Showing posts with label right wing politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label right wing politics. Show all posts
Friday 9 November 2018
A salutary lesson for business concerning the dangers of participating in an interim prime minister’s frenetic electioneering…….
Virgin Australia learning the hard way that drinking the Kool-Aid offered by Scott Morrison on the federal election campaign trail is not a wise decision,,,,,,,,,
Sunday Telegraph, 4 November 2018, p.4:
Australia’s heroes —
Defence Force veterans who have selflessly served the nation — will board
aircraft first and be formally acknowledged before take-off in a bid to further
entrench national respect.
The Digger dedication
plan will take place on all Virgin Australia flights and will be
announced today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Taking Mr Morrison’s
plan to provide veterans with a US-style military card that gives discounts on
petrol, food and even weddings a step further, Virgin Australia will
honour former servicemen and women with a priority boarding process, and alert
passengers via a public announcement that heroes are on board.
Both announcements come
as The Sunday Telegraph, News Corp Australia, Foxtel and HarperCollins launched
a joint #thanksforserving campaign to encourage the community to honour those
who served.
Mr Morrison said Virgin chief
executive officer John Borghetti understood why Australians were so proud of
ex-military personnel.
“We acknowledge the
important contribution veterans have made to keeping our country safe and the
role they play in our community,’’ Mr Borghetti said. “Once the veterans have
their cards and lapel pins, they will simply need to present them during the
boarding process.” It will be rolled out when the system of new cards — or
digital ID — starts early next year.
Mr Morrison said the
idea got a “thumbs up” from him.....
AAP Bulletin Wire, 5 November 2018:
The Australia Defence
Association says veterans would prefer Virgin reinstate discount
airfares for ex-service men and women to tokenistic public thanks.
A leading veterans'
group says Virgin's plans to offer ex-service men and women priority
boarding and in-flight thanks "smacks of tokenism".
The US-style idea has
also been derided by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who described it as an
"embarrassing" marketing ploy.
Neil James from the
Australia Defence Association said practical action would be much more welcome
than "tokenistic" public thanks.
"If you really
wanted to thank veterans you'd reinstate the service discount abolished in the
early 1980s," he told AAP.
"Some veterans
would be embarrassed by this - in fact, many would be - and some of them with
psychological conditions, you actually risk making their problem worse."
Mr James said the airline's
idea was a symptom of a deeper problem.
"That is there are
so few Australians now with any understanding of military service and
war," he said.
Virgin Australia, Twitter,
5 November 2018:
We are very mindful of
the response that our announcement about recognising people who have served in
defence has had today. It was a gesture genuinely done to pay respects to those
who have served our country. 1/3
Over the coming months,
we will consult with community groups and our own team members who have served
in defence to determine the best way forward. 2/3
If this process
determines that public acknowledgement of their service through optional
priority boarding or any announcement is not appropriate, then we will
certainly be respectful of that. 3/3
Thursday 8 November 2018
Yet another minister compromises the Morrison Coalition Government
On becoming Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, employing the Trump doctrine of appointing foxes to guard hen houses, retained Northern Territory Nationals Senator Nigel Scullion as Minister for Indigenous Affairs.
A politician with a long history of voting for the oppressive Intervention in the Northern Territory and the introduction of cashless welfare cards into Aboriginal communities, as well as unsuccessfully voting to weaken protections in the Racial Discrimination Act and voting against changing the date of Australia Day.
As far back as 2006 he voted for the the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill which was seen as making significant changes to the existing land rights legislation which has the potential to compromise the rights and interests of Indigenous people living inthe Northern Territory.
This is the result.....
The
Guardian, 2
November 2018:
The Indigenous affairs
minister, Nigel Scullion, has used money earmarked for alleviating Indigenous
disadvantage to fund a fishing industry lobby group he used to chair.
He approved a grant of
$150,000 to the Northern Territory Seafood Council so it could argue
how it would be negatively affected by land claims – claims he opposed during
his time in the role.
