Caitlin Perry, part of the law reform campaign group that removed much NT discrimination against LGBTQI in the early 2000s, participated in a recent panel discussion of successful law reform campaigns in the NT.

As a panelist, Caitlin gave an overview of the campaign which was initiated by the bashing of a gay man in Darwin, and the appalling response by police. Working for the Darwin Community Legal Service (DCLS), Caitlin, DCLS and the LGBTQI community decided that a response needed to be systematic, and had to target the inequality under the law.

Cailtin recounted that the campaign was challenging for all involved, including those who did not identify as lgbtqi. Some involved went through a process: “will people think I’m gay if I am involved in this campaign?” which progressed to “so what if people do?”. And when the campaigners were assumed to be not heterosexual and experienced large and small discrimination as a result, their resolve to make the campaign succeed continued.

Much of the discrimination was removed, but there is still ongoing discrimination in the NT.

The other panelists on the night included speakers from DASSAN, Making Justice work, and the RU486 campaign. Some key aspects of successful and continuing law reform campaigns in the NT were outlined by panelists:

• The importance and benefits of talking to people, getting the community on board with the message and objectives of the campaign. Talking to people outside of your supporters is essential
• Using real people’s stories, where consented to, to illustrate the injustices facing those impacted by unequal laws
• Form alliances, holy and unholy
• Talk to your opposition
• “Have some bomb throwers outside the tent”. If you want to seem appealing to conservative elements who you need to convince to support your objectives it is helpful to have a more radical element that the conservative element do not want to deal with. This makes you seem more reasonable
• Be strategic with the timing of the campaign activities
• Know when to campaign quietly and when to campaign loudly
• Be prepared for a long campaign
• Look for opportunities to advance an argument/make a policy or law change where you may not expect it
• Be politically savvy, politics is not about evidence based law making, politicians are very sensitive to their voters.
• Targeted letter campaigns from key electorates can be very influential in the NT
• Activism and support from people who are not usually part of law reform “the usual suspects” is very important.

The panel discussion was organised by the Community Legal Education network of the NT.