Equal Opportunities wind back fails
Attempts to widen religious exemptions in Victoria鈥檚 Equal Opportunity Act have failed in the Legislative Assembly after the Ballieu Liberal Government鈥檚 Minister for Mental Health, Mary Wooldridge, missed the vote.
Wooldridge’s absence denied the government a crucial vote in passing the legislation which meant the vote in the Assembly tied 43-43 and therefore lost.
今日吃瓜 that the bill had failed broke on twitter around 4.30pm today and were confirmed by MPs tweeting from inside the Parliament.
Victorian Opposition leader Daniel Andrews tweeted, 鈥渢his is a victory for fairness. We stuck to our principles and this Bill has been justly defeated,鈥� while Western Victoria Region MP Jaala Pulford tweeted, 鈥淗appy day. Victoria’s equal opportunity laws have survived a nasty assault by the Baillieu Ryan government.鈥�
The official Victorian Labor twitter channel tweeted, 鈥淭he Baillieu Government’s attempt to wind back the clock on equal opportunity has been voted down in the Assembly!鈥�
The Labor Member for Bendigo West, Maree Edwards tweeted, “So proud to be a member of Labor and to stand up for equal opp for all. A great united team and historic win on floor of House tonight.”
Labor MLC Martin Pakula tweeted, 鈥淢ary Wooldridge takes dithering to new heights. Epic defeat for a Government descending into chaos.鈥�
The Star Observer understands that following the vote the Leader of the House and Government Whip were summoned to the Office of Premier Ted Baillieu.
Wooldridge has reportedly released a statement saying she supported the wind back of protections in the Equal Opportunities Act and is “embarrassed” she missed the vote, but will provide an explanation to the House as soon as possible.
A Victorian Government has not lost a vote in the Legislative Assembly in 30 years.
Given the last Liberal Premier of Victoria, said employing someone who is gay is like employing a child sex offender, I guess this new Liberal Premier thought sacking thousands of GLBTI people was no big deal.
We’re trying to stop the Baillieu Government winding back the clock on equal opportunity in Victoria.
The Government is trying to make it lawful for some organisations to deny someone a job on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status or gender identity.
Join our campaign here: and here .
I am a Liberal/National supporter, I am not a bigot, or a traitor or sleeping with the enemy. People who criticize Lib/Nats should also look at their history. It was the Hughes Government, a Labor Government which introduced the White Australia policy. Harold Holt, a Liberal Prime Minister was the first PM to start to dismantle the White Australia Policy. While I do not agree with some Lib/Nat policies, there are many Labor/Greens policies I do agree with either. For what it’s worth, I have not noticed our Federal Labor PM doing anything to give us recognition.
It is viscous and abhorrent to say to people who are sacked due to their sexuality, you should become a Liberal party member. This is the party that had them sacked for existing. What the hell will these people do to pay their mortgages? Who is going to make the call to the bank? Not the bloody Liberal/National party! It is cold comfort to say the Liberal/National Party gave money to the mental health of others while fucking you and your family over, while trying to destroy you and everything you worked hard for. You can say what you like about the Greens and Victorian Labor, but they were not the filthy bastards trying to have people like us sacked.
Selecting people for jobs on the basis of faith, and not ability, and banning Same-Sex attracted people from thousands of government funded jobs, is economic vandalism. Knifing some of the best people in our community is an act of twisted depravity.
The evil bill we be put before parliament again, and Christian crazy’s will lay on their terror with missionary zeal. That’s when real Christian people will say STOP to them.
I’m moving to Canada.. this country is officially f****d. What is wrong with people? Equal rights and fairness for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, religion or culture, or no rights for anyone. I wish ‘judgement day’ would come so all of the right-wing ‘religious’ bigots with their pea-brains in their scrotums and heads on backwards, could finally be sent to the hell they created. God would certainly leave the rest of us to live in peace, harmony and love!
Arh, this will only inspire them to re-introduce the bill into the same parliament and try again.
It has only met a minor hickup in the process.
It has only been stopped because an MP did not hear the bells which call you to parliament. Not because the bill had ‘lack of support’.
At the worst, it will only hurt your emplyment opportunities in places where ‘if I where gay, I would not want to be working in anyhow.’
