Michael Kirby slams government for not releasing religious freedom review
Former High Court Justice Michael Kirby has called out the government’s failure to release Philip Ruddock’s religious freedom review.
Kirby also responded to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments about young LGBTI people in an interview on the ABC’s Radio National,聽.
Kirby noted that his “skin curled – a very vivid metaphor – when he heard that children in public schools were being educated聽in terms of respecting people of diverse sexuality.”
“If it鈥檚 being taught in public schools it鈥檚 simply telling children what they probably know already anyway, that there are LGBTIQ people in their midst,” Kirby said.
“If private and religious schools are not telling them that, then they鈥檙e letting them down in terms of their duty to look after all children in their care 鈥� especially if they鈥檙e receiving public money.”
Kirby said that sexual and gender diversity was just “part of our nature.”
He said it was聽鈥渦nusual in our information hungry society鈥� that the report had not yet been released after five months, and that the lack of transparency suggests its recommendations .
Kirby suggested that secular members of society are wary “that something has been cooked-up” and that .”
“It hasn鈥檛 been released up to now – now that鈥檚 a long time in聽Australian politics, we鈥檝e lost another prime minister in that time – and therefore the mind gets a bit suspicious, I鈥檓 afraid.”
The retired judge said the school chaplain program that “invades public schools” and the recent increase in government funding for Catholic and independent schools meant people’s concerns were justified.
“When religion enters the marketplace, when it鈥檚 involved in providing education, healthcare, aged care, then they鈥檝e just got to comply with the principles of openness 鈥� secular principles 鈥� to respect people of religion and of no religion,” he said.
Independent candidate for Wentworth Kerryn Phelps has also called on the government to release the findings of the review before the October 20 by-election.
LGBTI rights campaigner Rodney Croome has .
“For politicians like Morrison, who campaigned against marriage equality and continues to advocate for 鈥渞eligious freedom鈥� (and against 鈥済ender whisperers鈥�), it鈥檚 a way to keep the postal survey No case alive,” Croome wrote for the聽Star Observer.
“The question for LGBTI Australians and human rights defenders, is how can we stop history from repeating itself?”
Private and religious (joined and separately) are the plague of Australia. Like in most socially advanced European countries, education should be public, free and secular from pre-school to tertiary.
ScoMo’s religious attitude is akin to ex PM Abbott’s catholithism. Both are religious homophobes who promote an uncaring god.
If there is such a deity, which is man’s invention, why did it cause so much death and destruction in Sulawesi recently ?
No religious nutter ever asks that question !
The truth is.. there is no god, which is so clearly indicated when he NEVER lifts a finger to help mankind.
Justice Kirby asks ScoMo to release the report and settle or explain the reasons why so much money and restriction is given to religious institutions !
It’s way more than they deserve. They do not educate children in all aspect of our humanity, so why should they be allocated any money ?
How fortunate we are to have such a distinguished, eminently qualified person to speak for us as he does. Michael Kirby has to be one of the greatest assets the gay community has. The haters and even those on the ultra right know better than to speak against him or anything he says because they know his experience and authority far outweigh anything they can dish out.
It was a very good interview. Kirby’s very clear perspective was that secularism is a strong and vital feature of our democracy, something we have inherited from Britain where it developed out of the wreckage of Catholic vs Protestant power battles which were otherwise destined never to end.
It’s fascinating to think that the truly conservative position is to be secular. The so-called conservatives who want more religion injected into our lives whether we like it or not are not conservatives at all, they’re reactionaries. Or as I call them fuckwits.