Under the NT Land Rights
Act, those who consider a land claim would have a negative impact on their
business or personal interests can argue a “detriment” case about how their
future access to income, land or water would suffer if the claim were approved.
A group of six land
claims in the NT have been held up – some by almost 30 years – by unresolved
detriment issues.
Scullion chaired the
NTSC from 1994 to 2001, and gave statements or appeared in person to argue
detriment in at least two of the claims.
As
minister he approved grants of $150,000 to the NTSC, $170,000 to the
NT Amateur Fishermen’s Association, and $165,000 to the NT Cattlemen’s
Association for “legal fees, effectively … to put forward a case of detriment
to the land commissioner”, as he told a Senate hearing last week.
The money was taken from
the $4.9bn Indigenous advancement strategy, which is supposed to “improve the
way the government does business with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people, to ensure funding actually achieves outcomes” – according to the
government’s website.
Parties who wish to
lodge detriment claims are able to seek financial support from the Attorney
General’s Department.......
This latest revelation follows close on the heels of this disastrous vote in the Senate.
NT News, 22 October 2018:
CALLS for Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion to resign have been graffitied on his Darwin office.
It comes after the Territory Senator voted for a widely-condemned One Nation motion last week declaring “It’s OK to be white”.
The motion, brought forward by Pauline Hanson, also claimed “anti-white” racism was on the rise in Australia.
The phrases have been used by far-right groups to stoke racial division.
Labels:
#MorrisonGovernmentFAIL,
racism,
right wing politics
Wednesday 7 November 2018
Fight, fight!
Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull will be appearing as the only guest on the ABC program at 8pm on Thursday, 8 November 2018.First shots fired in another legacy war? #InsidersExtra #Insiders @barriecassidy #auspol pic.twitter.com/juKW5uqCVE— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) November 1, 2018
Tuesday 6 November 2018
The portfolio trainwrecks Barnaby Joyce caused when he was in the ministry continue
It became obvious even before he lost leadership of the National Party of Australia, stood down as deputy prime minster and went to the government backbenches, that Barnaby Joyce oversaw a corrupt administration of national water resources.
Later it was revealed how he had blocked reform of the live animal export trade.
Now we find his porkbarrelling of the electorate he still holds has led to this.......
ABC
News, 31
October 2018:
Australia's pesticides
assessor is three months late delivering its report that reconsiders a chemical
banned in other countries and linked to brain damage in children.
The report is the
culmination of a 22-year process reviewing the health impacts of chlorpyrifos,
a popular insecticide used in fruit and vegetable farming.
The Australian
Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) had planned to deliver
the report as part of its reconsideration process in September 2017.
However it revised its
work plan and amended the deadline to August 2018.
The organisation is now
saying the report will be released in early 2019.
An APVMA spokesperson
blamed the delay on "the complexity of interpreting scientific
information, particularly the epidemiological data", that is, the extent
of health impacts caused by the chemical.
Within the organisation,
just 15 per cent of chemical reconsiderations were finalised on schedule during
2017-18. The stated goal is 100 per cent.
APVMA has suffered staffing losses due to the 2016
decision by former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce to move the organisation
from Canberra to Armidale, inside Mr Joyce's electorate.
The organisation declined to address whether this had
contributed to the delay.
Monday 5 November 2018
Scott Morrison doesn't know watt's watt
This was the ‘interim’
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
on ABC TV The Drum, 23 September 2018:
SCOTT MORRISON: I want
more dispatchable power in the system.
ALAN JONES: Could you
stop using the word dispatchable? Out there they don’t understand that.
SCOTT MORRISON: Well,
real power, OK?
ALAN JONES: Real power.
SCOTT MORRISON: Well,
fair dinkum power.
So what
exactly is this “dispatchable power” the Prime Minister is talking about
whenever he cites “fair dinkum power” that “works when the sun isn’t shining and the
wind isn’t blowing”.
