate crosses the line ... in terms of personal attacks or inappropriate language”.
Wilson says he is willing to pitch in as well, but he’ll first take counsel from the yes campaign about whether that will be helpful.
He is proud of having advocated gay marriage for some time, before Bill Shorten was in favour of it and while Penny Wong was bound to Labor’s position.
But, going forward, he is eager not to be pigeonholed as a gay MP. “I am interested in the whole of society, including issues that affect gay and lesbian people.”
He says he wants to “take society forward together, not just as a voice for a particular interest group”.
“I’m not keen on fostering that image of exclusive interest in gay issues, because then journalists only ever want to talk to me about those issues, and after a while the public thinks that’s the only thing you’re interested in.”
Zimmerman noted in his first parliamentary speech that coming out remained hard for many people.
That is the double standard faced by LGBTI youth, that they have to decide and declare their identity, where their heterosexual peers do not.
For gay politicians, it seems the standard they must meet is to show they are interested in the issues of more than one section of the community.
Zimmerman, Evans and Wilson are Liberals first and foremost. As is true for any other politician, sexuality is just one aspect of the person and the politics of each.
After the July election, there are now three gay Liberal lower-house MPs: the former “freedom commissioner” Tim Wilson, a former head of the National Retail Association, Trevor Evans, and Zimmerman.
After speaking with all three, it is clear they are proud of this achievement. But – perhaps unsurprisingly for a party that claims liberal individualism as one of its bedrocks – they view it as three separate acts by individuals for whom sexuality is only one part of their politics and personal story.
Some of their policy priorities are standard Liberal fare (freedom, small business) but they also have ambitions that extend to issues considered more progressive, including the environment.
Wilson enters parliament with a high national profile from his time at the Institute of Public Affairs and a stint on the Australian Human Rights Commission.
He tells Guardian Australia that sexuality informs his politics but, asked about the core of his political philosophy, he gives a textbook answer about creating a “free society where people can live their lives and pursue opportunities and enterprise”.
Sexuality “encourages a sense of empathy and understanding of difference in society”, Wilson says.
“It has also increased my strong view that society should respect the individual. When people are treated as a collective ... that’s when you get demonisation, stigmatisation and corrosion of individual rights.”
Wilson cites the criminalisation of homosexual acts as an example of the evils of “public collective morality”.
He speaks with equal passion when he says his grandmother would not be able to make sandwiches in her home kitchen for Country Fire Authority volunteers because of food safety laws – the nanny state interfering with nanna.
Evans is a less familiar face, coming from the retailers’ peak body. Before that, he worked as chief of staff to the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.
He puts even less emphasis on sexuality, telling Guardian Australia it plays a “very little” role in his political consciousness and agenda.
“I’m not an activist in any area – I’m very focused on the intricacies of policy, of reform, so I’m not usually a person with an extremely activist bent.”
Zimmerman puts sexuality more front and centre.
In his inaugural speech to parliament, he reflected on his historic election and said Australia had come a long way but discrimination and disadvantage persisted. He cited Australia’s law denying gay people access to marriage and higher rates of depression and suicide among LGBTI people.
Before his speech, some people had advised him that his sexuality was not an issue he needed to reflect upon, he says.
Asked why his colleagues might have told him that, Zimmerman replies: “their message was that I shouldn’t allow myself to be defined by my sexuality”.
“The point I would make is this: it’s part of who I am. I am not in parliament as a gay activist but it is part of who I am. I thought the fact I got there as an openly gay person was worth celebrating.”
Zimmerman says sexuality “doesn’t define me in terms of my approach to politics – but you have a heightened sense of equality and fairness, particularly growing up at a time that change is happening but it is still hard to come out and identify as gay”.
He says that to avoid being stereotyped, gay politicians have to show they are “there for a whole broad range of policies, including economic governance and other social issues”.
How did this trio arrive in politics in general and the Liberal party in particular?
Wilson was attracted to the Liberal party at the age of 18 because of the Kennett government’s efforts to “liberalise the state away from the power of bureaucratic control and the union movement”.
For Evans, it was his family’s background as retailers and shopkeepers that taught him “the value of hard work, reward for effort, jobs and prosperity”.
In his inaugural speech, Zimmerman said he did work experience in year 10 with the then opposition leader, Nick Greiner.
He tells Guardian Australia he identified with the Liberals because of “the values of liberalism, the focus on the individual, freedom, and equality of opportunity”, although he says he was more conservative in his teens.
