This was Australia’s
most recent Liberal prime minister quoted in The
Sydney Morning Herald on 17 September 2018:
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison will enact "preventative regulation and legislation" to
shield freedom of religion from future enemies, giving his strongest hints to
date about the government's intentions regarding "religious freedom"
laws.
What a load of
codswallop, manure, dung, heifers dust, cowpats, meadow cocktails – what ABSOLUTE BULLSH*T!
The Liberal Member
for Cook Scott Morrison already
knows that the Australian Constitution without qualification guarantees religious
freedom in this country at federal level:
The Commonwealth shall not
make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any
religious observance, or for
prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test
shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the
Commonwealth. [my yellow highlighting]
As the
Australian Constitution is the highest source in the land on this issue, one can only suspect that:
a) Scott
Morrison has never read the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (as
amended up to 1977); or
b) Scott Morrison is shamelessly pandering to his
far-right, ideologically blind & bigoted supporter base, in the hope of being re-elected in 2019.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
He
appears to forget that Australia has also ratified a number of UN resolutions which directly or indirectly protect religious freedom and these have been upheld by the courts.
While he ignores the fact that Tasmania has had a religious freedom provision written
into its state constitution since 1934 and Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia,
the Northern Territory as well as the ACT have passed legislation prohibiting
direct and indirect discrimination on the ground of religion. Only South Australia appears to have no legislation specifically covering religious freedom to date.
Morrison also
forgets that whatever legislation he forces through this parliament, or whatever
regulations he imposes, can all be undone in the first instance by subsequent federal parliaments and in the second instance by the minister of the day.
If he really
wants to genuinely strengthen existing religious freedoms he would call a
referendum to change the Australian Constitution.
Even a callow first-year-in-parliament politician knows that when state law is in conflict with federal law it is federal law which usually prevails and, if either is in conflict with the Constitution it will be the Constitution which prevails.
Having well and truly politicised his own faith Morrison may in fact be creating his own "future enemies" - he has all but guaranteed that someone will take his legislation and regulations to the High Court of Australia - where every word, phrase and punctuation mark will be studied closely.
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