This is what Energy
Education:has to say on the subject:
Dispatchable source of
electricity
A dispatchable
source of electricity refers to an electrical power system, such as
a power plant, that can be turned on or off; in other
words they can adjust their power output supplied to the electrical grid on
demand.[2] Most
conventional power sources such as coal or natural
gas power plants are dispatchable in order to meet the always changing
electricity demands of the population. In contrast, many renewable energysources are intermittent and non-dispatchable, such
as wind power or solar
power which can only generate electricity while their energy flow is
input on them.
Dispatch times
Dispatchable sources
must be able to ramp up or shut down relatively quickly in time intervals
within a few seconds even up to a couple of hours, depending on the need for
electricity. Different types of power plants have different dispatch times:[3]
Fast (seconds)
Capacitors are
able to dispatch within milliseconds if they need to, due to the energy stored
in them already being electrical, whereas in other types of power storage such
as chemical batteries the power must be converted into electrical energy.
Hydroelectric facilities are also
able to dispatch extremely quickly; for instance the Dinorwig hydro power
station can reach its maximum generation in less than 16 seconds.[4]
Medium (minutes)
Natural
gas turbines are a very common dispatchable source, and they can
generally be ramped up in minutes.
Solar thermal power plants can
utilize systems of efficient thermal energy storage. It is possible to design
these systems to be dispatchable on roughly equivalent timeframes to natural
gas turbines.
Slow (hours)
While these systems are
typically regarded as only providing baseload power, they often have some flexibility.
Many coal and biomass
plants can be fired up from cold within a few hours. Although nuclear power
plants may take a while to get going, they must be able to shut down in seconds
to ensure safety in the case of a meltdown.
What this tells us is that renewable energy can and is used
as “dispatchable power” and often responds faster than coal-fired power.
Battery
storage by way of home battery installations and mega battery
installations such as the Tesla system in South Australia are just two successful
examples of storing renewable power for later use – making it dispatchable
power.
According to the Melbourne
Energy Institute, South
Australia’s new mix of renewables and traditional source of energy is working
well.
What has
become increasingly obvious over the years is that once
renewable energy via wind and solar reaches a reasonable scale it becomes cheaper
than coal and other fossil fuels. That is where Australia is now.
Yet Scott
Morrison apparently doesn’t understand how electricity generation and the
national power grid work – it’s a though he has been asleep for the last
decade. Because he
appears to believe that renewable energy systems have not evolved to meet
market demands.
Therefore, based
on his erroneous views Morrison states he is “going
to force them [electricity wholesalers]
to put more fair dinkum, reliable energy, power, into the system”.
Expensive,
polluting, coal-fired power supplying electricity to Australian homes at maximum cost to ordinary consumers.
Monday 29 October 2018
Scott Morrison's favourite facile sound bites
Australian (interim) Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison speaks like the failed advertising industry executive that he is,
By now his favourite slogans and their meanings are becoming obvious,,,,,,
The New Daily, 21 October 2018:
“We believe in a fair go
for those who have a go.” (Those making money deserve to make more money.)
“We believe that the
best form of welfare is to have a job.” (Welfare should be cut back.)
“We believe it is every
Australian’s duty to make a contribution and not take a contribution.”
(Everyone on social welfare is a bludger – a particularly telling twisting of
John F. Kennedy’s “don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can
do for your country”.)
“And we believe this,
you don’t rise (sic) people up by bringing others down.” (Taxation is bad and
progressive taxation is particularly evil.)
Add to these the following:
"You don't get children off Nauru by putting more children on Nauru through weaker border protection policies," (I will not let the children on Nauru leave to resettle elsewhere with their
families, even though resettlement in third countries is one of the aims of Australia's offshore detention policy)
"[I want] to see how we can get greater investment in what I call 'fair dinkum power'; that’sthe stuff that works when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’tblow." (let’s
ignore the science behind renewable energy and pretend that other OECD countries
haven’t successfully integrated high levels of renewable energy into their
national power grids)
Thursday 25 October 2018
OUR ABC: the fate of public broadcasting is in your hands at the 2019 federal election
Use your vote wisely.......
abc.net.au, 23 October 2018:
Statement by David Anderson, Acting Managing Director of the ABC, to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee
Thank you Senators.
