Showing posts with label right wing rat bags. Show all posts
Showing posts with label right wing rat bags. Show all posts

Thursday 8 November 2018

Scott Morrison hits the campaign trail - complete with bus


On Saturday 3 November 2018 interim Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook (NSW) Scott Morrison announced he would be in Queensland this week.



On Sunday 4 November he announced the first of the election campaign promises for that state - $200 million towards Townsville water supply.

The bus accompanying Morrison in Queensland is allegedly being paid for out of LNP coffers. 

However it is principally a visual prop for Morrison as he rolls out his 'ocker' social media videos and announces his financial sweeteners because for most of the trip in will be empty except for its driver.

As consenting authority he has apparently signed off on the use of a Royal Australian Air Force VIP jet for most of his travel and that of his staff, so it will be Australian taxpayers paying the considerable airtravel costs as well as the hotel bills.

In 2013 the hourly operational cost of such a special purpose aircraft was in the vicinity of $50,000 plus fixed costs. How much will Defence be billing the public purse for four days of VIP air travel over Queensland to kickstart this LNP federal election campaign in 2018?


Side view of Morrison's bus complete with 'borrowed'* nickname as signature.

Note:
* There are a number of men (including businessmen and athletes) from the United States and beyond with the nickname "ScoMo" who have long established   Facebook accounts - one ScoMo going back as far as 2006.


Morrison's Taxpayer-Funded Electioneering Junket:

Day One

Morrison’s team film him standing on the sand at Broadbeach wearing a Rip Curl American-style ‘trucker’s hat’ made somewhere in Asia which was sent to him by an ‘admirer’, promising to wear more of the same in the coming week and talking up support for 'Australian' businesses like Rip Curl.


Also promising backpackers (with a billion dollars in their pockets) will have a great time working on farms bringing in crops, at the same time as introducing a workforce test so Australians are given the first chance to get that casual farm work - with no explanation about how he will manage to produce this rural nirvana except by extending backpacker and working holiday visas by three months and raising the age limit for these visas from thirty to thirty-five.

Morrison additionally pledged $112 million towards the tram extension between Broadbeach and Burleigh.

Day Two


Morrison turned up to a Maroochydore pie factory for a photo op (left), slipped in a quick doorstop, pressed the flest at thr CWA, then down to Caloundra to press the flesh again at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club where he was careful to be photographed with a Queensland beer in his hand

Before boarding his VIP jet to fly into Rockhampton ahead of the campaign bus.  

He could have stayed in Sydney to eat a pie, do a doorstop, have a beer at the races and fail to pick the Melbourne Cup winner without the taxpayer having to pick up such a hefty tab. 

Day Three

Still in Rockhampton, still in that silly cap and just a bit late in announcing $800 million for a local ring road project - the Queensland Labor Government announced the jointly-funded ring road in February 2018

Then onto Gladstone and then that VIP jet again heading to Townsville where he was scheduled to appear on a special edition of Paul Murray Live to answer voters’ questions in a forum broadcast on Sky News and WIN from 8pm AEST.

This is Morrison's third visit to Townsville in 2018 and his second as interim prime minister. Is he buying an investment property there?

Wonder how many dollars he'll have left in his election campaign Santa sack by the time the actual writs are issued?

Day Four

And the day is yet to unfold......

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.


Which in his mind means more coal-fired power.

Expensive, polluting, coal-fired power supplying electricity to Australian homes at maximum cost to ordinary consumers.

Friday 26 October 2018

We were robbed in Wentworth and it's all Malcolm's fault!



Now let me see….how did it all go down again?

There are eighty-five parliamentarians in the federal party room representing the parliamentary arm of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Leadership of the party has been a political football since December 2009 when Tony Abbott ousted Malcolm Turnbull. Winning this leadership spill by one vote to become Opposition Leader.

Almost six years later in September 2015 Turnbull returned the favour by replacing Abbott as leader, when Abbott became a terminally toxic prime minister less than three years into the job. Turnbull won that leadership spill by ten votes and became prime minister.

What followed was over two years of relentless vindictive payback directed at Turnbull by Abbott and his cronies.

Then Peter Dutton threw his hat in the ring on 21 August 2018. He lost this attempt to topple Turnbull and replace him as prime minister when Turnbull called a leadership spill and Dutton lost the spill by thirteen votes.


Another motion to spill the leadership was passed by five votes on 24 August 2018.

This vote effectively sacked Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister and the leadership contest was then between Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison.

Morrison became the current (and very interim) prime minister on the back of just five votes that same day.

On 31 August 2018 Turnbull made good on his promise to resign from parliament and, a by-election was called for the seat of Wentworth which had been held by conservative politicians since its inception in 1901.

Scott Morrison campaigned in the Wentworth electorate on behalf of his party’s candidate, David Sharma.

On 20 October 2018 the Liberal Party lost the by-election to an Independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, with a swing against the party of over 19 per cent.

The Morrison Government is now a minority government, having lost its one seat margin in the House of Representatives.

So who is the Liberal Party blaming for their by-election defeat? Why it appears to be all Malcolm's fault.

The Daily Telegraph, 24 October 2018:

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison is “done with” Malcolm Turnbull and will no longer ask the former leader to represent Australia at international conferences.

Senior Liberal sources told The Daily Telegraph that while the PM would not rescind the decision to send Mr Turnbull on official duties next week at a conference in Bali, it would be the last request. “Scott has said to a number of senior Liberals that he doesn’t want anything further to do with Malcolm,” the source said….