Well, oh gosh, nothing like a bit of stereotyping here. Talk about falling to the level of our oppressors.
This very slow step forward was little more than a cynical ploy by Labor to attract our vote prior to an imminent loss. The original intent was lost with Hulls did a back room job with the Catholics.
What did Brachs do for us: NOTHING!. What did Brumby do for us: Tectonic drift moved faster than reform. In case you did not know, Baillieu just allocated us four million dollars for mental health.
Had a look at Abib and Shorten lately, she is Julia Gillard by an other name. Sarah Hanson-Young in charge of the economy; hell lets make bee-line for Portugal – if it were not so tragic it would be a JOKE!
Sure, the big parties are diverse in membership, but in both we can choose to participate and attempt to make difference. Gay and Lesbian identity really has to elevate itself above political partisan politics for long term efficacy. Fruit-loops associated with dominant voice of the religious right afflict both parties.
I thank Victorian Labor and the Greens, for standing in front of us, and blocking Ted Ballieu, from knifing people who are Same-Sex attracted.
Billions of tax payer dollars are given to religious groups to run many essential government services. This covers disability services, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, community outreach services, Services for children, foster agencies, hospitals, juvenile justice services and many more. The hate legislation put up by all in the Liberal/National Party, will result in thousands of people getting the sack, or getting bullied at work, simply because of their sexuality.
Under the changes, people who have worked long and hard, putting in countless hours of unpaid community work, would be demanded to leave their work right away. Many of these people have mortgages, children, a partner to look after, and are an important part of the fabric of our society. They are what makes Australia a great place.
Not one member of the Liberal/National Party stood up for any community worker, not one of them stood up for those who shower you when you cannot shower yourself, not one Liberal/National Party member stood up for these good people, who feed you when you cannot feed yourself.
Our best days are yet come as a community. But we will stand together and hold the Liberal/National Party to account for their crimes against humanity, for the crimes against the Civil Rights of all of us to work freely.
Wait till the NSW Attorney General Greg Smith gets his “on a mission from god” teeth into us…and the subsequent dithering from openly gay Liberal member of parliament Bruce Notley Smith.
it doesn’t sound like much of a win, if she had been there it sounds like the legislation would have passed, although just scraping in. It is a sobering reminder how whatever gains we make for justice in community are tenuous and can be removed at a government’s whim. Reminds me of quote “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”. See you in the struggle!
The Victorian bill was bad and it is awful that it was put up. However, DGrace, to take your attitude flies in the face of the reality that if it weren’t for a large number of Lib & Nat MPs, the recent adoption laws would not have passed in NSW, not to mention age of consent a decade ago, or the original decriminalisation of homosexuality in the 80s. If we don’t build cross party support for glbt reforms, they do not get up.
It is a appropriate this is bill was defeated by incompetence – It should never have been presented in the first place. It is the thin end of the wedge to impose in Sharia law on Victoria’s Muslims. What is next – exemptions to the Crimes Act to allow Muslim husbands to beat their wives for refusing sex, as it demands in the Koran?
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The failure of Victorian Liberal/National Party, to pass changes to the Equal Opportunity Act, that would result in us being sacked from work for existing, is brilliant news for all Victorians.
The target of this terror was the good people who help you when you are to sick. Those who work with homeless people, those who help people with a disability.
The Liberal/National Party sought to bankrupt these good people.
On the Yellow Brick Road of Equality, we have seen the Lion without a heart. We have seen it all. Good can triumph over Evil. Ted Baillieu is on the side of history of those who wanted to keep the White Australia Policy. In another time he would of shot people, now he makes laws of hate, laws of intolerance, laws that abolish your Civil Rights to live as freely as the next person. In this latest battle he has tried to remove your Civil Rights and lost.
I do not agree the Libs are homophobic, this is mistaken thinking on the part of most gay men and women
Where’s the no vote from our mp for prahran. Not so gay friendly now eh clem?
The Lib/Nats are a racist and homophobic bunch. They hate us and any gay person who votes for them, let alone JOINS this vile party, is sleeping with the enemy. Their failure to widen religious exemptions is a brilliant outcome for FAIRNESS.