I am appearing today as Acting Managing Director of the ABC. It is a privilege to be in this role, overseeing one of Australia’s most loved and respected cultural institutions.
There is no doubt Senators will have many questions about recent events and strategies. I will do my best to answer them in my acting capacity and from my management position. Accountability is part and parcel of being a national broadcaster.
So too is independence. I have already stressed in my early conversations with employees that the great faith and trust the community invests in the ABC is built on the foundation of independence.
The ABC is funded by government and it is ultimately answerable to the people of Australia. They are the ones who expect us to report without fear or favour, to live up to standards of quality and excellence, to shun commercial and other agendas, to hold the national conversations and to reflect the nation back to itself.
The other absolute I have, as a long-term content manager within the Corporation, is the primacy of content. Across the ABC’s history we have been adept at using technology to improve the ways we bring our programs and services to our audiences.
Even in my time at the national broadcaster, the distribution platforms and channels we use have changed dramatically. They will need to change even more over the next decade as we seek relevance and reach in a challenging digital media landscape.
But it is the content that we carry on those platforms that ultimately matters.
Vibrant new kids’ programs that delight and educate our children;
Agenda-setting journalism that shines a light into dark corners and holds regulators and lawmakers to account;
The rich, direct and often lifesaving conversations we have with our regional and rural audiences;
The insightful work of Radio National;
Our commitment to the promotion and support of cultural endeavours, particularly music, the arts and creative communities;
Colourful dramas like Mystery Road that use local actors, local crews, local locations and local stories to entertain us;
And our ability to unite the nation, whether it be on Australia Day, the approaching Remembrance Day/Armistice celebrations or through our in-depth coverage of the drought;
And this week, of course, the Invictus Games.
It is the distinctive content that makes the ABC unique and a priceless national asset.
While the recent weeks have been testing, I am very proud of the passion and energy shown by our 4000 employees. They have not been distracted. They remain committed to serving Australians.
As the Acting Managing Director, my early objective has been to work with the Board, bring stability to the organisation, demonstrate leadership and to press for the resourcing we need to deliver the Charter remit and the services the community expects.
I note there has been a lot of talk recently about ABC budgets and future demands. I would like to bring these facts to the table:
20 per cent of the ABC Budget is actually fixed costs for transmission – the infrastructure that delivers our programs to audiences across the nation.
The $84 million efficiency cut over three years comes on top of the 2014 decision to cut the ABC budget by $250 million over five years. The cumulative impact of these measures is a significant reduction in our operating budget at a time when we are facing rising costs of production and the need to increase our investment in digital products.
We have been given no certainty about the future of funding for a program that directly employs 81 journalists, including specialist reporters and outer suburban bureaus such as Geelong, Parramatta and Ipswich.
As a long-serving content manager and leader, I can personally attest to the financial pressures affecting the Corporation. I can vouch for the efforts of management to maximise every dollar spent on audiences and to plough efficiency savings into content.
I am making it clear to stakeholders that the next triennial funding round, scheduled for resolution in next year’s Budget, should be used as an opportunity to reposition the ABC for the future.
If the ABC is important now in bringing diversity to the media landscape, then it will be even more essential over coming years in providing quality, independent, local content to Australians. The ABC will be the innovator. We will provide the creative jobs that are necessary for this new era. We will continue to provide the highest quality independent journalism.
Thank you. I am happy to take questions.
Twitter, 24 October 2018:
Tuesday 23 October 2018
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Cabinet at the Wentworth By-election Debriefing
CaptionsWentworth Downfall https://t.co/LqxMv2CaHL— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) October 22, 2018
0:00.50-0:03.25
Every polling booth has
been wrapped in plastic
0:04.00-0:05.50
We took down their
posters everywhere
0:05.65-0:07.50
and put ours up, here
and here
0:08.00-0:12.00
The Blueshirts are out
in force on every street
0:12.10-0:15.50
It's been a show of
strength, we couldn't have done anything more.
0:17.50-0:19.00
The natural order has
been restored
0:19.00-0:21.50
Wentworth will remain a
blue ribbon Liberal seat.