In September, Mr Morrison asked Mr Turnbull to ­represent the Australian Government at the ‘Our Ocean Legacy’ conference in Bali next week — a decision that has been met with a backlash from Liberal and National MPs after the former Prime Minister did not even send a tweet backing the Liberal Party in the by-election caused by his resignation…..
The pair had been communicating regularly over WhatsApp prior to Mr Turnbull’s decision to reject Mr Morrison’s request to help Liberal Party candidate Dave Sharma campaign against ­independent Dr Kerryn Phelps in Wentworth.

Mr Turnbull, who told journalists yesterday he was “out of partisan politics”, was initially invited to attend the conference by the Indonesian Government in March when still prime minister.

After the August leadership spill, Mr Morrison said he was unable to attend the conference, so asked Mr Turnbull to still go. It was understood to be an “olive branch” extended to the former leader.

All of Mr Turnbull’s travel and accommodation costs will be covered by taxpayers during the trip.

“I did request the former prime minister to represent us at that conference, and he’ll be there representing the policies of our government,” Mr Morrison said yesterday.

His office later issued a statement denying that Mr Turnbull had been banned from representing Australia at such events, adding that Mr Morrison “will be seeking to maintain a positive relationship with the former PM as he would do with any other former PMs”.

“Mr Morrison rejects the suggestion made to the Telegraph,” the statement said. “The decision to invite Mr Turnbull to represent Australia was initiated eight weeks ago after direct discussion with President Widodo of Indonesia and was well received by the President.” However, Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said Mr Turnbull may be “sulking” after losing the leadership and should not represent Australia at the conference, especially given his refusal to campaign in Wentworth.

“It is a problem and there should have been a bit more thought put into this” Mr Joyce said. “I think he’s angry about losing his job — one can only presume some sulking. I suggest that probably gives us a very good reason not to send him to Bali.” 
The Wentworth by-election has still not been officially declared, with the Australian Electoral Commission still counting postal votes yesterday. Dr Phelps’ lead dropped by 74 votes to 1552 as Mr Sharma secured 55 per cent of the postal votes counted yesterday. He needed upward of 70 per cent to dent the margin.

Mr Morrison defended the pending result, saying that while the Liberal vote in the eastern suburbs seat dropped by about a third so did the Labor and Greens vote.

Fronting the Coalition party room for the first time since Saturday’s by-election, Mr Morrison hit back at calls from moderates in the party for action on climate change and the urgent removal of refugees from Nauru.

“We’re not shifting to the left or the right — it’s not hokey pokey politics,” he told the closed door meeting.

“We will continue to be a strong centre-right government with strong centre-right parties focusing on the things that matter.” Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, whose leadership has been under pressure from renegade ­Nationals, urged MPs not to be “spooked” by the result in the once-safe Liberal seat.“What they think in ­Double Bay is not what they think in Dubbo,” Mr McCormack said.

One political thumbnail draws attention to what Morrison & Co were loathe to mention during their public blame gaming.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 October 2018:

By the way, Malcolm was in a no-win position – if he had campaigned he would have been accused of being disruptive and a distraction - of crowding out Sharma. 

Morrison wanted his letter of support but wouldn’t allow Turnbull to mention the circumstances of his demise, so, no go.

Next, move on to Morrison’s horror personal contributions to the campaign – the lingering image of him hugging a lump of coal; his defence of advertising on the sails of the Opera House, wanting to see not just horse racing but also car racing; his mishandling of the issues of funding and independence of the ABC generated by the dismissal of chief executive Michelle Guthrie; his multiple positions on the treatment of gay students and teachers; the white supremacist/neo-Nazi parliamentary vote; announcing the possible shift of our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (even after most devout Jews in the electorate would have already pre-voted, to avoid having to do so on the Sabbath); the possible rejuvenation of a New Zealand deal on refugee resettlement; and then, finally, the assertion that a Kerryn Phelps win meant “instability”, conveniently ignoring the instability in his own party that had resulted in the byelection in the first place.

All this shooting from the hip, attempting to spin the issue, assuming some resonance with some identified constituency, only compounds the electoral cynicism and mistrust. So much for the new, marketing/PR-type jockey - so much for Morrison's skills as a retail politician. Clever sound bites and stunts have a limited life. Voters want authenticity, substance and outcomes. This was a clear message from Wentworth.

Morrison’s calamitous performance wasn’t helped by Barnaby Joyce’s grubby attempt to rekindle his leadership ambitions, nor by Environment Minister Melissa Price insulting former Kiribati President Anote Tong.

Apart from denying any responsibility for all this mess, the most disturbing aspect of the government’s response to the Wentworth result has been its failure to recognise the significance of issues that dominated the campaign, such as climate change....

Robbed of a seat? No, the Liberal Party gave that seat away and the people to whom it should assign the most blame are Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison - along with every senator and MP who fell in line behind these 'gentlemen'.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Cabinet at the Wentworth By-election Debriefing


 Captions

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".

2. Stood silent after his newly appointed environment minister Melissa Price insulted a former president of Kiri Bati on 16 October 2018 and later misled the House.


3. On 17 October 2018 announced a review of the Australian Government's long held position on Israel-Palestine conflict by suggesting that a) Australia should consider supporting Jerusalem as the official national capital of Israel and b) should consider moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - thereby offending the entire Muslim world including one of our trading partners with whom we are currently negotiating a lucrative free trade agreement.

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*.

6. Topping it all off, seven months out from a federal election, by forgetting to renew his scottmorrison.com.au domain name registration  and finding out on 19 October 2018 that it is now owned by Jack Genesin who appears to work for IT firm Digital Eagles.

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.


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

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.