{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fd57a48d4-c19c-4878-8a8b-f66342ab05e4","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Episode 218 \u2013 The Religious Discrimination Bill 2019","description":"
\nIn this episode, we examine the Religious Discrimination Bill 2019.
\nThe Religious Discrimination Bill 2019
\nWe start off with a quick look at the important sections.
\n20:12 The Iron Fist thoughts on how to argue against the Bill
\nWe don\u2019t need any Religious Discrimination Bill because:
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\n* Religious People are not discriminated against. They are not victims. They are in charge. (Look at who is in charge of this country (Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, Christian Porter, Anthony Albanese (Anthony has often said that he was raised with three great faiths: The Catholic Church, The South Sydney Football Club and Labor), Mark Dreyfus (Jewish) Kristina Keneally, The Governor-General David Hurley (He was raised an Anglican, while wife Linda is a Presbyterian. They both keep fit. Mrs Hurley hula-hoops while reading the bible every morning, but it is their faith they say that binds them);
\n* When federal parliament is in session, the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship meets fortnightly, with about 60 members from all sides of politics in attendance. This is more than a quarter of total parliamentary members. Not all Christians in parliament choose to attend the fellowship. Anecdotal evidence suggests that guest speakers, prayer and Bible studies with focused discussions are regular features of these meetings. 37 lower house MPs elected to make an affirmation, compared to 114 who swore oaths on religious texts. In the Senate, 25 oaths were sworn and 15 affirmations made;
\n* Look at the conclusion of the Ruddock report after reviewing 15,000 submissions (The Panel found that, by and large, Australians enjoy a high degree of religious freedom, and that basic protections are in place in Australian law. Ruddock himself said afterwards “We didn’t find a lot of evidence of actual material discrimination that would be of concern but where we did we brought forward some recommendations to help deal with it”);
\n* This will create more red tape and rules from a government that claims to be business-friendly; and
\n* Religion is not special enough to justify its own Bill (It is just an ideology. If you want to protect it then protect other groups like communists, neo-liberals and vegans. See ideological argument below).
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\nWe don\u2019t need this particular Bill because:
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\n* It grants special rights to religious speech by individuals. The Israel Falou case. No other discrimination law in Australia has this \u201cemployer conduct rule\u201d.This means an employer could sack you for expressing almost all views except those\u00a0that are religious.
\n* It grants special rights to religious practice by individuals (A vegan by choice can\u2019t insist on vegan meals at an employer function but a vegan by choice of religion could. An atheist with a regular Friday night activity can\u2019t insist that Friday night staff drinks be moved but a Jew might be able to);
\n* It gives special rights to religious organisations. It recognises that religious organisations can have an ethos and it privileges that ethos. ( You can object to or discriminate against a religious person if you are a religious organisation but you can\u2019t if you are non-religious) The end result is as Scott Morrison said \u2013 you can have freedom of religion but not freedom from religion;
\n* It privileges institutions over individuals (Look at Josiah Falou or a nurse who adheres to the Islamic faith is asked to remove her hijab by the Catholic-run aged-care home that employs her, whose freedom will be the priority? And these are favours for the institutions who are guilty of mass child abuse)
\n* The effect will be to allow religions to discriminate against gay and lesbian people (who are actually suffering discrimination and who have characteristics worth protecting). When they got protection they didn\u2019t ask to discriminate against straight, white able-bodied people.
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