Last week Opposition Leader Bill Shorten announced the ALP election proposal to counter discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBTI) Australians by appointing an LGBTI commissioner to investigate complaints.
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I’m tempted to say “fat lot of good that will do”, given that by the time the commissioner can get down to work the discrimination and its damaging consequences will have already happened. However, it would be more positive, as well as polite, to point out that Labor is missing a golden opportunity to stamp out discrimination against LGBTI Australians by ruling out removing religious exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act.
It is surprising that religious organisations such as schools, support services for the disadvantaged, and so forth can still discriminate against employees or clients because of their sexuality. Not for promoting it, but simply for being how they were born.
Thankfully not all parties accept this situation. For example, “It’s disappointing that just days after Labor released plans for an LGBTI commissioner, they are locking themselves into supporting discriminatory laws against LGBTI Australians," Greens sexuality spokesperson Senator Robert Simms said.
It is important to realise that such exemptions have a life-changing impact on blameless LGBTI people. They allow a religious school to sack or deny employment to a gay teacher or a faith-based homeless shelter to deny support to a young LGBTI person. This is what needs changing.
The idea that all Australians should be equal and protected by our law is an important principle that should apply irrespective of your gender identity or sexual orientation. I don’t think I’m the only one feeling that it is disappointing to see Labor missing in action on this issue.
Today, I also feel it appropriate to add a postscript to last week’s column about Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s racist “dog whistle” attack on who he quite incorrectly sees as illiterate, innumerate and dole bludging refugees and immigrants by commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s racist remarks at the Regional Leaders’ Debate about asylum seeker boats, though in this case rather than a dog whistle Mr Joyce’s nonsensical claim about border protection was so extreme and crude that “foghorn” would be more appropriate word than “whistle”. In the debate Barnaby Joyce linked the 2011 suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia with a concurrent rise in the number asylum seeker boats that arrived in Australia.
Implying that the Indonesian government could have been responsible for dispatching asylum seekers to Australia, Mr Joyce said the decision to halt live exports was “disastrous”. When pressed to clarify his remarks, he said the closing down of the live animal export industry caused “extreme bad will” with Indonesia.
The statement was howled down by many audience members at a regional leaders' debate in Goulburn on Wednesday night, which was also broadcast on national television.
The audience was quite right to howl him down, for he is wrong, and he has offended anyone here at home with an ounce of humanity, not to mention the Indonesian government. Unfortunately, as Mr Joyce owes his Deputy PM job to his being parliamentary leader of the National Party, Mr Turnbull can’t sack him – but the Nationals could, if they had the intestinal fortitude to do it.