0:24.75-0:26.50
Mein Morrison
0:27.50-0:28.50
There's been a swing...
0:31.00-0:33.50
...of more than 20% from
the LNP
0:34.00-0:36.00
Kerryn Phelps has won
0:53.00-0:58.50
All the leftards who
said we should run a female candidate in Wentworth, go outside with the women.
1:13.00-1:15.00
What is wrong with these
Eastern suburbs' bastards?
1:15.25-1:17.75
We are Wentworth's born
to rule party
1:18.75-1:23.25
This is a nightmare:
Independent, Jewish AND gay.
1:25.25-1:28.00
And to top it all off,
she's a woman!
1:29.25-1:31.00
It's like the
politically correct quadrella from Hell!
1:31.50 - 1:34.00
We have held this seat
since federation
1:34.751:37.75
That's 1901, long before
lesbians were even invented!
1:37.50-1:40.50
I thought she wasn't
running because she had HIV, why is she even here?!?
1:40.50-1:42.75
That was just a vicious rumour we
tried to start last week.
1:42.75-1:46.25
Well now we're as
popular as needles in strawberries... with chlamydia
1:46.50-1:48.80
We were trying to appeal
to the party's conservative base
1:48.80-1:52.00
Why not something clever
like, "Wentworth, where the bloody hell are you?"
1:53.00-1:54.50
We got our tax cuts
through, 5% unemployment,
1:56.00-1:57.75
we gave everyone a bagel
1:57.75-2:00.50
and every surf club a
pile of money, except for that schmuck at Tamarama.
2:00.50-2:03.50
No soup for you, Mr ALP
surf club president Tim Murray!
2:04.50-2:08.00
We risked WW3 moving the
Israeli embassy to Jerusalem
2:08.75- 2:13.50
and pissed off every
Muslim between here and the Arctic circle
2:14.00- 2:16.75
and despite ALL that,
they still didn't vote for us!
2:17.50- 2:21.75
We backed that ranga
clown Hanson that it's #oktobewhite
2:27.00-2:29.00
No-one told me Sharma
was Indian
2:30.50- 2:34.00
Tony and Potatohead
didn't think this one through
2:34.50- 2:36.50
Cash splash? It was like
a golden shower of cash!
2:41.00-2:42.50
20%? That's the biggest
swing
2:43.00-2:47.50
since they hung that wop
bastard Mussolini
2:48.50-2:53.00
I blame Halal Mal, his
traitor son and the Dickhead for Warringah
2:54.00-2:56.00
We're going to have to
lift our prayer game this Sunday
2:56.50-2:59.75
I grew up in bloody
Wentworth, my cop dad used to arrest lesbians
3:00.00-3:02.50
Why didn't they elect
us?
3:04.75-3:07.50
Don't give up Julie, you
might get Veterans' Affairs
3:14.25-3:16.25
It's all good fellas
3:19.25-3:23.25
Don't worry, keep your
chins up
3:25.55-3:26.75
We can reinstate Barnaby
as Deputy PM
3:31.50-3:33.75
We'll get the band back
together.
3:40.75-3:46.25
We exhumed John Howard
for this campaign, we could try Menzies next time
3:46.50-3:49.00
After all, I'm a
marketing genius, right?
3:53.75-3:56.00
It's not easy being a
white male.
Monday 22 October 2018
While I was away Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison........
....continued his Trumpification of the Liberal Party of Australia with predictable results.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, aka Shouty McShoutface, October 2018
TIMELINE
1. Despite considerable public debate concerning the phrase "it's OK to be white", the Morrison Government supported this divisive white supremacist-inspired motion in the Senate on 15 October 2018:
Following strong community backlash Morrison and Co blamed their support of this motion on an "administrative error".
4. On the same day he announced a review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) relating to Iran's nuclear program, in order to see if it remains the best vehicle to address the international community’s concerns. Signalling a possibility that before the year is out he will follow Donald Trump and withdraw support for the Plan.