A defining issue for all members of the Turnbull government – gay or straight – will be the marriage equality plebiscite, expected in late 2016 or early 2017.
Wilson says the plebiscite was “not my first preference but it’s the only way to get it done and dealt with in this parliament”. Same-sex marriage has “distracted the country for too long”, he adds.
Evans says the plebiscite will be the way the social reform is achieved, and that the divisive or offensive public debate feared by opponents will surround a parliamentary vote as well.
Zimmerman says he would have advocated for a free parliamentary vote in the Coalition party room but was “relatively relaxed about the plebiscite as a second option”.
“I have no doubt that comments made during the plebiscite will be undesirable, and hurtful in some cases.
“What public figures participating in the debate see on the Twittersphere and Facebook can be horrendous, people hiding behind the anonymity that social media provides.”
But he agrees with Evans that such material would precede a parliamentary vote and the most important thing is that those leading the yes and no cases do so with respect.
I ask whether the trio’s new constituents are aware of their small part in sending a record number of gay MPs to Canberra.
Evans says he can count on one hand the number of times sexuality has been raised on the campaign trail. That is despite his opponent, Labor’s Pat O’Neill, also being gay, a fact noted in profiles of the contest for Brisbane.
Wilson says some voters counted his sexuality as a positive, some as a negative. The latter gave him a spray at train stations but he “wished them a good day and count it as a privilege that I’ll be in the last generation that has to put up with that”.
Zimmerman says he had positive and negative reactions but the majority were positive.
“Before my election, there was a perception it would be difficult for a gay MP to stand for a lower-house seat, because there could be backlash,” he says. “What excited me about my election is breaking through that, showing it need not be a barrier.”
Wilson says the trio’s election is a sign the Liberals are a “party that represents the whole of Australia, not just minority groups”.
“Every person who got there got there on merit, not because of quotas, or a decree from the leader due to perceived political advantage to hold them up as a standard bearer.”
Similarly, Evans says “my sexuality has not come up as an issue for me through the preselection, or my involvement in politics beforehand”.
He says preselection and election of the three “just reinforces what I said earlier – about the sexuality of candidates not being an issue, not in the Liberal party”.
In terms of what they want to achieve in parliament, Wilson has an ambition “to deal with areas that Liberals have struggled with like health and the environment”.
“People need to see their lives lived through our values. I want to follow through with a social and environmental narrative that takes society forward together rather than feeding vested interests.”
When pushed for details, he says he won’t be giving spoilers for his inaugural speech in parliament.
Zimmerman says his policy priorities are innovation, looking at the role of the federal government in the development of cities and his “strong interest” in the environment.
“We have an intergenerational responsibility – to hand the planet on in better shape than we inherited it. My belief in that arises from my liberal values and from my time as an adviser in the environmental portfolio to John Howard.”
Evans says his priorities are small business, jobs and economic opportunity – concepts very familiar after an eight-week election campaign that focused on the government’s proposed $48bn tax cut.
“I suppose I see what I can offer locally in Brisbane as a style of representation, because I’ve worked on the fringes of politics a few times and I know what makes a good or bad representative,” he says. “It’s about being accessible, visible, responsive and thoughtful.”
Evans expects to campaign actively for the marriage equality yes case and promises to “step in and intervene if some of the public debate crosses the line ... in terms of personal attacks or inappropriate language”.
Wilson says he is willing to pitch in as well, but he’ll first take counsel from the yes campaign about whether that will be helpful.
He is proud of having advocated gay marriage for some time, before Bill Shorten was in favour of it and while Penny Wong was bound to Labor’s position.
But, going forward, he is eager not to be pigeonholed as a gay MP. “I am interested in the whole of society, including issues that affect gay and lesbian people.”
He says he wants to “take society forward together, not just as a voice for a particular interest group”.
“I’m not keen on fostering that image of exclusive interest in gay issues, because then journalists only ever want to talk to me about those issues, and after a while the public thinks that’s the only thing you’re interested in.”
Zimmerman noted in his first parliamentary speech that coming out remained hard for many people.
That is the double standard faced by LGBTI youth, that they have to decide and declare their identity, where their heterosexual peers do not.
For gay politicians, it seems the standard they must meet is to show they are interested in the issues of more than one section of the community.
Zimmerman, Evans and Wilson are Liberals first and foremost. As is true for any other politician, sexuality is just one aspect of the person and the politics of each.
Source: theguardian
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