Perhaps most remarkable of all was that this legislation evoked no response from the state's once powerful anti-gay movement and was unanimously supported in both Houses of the Parliament. What a contrast to just a few years ago when anti-gay groups were conducting hateful rallies, the state Liberal Party was exploiting homophobia for electoral gain and some MPs were calling for the death penalty for homosexuality. The bill covers property division, wills, superannuation and workers compensation and unlike the NSW version, Tasmania will also recognise adoption. Green Lower House member, Peg Putt, today introduced a Significant Relationships Bill which gives legal status to a range of personal relationships including same sex relationships. These provisions do not include same-sex partners.
Few schemes recognise same-sex partners.
Many employers provide benefits such as payment of relocation expenses but in most companies, these apply only to heterosexual partners. Both Federal and State compensation law's allow for compensation to dependents if someone dies as a result of a work-related injury. Both use definitions of husband, wife, family etc which exclude same-sex Partners. These acts do not recognise same-sex relationships. It only covers opposite-sex partners.