5. On a bit of a roll, Morrison ended the day by throwing out the broad definition of science as the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentt - telling an audience peppered with published scientists that; the great magic of science, if you like. It starts with belief*.
7. He then went on to lose an unloseable by-election in the seat of Wentworth which had been held by Australian conservative MPs since its inception over 117 years ago in January1901. After campaigning for the Liberal Party candidate in this seat held by his immediate predecessor Morrison managed to produce a swing in Wentworth against his government of more than 19 per cent - possibly one of the largest loss margins in federal by-election history.
NOTES
* BELIEF 1. An acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof. 1.1 Something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion. 1.2 A religious conviction. 2. Trust, faith, or confidence in (someone or something)
Monday 15 October 2018
Australian Politics 2018: Liberal and Nationals hard right agenda revealed
It appears the rigid hard-right core of the Liberal and National parties, whose face for public consumption is Prime Minister Scott Morrison, thought that Australian voters would find it acceptable that the only people that religious institutions of any denomination would not be able to discriminate against will be heterosexual individuals and those born with absent or ambiguous secondary sexual characteristics.
Everyone else would apparently be fair game for every rabid bigot across the land.
Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender citizens and their children are not to be afforded the full protection of human rights and anti-discrimination law in this New World Order.
It doesn't get any clearer than the main thrust of the twenty recommendations set out below.
However, now the cat is out of the bag Morrison is backtracking slightly. Just hours after arguing schools should be run consistent with their religious principles and that no existing exemption should be repealed, Scott Morrison told Sky News that he was "not comfortable" with private schools expelling gay students on the basis of their sexuality.
Rejecting new enrolment applications by gay students was something he was careful not to directly address.
It should be noted that "not comfortable' leaves a lot of wiggle room to look the other way as state and federal legislation is either amended or new Commonwealth legislation created which would allow this blatant discrimination to lawfully occur.
Recommendations
found in the Religious
Freedom Review: Report of the Expert Panel:
Recommendation 1
Those jurisdictions that
retain exceptions or exemptions in their anti-discrimination laws for religious
bodies with respect to race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status should
review them, having regard to community expectations.
Recommendation 2
Commonwealth, state and
territory governments should have regard to the Siracusa
Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights when drafting laws that would limit
the right to freedom of religion.
Recommendation 3
Commonwealth, state and
territory governments should consider the use of objects, purposes or other
interpretive clauses in anti-discrimination legislation to reflect the equal
status in international law of all human rights, including freedom of religion.
Recommendation 4
The Commonwealth should
amend section 11 of the Charities Act 2013 to clarify that advocacy of a
‘traditional’ view of marriage would not, of itself, amount to a ‘disqualifying
purpose’.
Recommendation 5
The Commonwealth should
amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to provide that religious schools can
discriminate in relation to the employment of staff, and the engagement of
contractors, on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship
status provided that:
The
discrimination is founded in the precepts of the religion.
The
school has a publicly available policy outlining its position in relation to
the matter and explaining how the policy will be enforced.
The
school provides a copy of the policy in writing to employees and contractors
and prospective employees and contractors.
Recommendation 6
Jurisdictions should
abolish any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that provide for
discrimination by religious schools in employment on the basis of race,
disability, pregnancy or intersex status. Further, jurisdictions should ensure
that any exceptions for religious schools do not permit discrimination against
an existing employee solely on the basis that the employee has entered into a
marriage.
Recommendation 7
The Commonwealth should
amend the Sex Discrimination Act to provide that religious schools may
discriminate in relation to students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender
identity or relationship status provided that:
The
discrimination is founded in the precepts of the religion.
The
school has a publicly available policy outlining its position in relation to
the matter.
The
school provides a copy of the policy in writing to prospective students and
their parents at the time of enrolment and to existing students and their
parents at any time the policy is updated.
The
school has regard to the best interests of the child as the primary
consideration in its conduct.
Recommendation 8
Jurisdictions should
abolish any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that provide for
discrimination by religious schools with respect to students on the basis of
race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status.
