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– Federal Parliament has passed Australia’s own version of Magnitsky Laws, which allows for targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for human rights violations. Emma Hoy spoke with one of the bill’s key supporters, Federal Greens Senator Janet Rice about the legislation, along with Nic Holas from the Victorian Pride Lobby about how they’d like the new legislation used to target abusers of queer people around the world.

– The Federal Coalition is pushing new legislation pitched as an anti-trolling bill. However, many have critiqued the legislation as doing little to stem trolling, instead they say, stifling free speech by making it easier for defamation lawsuits to be launched along with being a further erosion of online privacy. Pearl Cardis investigates.

– Discussions of the religious discrimination bill being pushed by the federal coalition often frames religiosity and queerness as mutually exclusive. That’s of course far from the case. There are many people of faith that are at risk of being impacted by the legislation. James Pembroke has spoken with several of them.

This is our final episode for 2021 and the last for Executive Producer Gavin Height at the helm. A massive thank you to all the hard work of The Informer team this year – Ryan Sambell, James Pembroke, Pearl Cardis, Emma Hoy, Hailey Pham, Chloe Macmillan, Shannon Colee, Dom Hennequian, Jack Cranjin, and Yuan Zhong. And thanks to you, our listeners, for tuning in. Have a great summer!

 

– World AIDS Day is 1 Dec so we look back at two stories from this season. One looks at exciting new research being undertaken in Melbourne into a potential cure for HIV, while in the other, we look into the concerning rising HIV infection rates in Indonesia.

– Continuing our retrospective – back in August when Australia pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan, unlike other western countries it refused to take in more refugees. Months later the Australian Gov has still not changed its policy, despite wide-ranging criticism. We spoke with Dennis Altman at the time who wrote an open letter to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne.

– The federal government has tabled its long-awaited Religious Discrimination Bill. The legislation would weaken some existing protections for LGBTQIA+ Australians and has been roundly condemned by queer advocates, among others. We speak to Equality Australia about what this legislation means for the community.

– Melbourne Queer Film Festival has been rocked by a boycott campaign after it refused to withdraw Israeli film The Swimmer from its program. Boycott organisers say the film, and allowing it to be aired, is pinkwashing, while MQFF says it has a duty to support a diverse range of filmmakers. We speak to both the campaign organisers and MQFF to find out what’s going on.

– New research by Vic Pride Lobby finds the vast majority of queer Victorians surveyed don’t trust or feel safe around police. We speak with Nic Holas of the Lobby about the findings, some of the impacts that the lack of trust can lead to, and what the police can do to improve their relationship with our communities.

– Victoria’s new LGBTIQ Commissioner, Todd Fernando, sat down with us to chat about how he came to the role, the work he’s been undertaking, the issues he sees our communities are facing, and the importance of supporting and fostering regional queer communities.

 

– The Victorian state government has proposed changes banning deferrable medical interventions on intersex children until they are able to consent. The changes have been welcomed after years of campaigning by intersex advocates who highlight the mental and physical damage that can be done by interventions. We speak with a paediatric surgeon about how the system currently operates.

– Recently in Bulgaria’s capital, Sophia, a far-right mob led by a presidential nominee attacked a queer community centre holding an event for trans people and issues. What happened in the attack and how more broadly, how is the situation for sexual and gender minorities in Bulgaria? We spoke with a community leader at the community centre when it was attacked to find out.

– The board of Sydney Mardi Gras has proposed changes to its constitution that would mean a significant portion of the board is appointed by other board members, not elected by the organisation’s members. The motion will be put to a vote at an upcoming general meeting. Some in the organisation are critical of the proposal, namely the activist group, Pride in Protest.

– As Victoria comes out of what is hopefully its last significant lockdown, the usually vibrant arts scene is coming out of an 18+ month shutdown. We speak with some performance artists about how they’ve coped, what it’s like coming out of such a long shutdown, and what we as a community can potentially learn from how we adapted and changed to deal with restrictions.