Anti-discrimination laws on hold indefinitely

The proposed overhaul of Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws have been put on hold indefinitely by the Federal Government, sparking concern among justice activists the move further delays long overdue reform.

Last week, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced a exposure draft – proposed by predecessor Nicola Roxon – would be returned to his department for further work before being introduced to parliament.

The bill’s purpose was to consolidate and simplify the five existing Commonwealth anti-discrimination acts under a single act, enhancing protections where necessary and improving the efficacy of the mechanisms used for resolving complaints.

Mr Dreyfus made clear Labor is not permanently shelving the draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012, but will be reworking it in response to recommendations made by a Senate committee last month that it needed sweeping changes.

Karl Hand, pastor at Metropolitan Community Church and co-convenor at Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH), said he was disappointed in the delay and insisted that it is time the current acts are updated.

“I definitely support not only consolidating and strengthening the bills, and including more groups that need to be included, but giving it some teeth so that people are actually able to prosecute a case,” he said.

“Common people just don’t have access to the kind of expert legal advice that they need, and what often happens is people who experience discrimination – whether it be at school or in the workplace – are so intimidated by all the law that they never actually get any justice.”

Anti-discrimination campaigner Gary Burns was also disappointed progression on the bill was halted, but said that Mr Dreyfus needs to ensure that it will do the job it is supposed to before attempting to enact it into law.

“I think what he’s [Dreyfus] going to do is go away, look at the legislation, come back, put it though the House of Reps, put it through the Senate, and it’s going to actually strengthen and enhance state and territory anti-discrimination acts,” he said.

“State and territory anti-discrimination jurisdictions are like a dog’s breakfast; they’re all over the place … and a federal bill will enhance these laws.”

While deferring broader discrimination law reform, the government will introduce a bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act.

A spokesperson from the Attorney-General’s department said the amendment will “protect Australians against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status”.

The spokesperson said the reason they were pursuing sex discrimination reform over amendments to other anti-discrimination acts or a broader overhaul, was its importance and bipartisan endorsement.

“In addition to it being a longstanding Labor commitment, it also has support from the Liberal-National Party and the Greens, meaning it will be passed through parliament without delay,” they said.

However, exemptions for religious organisations will be upheld under the proposed changes – something that irks those campaigning for community-wide equality and protections in new laws.

“I think it’s extremely unfortunate that every time anti-discrimination law gets up, religious people want special treatment,” said Mr Hand. “I think that if you’re a church organisation a lot of people in Australia cut you a lot of slack.”

Norrie May-Welby, community activist and the first person in the world to be officially declared neither male nor female, said the exemptions lead to unfair discrimination.

“It’s totally unfair for the government to collect taxes from everyone but only allow them to [be] spent on a certain class of people,” said Norrie.

“This is what happens when government-funded religious schools are allowed to sack anyone who isn’t heterosexually monogamous, to sack gay people or sex or gender-diverse people.

“It deprives all the children in that school of a wide range of role models, stranding the queer kids with perhaps no one at all, and depriving everyone of a rich and creative environment.”

There has also been concern a new act with further protections may impinge on free speech or simply create a significantly more litigious environment, but Mr Burns sees this as a non-issue and flaw in priorities.

“People are running around saying, ‘oh, but lawyers will make a lot of money’ – well so be it,” he said.

“We’ve got to promote ethics and tolerance. We live in a multicultural society and there are certain groups in that society like homosexuals and other minority people that are marginalised, vilified and discriminated against based upon who shares their queen-sized bed, or the colour of their skin, or the country they come from. That can’t be so; that can’t be allowed to happen in a multicultural society.

“The only opportunity we do have is to get it through in this current prime-ministership before the September 14 election and bring it into law, because if we don’t we’re going to lose it under [Tony] Abbott.”

By Will Mumford