Recommendation 9
State and territory
education departments should maintain clear policies as to when and how a
parent or guardian may request that a child be removed from a class that
contains instruction on religious or moral matters and ensure that these
policies are applied consistently. These policies should:
Include
a requirement to provide sufficient, relevant information about such classes to
enable parents or guardians to consider whether their content may be
inconsistent with the parents’ or guardians’ religious beliefs
Give
due consideration to the rights of the child, including to receive information
about sexual health, and their progressive capacity to make decisions for
themselves.
Recommendation 10
The Commonwealth
Attorney-General should consider the guidance material on the Attorney-General’s
Department’s website relating to authorised celebrants to ensure that it uses
plain English to explain clearly and precisely the operation of the Marriage
Act 1961. The updated guidance should include:
A
clear description of the religious protections available to different classes
of authorised celebrants, and
Advice
that the term ‘minister of religion’ is used to cover authorised celebrants
from religious bodies which would not ordinarily use the term ‘minister’,
including non-Christian religions.
Recommendation 11
The Commonwealth
Attorney-General should consider whether the Code of Practice set out in
Schedule 2 of the Marriage Regulations 2017 is appropriately adapted to the
needs of smaller and emerging religious bodies.
Recommendation 12
The Commonwealth should
progress legislative amendments to make it clear that religious schools are not
required to make available their facilities, or to provide goods or services,
for any marriage, provided that the refusal:
Conforms
to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of the religion of the body
Is
necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of
that religion.
Recommendation 13
Those jurisdictions that
have not abolished statutory or common law offences of blasphemy should do so.
Recommendation 14
References to blasphemy
in the Shipping Registration Regulations 1981, and in state and territory
primary and secondary legislation, should be repealed or replaced with terms
applicable not only to religion.
Recommendation 15
The Commonwealth should
amend the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, or enact a Religious Discrimination
Act, to render it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s
‘religious belief or activity’, including on the basis that a person does not
hold any religious belief. In doing so, consideration should be given to
providing for appropriate exceptions and exemptions, including for religious
bodies, religious schools and charities.
Recommendation 16
New South Wales and
South Australia should amend their anti-discrimination laws to render it
unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s ‘religious belief or
activity’ including on the basis that a person does not hold any religious
belief. In doing so, consideration should be given to providing for the appropriate
exceptions and exemptions, including for religious bodies, religious schools
and charities.
Recommendation 17
The Commonwealth should
commission the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative
information on the experience of freedom of religion in Australia at the
community level, including:
Incidents
of physical violence, including threats of violence, linked to a person’s faith
Harassment,
intimidation or verbal abuse directed at those of faith
Forms
of discrimination based on religion and suffered by those of faith
Unreasonable
restrictions on the ability of people to express, manifest or change their
faith
Restrictions
on the ability of people to educate their children in a manner consistent with
their faith
The
experience of freedom of religion impacting on other human rights
The
extent to which religious diversity (as distinct from cultural diversity)
is accepted and promoted in Australian society
is accepted and promoted in Australian society
Recommendation 18
The Commonwealth should
support the development of a religious engagement and public education program
about human rights and religion in Australia, the importance of the right to
freedom of religion and belief, and the current protections for religious
freedom in Australian and international law. As a first step, the panel recommends
that the Attorney-General should ask the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human
Rights to inquire into and report on how best to enhance engagement, education
and awareness about these issues.
Recommendation 19
The Australian Human
Rights Commission should take a leading role in the protection of freedom of
religion, including through enhancing engagement, understanding and dialogue.
This should occur within the existing commissioner model and not necessarily through
the creation of a new position.
Recommendation 20
The Prime Minister and
the Commonwealth Attorney-General should take leadership of the issues
identified in this report with respect to the Commonwealth, and work with the
states and territories to ensure its implementation. While the panel hopes it
would not be necessary, consideration should be given to further Commonwealth
legislative solutions if required.
Because Scott Morrison made no secret of his dislike of same-sex marriage and his intention to make new laws protecting so-called religious 'freedoms'. he is now going to have a fight on his hands every single day until the next federal election - these recommendations have made that a certainty.
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