Article in the Herald 24/4/07

[Nobbsy]

I was reading the SMH this morning and I stumbled across an article about a gay man who was trying to claim a war widow's pension from the the government, which I think is entirely reasonable given the role of caring for a veteran that me provided. However upon reading further into the article I discovered something rather amusing.


"We knew when we began the inquiry there were an number of discriminatory laws, but I was suprised there were so many."
The inquiry heard that gay couples were not entitled to the same superannuation as heterosexual couples. They were not eligible for carer's leave, compassionate leave, the child-care rebate or the baby bonus.

Now I am all for gay people being treated fairly and tolerantly in Australian society...but the BABY BONUS?!?

[IcemaN]

ROFL! at baby bonus HAHAHA
george bush must have suggested that one to jonny haha

[Mike.V?!]

Why shouldn't gay couples be entitled to the baby bonus?

[van]

Ah Nobbsy... "Gay couples" includes gay female couples. You realise this, right? If a gay female couple wish to arrange for a donor to provide sperm so that they can have a baby, I imagine they'd be appreciating the same privileges as the rest of us.

[Tazz]

yeah good point van.. it's not completely unheard of having a child brought up by a gay couple

[Buddy]

i see it chris.. dont worry

[Hens]

cant gay couples adopt a baby.
then they may be eligible for baby bonus

wtf is compassionate [email protected]

[van]

I'm not sure on what the law says, but generally you can't adopt a baby unless you're very secure financially, so I dunno if many adopters would even need the baby bonus. Still, that doesn't really answer whether an adopter is entitled to the baby bonus or not heh.

Compassionate leave is when, say, your partner dies and you need some time off work to deal with the loss.

[Nobbsy]

I do realise that it is possible for gay couples to have children, it just sounds pretty funny before you think about it too hard.