In a new equal opportunity bill to be introduced next year, Victorian
religious groups will no longer be allowed to discriminate based on the
grounds of race, disability, age, physical features, political belief or
breastfeeding. Sure, that sounds great, but it's interesting that two
of the major sources of discrimination amongst religious communities,
sexuality and marital status, will not be included in the new bill.
The
gut reaction is likely to be something along the lines of "well great,
if the churches are going to discriminate, it'll just drive people away
from them, aiding in the secularisation of Victoria", but what is often
forgotten is the role that religious communities play in community
support, employment and social services. This means that religious
schools will be able to deny employment to adequately trained people if
they are homosexual, a single parent or even living with a de-facto
partner, if their religion supports it. It means that welfare could be
denied to single parents. It is a disgrace.
More interestingly,
many of the religious communities who will be selectively discriminating
against these groups will still be recieving tax benefits which are
compensated for by the taxes paid, in part, by the very groups that they
are discriminating against!
So what's next?
News sources
The Age
SMH
Originally posted by
Critical Mass
