DAME CAROL: PEACE

I was saddened to hear that Dame Carol was no longer the Minister for Community Development. She had done so much to lift the Department over the last 9 years.

The issue of the decriminalizing of gay and lesbian sex and sex workers became quite heated over the last year. There was considerable communication too and fro on e-mail. The facts can become a little less balanced than normal.

But Dame Carol put a detailed explanation of Jackson’s blog PNG Attitude which is reproduced below. Dame Carol explained that there was no legislation to come on the issue but a consultation process.

The matter continued to raise anger among the churches. None could be sure that there was indeed a consultation process as the word legislation continued to surface.

Other people used the term legislation. Sir Peter Barter announced in the media only two months ago that he would end his time as Chairman of the National AIDS Council and hoped the legislation would be passed in the next session of parliament.

The community was confused and could be forgiven for feeling that there was a little sleight of hand involved. First we have a consultation process that is suddenly a fait accompli legislation.

There were reports on Google linking Sir Peter Barter and Dame Carol in supporting the gay and lesbian lifestyle. But I regard her report below as truthful and an accurate representation of the state of play from her viewpoint as of 10 months ago. Supporters of the legislation implicated her more than was proper.

The Monpi Suite: The decriminalisation of Prostitution and ...

7 Apr 2011 ... Dame Carol Kidu and Sir Peter Barter have proposed to ....
to convince the world that gay and lesbian-lifestyle is an alternate way of life, ...
themonpisuite.blogspot.com/.../decriminalisation-of-prostitution-and.html
- Cached - Similar

Even the headline to her PNG Attitude report is misleading in the statement “PNG considering same sex acts in private”. It was doing nothing of the sort.

Dame Carol was considering the statements made by AIDS Holistics only within the context of her term of office. She was not in a position to postulate on what could happen in PNG once a gay and lesbian sex and sex worker bill had been passed.

AIDS Holistics as an organization banned by AusAID gays and lesbians in 2002, had no such qualms. We took the view then and still maintain that this is the thin edge of the wedge.

Once decriminalization of homosexual sex was enacted, this would lead to legalization of same sex relations  – in the same week. This would lead to same sex marriage and adoption of children. Dame Carol could not comment on this and did not.

We are also very much aware of the discrimination and dirty tricks of the Australian gay and lesbian advisors in promoting rights and no responsibilities for children and the right of association of children.

But AIDS Holistics was well aware of the game plan of the AusAID and UN lesbians in taking control of women, boys and girls through the Department for Community Development. We have taken it upon ourselves to educate the community on the direction of the foreign advisors in the next decade or more.

We wish Dame Carol all the best in the future.

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PNG considering same sex acts in private

Dame Carol Kidu - Minister for Community Development  2002-2011

THE COMMUNITY Development and Attorney-General’s departments will begin the review of the colonial Marriage Act, and work already done on the Domestic Violence Report of the early 1980s, to prepare a Marriage and Family Protection Bill before the end of this term of Parliament.

It will be a complex task with broad terms of reference and will aim to include legal or alternative dispute resolution avenues to protect people from marriage customs that worked in traditional society but are now being abused.

Recognising that official (registered) marriage in PNG is based on a heterosexual relationship is implicit in the Schedules of the present Marriage Act and there is no intention to change that in any way.

Nor would any change to that be accepted during the consultation process for the preparation of the Bill because the churches will be a major stakeholder in consultations.

The National Executive Council reference to the Law Reform Commission, that I have led, concerns issues of adult consensual sexual behaviour in private. It has nothing to do with same sex marriage and/or adoption.

Our present laws on same sex relationships are 1800’s British laws and quite frankly they are archaic, draconian laws that are rarely used by police but have in the past been significantly abused.

It would be irresponsible for me as a legislator to ignore these matters just because they make people uncomfortable on what they judge from moral high ground – a ground that is certainly not Christ-like and not the ground of many practising Christians.

In fact a statement has been made from the Vatican supporting the move to decriminalise same sex behaviour.

In 2002 I steered through major reforms concerning non-consensual sexual behaviour (particularly the legislation) and also protection against child sexual exploitation (under 18 years).

The two areas still being worked on by the Attorney-General’s Department are trafficking and sex tourism. These had to be left out of the 2002 reforms because I ran out of time as a Private Member’s Bill before I was a Minister (the passage of the reform was in March 2002 just before the elections).

Commentators like Bruce Copeland should get their facts right as they relate to legal reform that I am working on with the normal consultative process. Wrong information does not help that consultation process but misinforms people.

Dame Carol Kidu is Minister for Community Development and Women in the PNG Government. She is the only female in the national parliament