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ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service reports rising number of LGBTQIA+ clients who 'fear for their life' if returned home
Holding hands, a kiss — they're simple and sweet displays of affection. But Sam* doesn't take them for granted. Sam comes from a country where being gay is considered "against the order of nature" and is enough to land them more than a decade in jail. They said it's a place where civilians "take matters into their own hands" and turn their neighbours in, where intimate details of someone's life are shamed in the media. It wasn't until Sam came to Australia as a teenager that they were free to explore their sexuality for the first time — albeit in secret from their parents. "I was more comfortable with just being myself and expressing that part of myself," they said. So, when their family's application for permanent residency was knocked back, and the possibility of returning loomed large, Sam took matters into their own hands. "I was like, 'no, I can't go back, I can't hide myself anymore,'" Sam said. LGBTQIA+ people with a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country based on their gender or sexuality can be considered refugees under Australia's Migration Act. Sam turned to the Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service (TRLS), arguing to the Department of Home Affairs that being gay exposed them to serious harm. Their application for permanent protection was successful. "I felt like a weight was lifted off my back, like I was so relieved," they said. Sixty-seven countries criminalise people for their sexual orientation, with punishments ranging from months behind bars to a life sentence. In some places, it's the death penalty. TRLS principal lawyer Patrick O'Connor said the danger often extended beyond the state, to hostility from families and the community and systemic discrimination in employment, housing, health and education. Mr O'Connor said the service was representing a growing number of clients in similar circumstances to Sam — as were his interstate colleagues — the majority coming to the end of student, work or holiday visas. And he believed there could be many more with legitimate asylum claims — potentially hundreds in Tasmania alone — that hadn't come forward, likely out of fear of retribution or because they didn't understand Australia's domestic law. Mr O'Connor is seeking funding to dedicate a lawyer to this caseload, and to run community workshops around Tasmania providing general legal education to help people understand the law, and make them feel comfortable approaching the service. "There's a lot at stake for the applicant," he said. "Providing legal representation is critical, and is life-changing, and can make all the difference." More community outreach and legal support is something Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania also endorses. But she said it was vital all new arrivals, not just from the LGBTQIA+ community, were taught gender and sexuality discrimination was not tolerated in Australia. "All people who have diverse gender identities and sexual orientations are vulnerable in the community, but for those who are from migrant backgrounds, from refugee backgrounds and from asylum seeker backgrounds, they're extremely vulnerable," she said. "They may be particularly wary of connecting with their cultural community here because they know that their cultural community won't accept them and will discriminate against them. Ms Long said it was vital that services understood how various aspects of someone's identity — including country of origin, race, ethnicity, language, gender and sexuality — intersected and supported LGBTQIA+ migrants accordingly. For Sam, the new-found security has "opened up a whole world of possibilities". *Name has been changed.
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Eileen Bond, ex-wife of controversial Perth businessman Alan Bond, dies aged 87
Eileen Bond, the former wife of controversial West Australian businessman Alan Bond, has died. Ms Bond's family has confirmed to the ABC the 87-year-old died on Wednesday night. Alan and Eileen Bond married in 1955 when they were both 17 and had four children together before divorcing in 1992. The Perth-based pair became a high-profile couple as Mr Bond's fortunes grew. They were together when his sailing team won the America's Cup in 1983, prompting massive national celebrations. But Alan Bond left a mixed legacy, with a very public corporate fall that ended with bankruptcy and a jail term. He died in 2015 after undergoing heart surgery. At the time Ms Bond, who had remained on good terms with her former husband, returned to Perth from London. "We've been in constant contact, but it's a very sad time," she told reporters at the time. John Bond, Eileen's son with Alan, also said at the time his parents had remained close to his mother after their divorce and described the pair as "great soul mates who never broke their connection".
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
Alan Bond's former wife Eileen Bond dies of heart complications
The irrepressible and incomparable Eileen 'Red' Bond has died. The former wife of West Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond, one of the nation's most loved socialites, is said to have passed away after suffering a stroke, her second, in a short period. Bond had been living between homes in Perth and Sydney at the time but died in Perth on Wednesday night. Her age was a national secret but press cuttings suggest she was 85 or 86. Dubbed 'Red' for her famous flame hair, Bond was born Eileen Teresa Hughes in Fremantle, WA, the daughter of a wealthy Irish Catholic family who were the pillars of the church in Fremantle. Her father William was a Perth wool buyer who played football for South Fremantle and became Commissioner of the Fremantle Port Authority. As a teenager she would be swept off her feet by a smitten Alan Bond who she met at a dancing class in 1954 at age 16. By 17 she was pregnant and married. Bond would convert from Church of England to Catholicism for the ceremony. 'My family insisted, but Alan didn't mind, he was very happy to convert …' she would say years later. She and Bond would welcome four children during their marriage: John, Craig, Susanne and Jody. Outside of her family – and her Catholic faith – the famously high-spirited 'Red' loved to travel, party and decorate houses. She once said she could never did anything in moderation. Socialites and social scribes from the nation's west to east coasts loved her for it. 'You have to have either self control or moderation and I certainly haven't the latter,' she once said. 'I can never do anything in moderation. I'll eat and eat then suddenly stop and have next to nothing for eight days in a row.' It was a trait she shared with her husband, a sign-writer who would go on to prosper in property development, later founding the company Bond Corp which also had interests in brewing (Toohey's), and media (Nine), before his name would be writ large in Australian corporate criminal history after he went bankrupt in 1992 with debts totalling $1.8 billion. He was later sentenced to jail for seven years. In the decades prior, Bond had become one of the nation's most famous businessmen whose backing of Australia II to victory in the 1983 America's Cup made him a household name. Through it all his faithful wife had been at his side. She was devastated when the couple's marriage ended as rumours circulated that her much-travelled husband was having an affair with the woman who would become his second wife, Diana Bliss.
