The Catholic Weekly 12 September 2021

catholicweekly.com.au 2 NEWS 12, September, 2021 FROM PAGE 1 Wendy Francis, National Pol- icy Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, said that with the increasing number of Australians coming under attack at work for their faith, “it is concerning that the NSW government has declined to act to provide protection for its citizens against discrim- ination based on religion, preferring instead to wait to see the Federal Government’s Religious Discrimination Bill”. “This is despite a majority of the parliamentary commit- tee supported amendments proposed by NSWOne Nation leader, Mark Latham, which would prohibit employers from controlling their em- ployees’ religious speech out- side the workplace, provided such speech is non-vilifying. “This is yet another reason why it is imperative that the Religious Discrimination Bill being formulated by [Federal] Attorney General Michaelia Cash includes meaningful protections for people of faith. “There is no freedom with- out religious freedom.” John Steenhof, Principal Lawyer of the Human Rights Law Alliance, welcomed the announcement but said that the “long overdue” change “should not be linked with an uncertain Federal promise of similar legislation”. “There is a clear and over- whelming need for action to protect religious freedom in NSW now,” he said. “The public square is an increasingly hostile place for people of faith and they should be protected without delay.” Professor Michael Quinlan, National Head of School, Law and Business at the Univer- sity of Notre Dame Australia, agreed that a delay was “dis- appointing”. Anti-discrimination law put on hold “Other states have not adopted this approach,” he said. “I do not expect that the status of NSW as the State with the most people who self identify as religious will change in this year’s census and it is anomalous that our fundamental human right to live as a religious believer without discrimination has not long been protected in our State. “Whatever happens at a Federal level should not delay progress on this protection in our State.” Professor Quinlan said however he was pleased at the government’s commitment and that if the state followed the proposal put forward by Mark Latham “it will be a very useful addition to our law”. Associate Dean of Notre Dame’s School of Law, Syd- In NSW it’s illegal to discriminate against almost anybody for any reason - except Christians. Now the NSW Government has taken a wait-and-see attitude to addressing a decades-old issue. ney, Professor Keith Thomp- son said he thought the com- mittee’s recommendations prompted by Mark Latham’s bill and community input “bore the imprint of genu- ine objectivity and showed a bi-partisan effort to legislate protections for all religious believers in NSW” and had hoped it would inform a law that would be a good template for national religious freedom. Gabrielle Upton MLC, chair of the joint select com- mittee strongly welcomed the government’s commitment. “It will finally close an ob- vious gap in NSW discrimina- tion law,” she said. “I strongly urge the Government to make sure that any bill also provides protection for not-for-profit organisations from discrim- ination on the grounds of re- ligious beliefs or lawful activ- ities because of their religious doctrines and teachings. Reli- gion is central to the identity and practices of these not-for- profit organisations and they can provide important oppor- tunities for people to practice their religion.” Mark Latham MLC said he hoped the government was not simply attempting to de- lay the needed reform and looked forward to a more de- tailed response to the report by the joint select committee into his own Bill. That report is due by the end of September. “NSW can clearly act in its own right, as every state already has other than us and South Australia,”Mr Lathamsaid. “We’ve been waiting for a long while already.” PARENTAL RIGHTS BACKED - P4 I n this edition Our story begins in 1839 with the Australasian Chronicle, continuing with the Freeman’s Journal in 1850. Level 13, Polding Centre, 133 Liverpool Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. Phone (02) 9390 5400 | Vol 73, No 5201. 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