Comments on: Coalition delays action on LGBTI school discrimination until 2019

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 22:11:25 +0000

In reply to ben. Hi Ben, I'm a Labor supporter, I personally attended Penny's 30th birthday years before she was a Senator so I'm certainly pro-Penny. But the ALP's stunt on this issue is about embarrassing the Libs and in so doing it does nothing for gay teachers in religious schools, it cements them as second-class citizens, not cool. I'm not a Greens voter, I really dislike the Greens' approach but credit where it's due, they're the only folks standing up for genuine equal rights on this issue right now.

By: Robert McCormick

Robert McCormick — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 22:44:45 +0000

Of course Morrison is deferring any decision. What did anyone really expect? Morrison is a member of one of those ultra-conservative, homophobic Pentecostal-style church. Though unlikely , even if, privately, he does not believe schools should have the right to discriminate against our GLBTIQ Community he hasn’t the guts nor the honesty to come out and say so. There are far too many votes at stake and as Morrison knows only too well he is in desperate need of as many votes as possible to stay in office. This is just typical Tony Abbott-style prevarication. Abbott never wanted Same Gender Marriage to become a reality so what did he do? He proposed that his Dishonest Plebiscite knowing full well that even if it had received a 100% Vote in Favour he could, and would, have just ignored it as Plebiscites are not binding on any Government. At least Turnbull kept his word about giving us Equality if his Postal Vote got enough “Yes” votes.
Morrison is just Abbott and all the other homophobic MPs and Senators in the Federal Parliament and that include a huge number of ALP ones as well as Coalition..

By: Jade Wren

Jade Wren — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 22:02:22 +0000

It’s time for a comprehensive Human Rights Act in Australia to enshrine the equal rights of all rather than using individual pieces of legislation to address each issue of inequality and discrimination.

By: ben

ben — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 21:46:58 +0000

In reply to Dave.

@Dave – you claim the Greens are somehow “doing the best job by far” – but 2018 ends without any protections for LGBTI students or teachers.

I’d rather win with Labor’s Penny Wong than yell with the Green’s from the sideline. Winning nothing is never better than winning something.

Labor’s proposal would see LGBTI students protected now – and then, in the first fortnight of 2019’s parliament, another Labor bill to protect teachers.

Had two independent Senators sided with Penny Wong, LGBTI students would be protected now and in two months, teachers.

By: Dave Willis

Dave Willis — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 07:22:42 +0000

The Fair Work Act provides faith based organisations the same discriminatory employment exemptions as the Anti-Discrimination Act. Will a Supreme Court Challenge be necessary when changes to Anti-Discrimination legislation are made or will these Fair Work Act exemptions no longer apply?

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 06:11:01 +0000

Nobody is covering themselves in glory here, I must admit the Greens are doing the best job by far.

On the one hand Labor’s bill is a stunt to divide the Liberal Party. Now that’s not always terrible but in this case it throws gay teachers at religious schools under a bus, and in so doing it maintains the legislative reality that gay people can still be regarded as second class citizens. So I’d have preferred Labor to do nothing rather than this stunt on this occasion, it would be much more principled.

But the Libs are just making it all worse. Senator Cash’s claim that “Labor’s bill completely removes the ability of religious educational institutions to maintain their ethos through what they teach and the rules of conduct they impose on students” is a disaster. The bill only refers to gay students. Ergo, Cash is convinced that the ONLY religious freedom anyone wants is to pick on the gays. “Ethos” usually means a broad range of requirements, but not to Cash and the Libs, it only means “kicking out gays”. Because it sure as fuck doesn’t let them kick anybody else out, no one is disputing that.

Even conservative Christians who hate gay people would mostly be offended by this. They also hate Muslims and atheists and communists and Greens voters and pregnant teens and sometimes hate adulterers and blasphemers and feminists and a host of other sinners. For all their trouble to keep their schools and societies clean from troublemakers, the only “ethos” the Libs will permit them is gay bashing, they have no respect for anybody’s actual ethos.