Jenny Leong speaks on Sydney world pride

On behalf of The Greens, I contribute to this public interest debate and thank the member for Sydney for bringing it to this House. We were trying to remember when the first motion congratulating Sydney WorldPride on its success came to this Chamber. It was won and delivered to our shores, and it is wonderful to celebrate its success. I acknowledge the incredible team from Sydney WorldPride, who are in the gallery. It is so wonderful to have them here with us to celebrate.

I was thinking about how we even start talking about the mammoth, massive thing that occurred, and to me the moment when Danni joined Kylie on stage at the opening concert at The Domain captures the absolute heart and feeling of Sydney. The level of emotion was so huge because there was a feeling of absolute recognition, a sense of history—of what it meant and how far the LGBTIQ+ community had come—and a collective sigh of relief within the crowd. There was something wonderfully mainstream, hilariously eighties-historical, current, global and all connected. There was a feeling in that moment that captured what Sydney WorldPride brought to this city but also the mammoth significance of the challenge ahead to deliver on that promise for the next generation, whatever that looks like.

I acknowledge my Greens colleagues the member for Ballina, who is in the Chamber; and the member for Balmain, who had to leave the Chamber for a minute. It was wonderful to join in a Greens gang and walk the streets across the Harbour Bridge. The Greens love walking or marching on the street; we love it when a road closes for people to take to the streets. We were in our absolute element with the bridge closed and everybody marching across with their rainbow flags flying, so we were very pleased about that.

The member for Coogee mentioned the wonderful reception at Government House, which brought together speakers from the human rights conference and representatives and key leaders from across the community. I am keen to capture on the record the special moment when I was joined by one of the wonderful Greens 78ers, Ray Goodlass, who has been a representative for a long time and lives in Wagga. He and Peter de Waal were standing there talking to the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, and international guests were also introducing themselves. That is the respect that elders from the LGBTIQ+ community should be given. Seeing them being given pride of place at that reception to listen to the speech, being celebrated and acknowledged and connecting regional Wagga to the world captured something really significant.

There are so many people we could thank. Other members have listed the names, so I will not do it, but I know that it was a hard slog. Doing that kind of thing is not easy, and I am sure everybody needs lots of time to regroup, to process and to navigate all of this. It was a massive success not just as an LGBTI event but also as a huge event for Sydney, for New South Wales and for Australia. I thank the member for Sydney for acknowledging the contribution that WorldPride made to the region and for respecting First Nations justice and First Nations voices in his motion.

Finally, I challenge all of us. The member for Sydney knows all too well that the ongoing discrimination against, hate for and vilification of the LGBTI community continues. I spoke at the flag raising about the impact that WorldPride will have on young people in our community. The member for Sydney, all of Sydney WorldPride and all of us have the power to fly the rainbow flag with pride so that young trans, gender-diverse, gender‑questioning and queer young people in our communities who may not be supported know that we are here for them and are fighting in the struggle for them. I give our commitment in this Chamber to never accept the kind of discrimination and hurt that we have seen. I congratulate all of the Sydney WorldPride team for a massive gig.