Australian Christian Lobby: Takes aim at Labor and says Coalition may allow denial of goods and services to gay weddings
The Australian Christian Lobby claims the Turnbull government is open to a new exemption. The ACL has released a voting guide that takes aim at Labor’s promise to hold a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage. It had distributed 67,000 copies of the guide to churches and supporters.
The guide claims “there is no discrimination in Australian law against same-sex attracted people”. In its response to the ACL questionnaire used to compile the voting guide, the Liberals ruled out suspending commonwealth anti-discrimination laws in the lead-up to the same-sex marriage plebiscite. State and territory laws were a matter for those governments, it said.
The managing director of the ACL, Lyle Shelton, told Guardian Australia it was “disappointing” the Coalition government “isn’t able” to suspend state discrimination law due to legal constraints.
But Shelton said his understanding was the Coalition had not ruled out allowing lay people who object to same-sex marriage to deny goods and services to gay weddings. The Liberal party told the ACL it had “no plans to change the existing framework for religious freedom exemptions” under commonwealth laws. Shelton said this only pertained to creating a general religious freedom, not possible new exemptions for same-sex marriage.
“Bill Shorten has said that lay people will be forced, with the threat of fines, to provide services to weddings they don’t believe should be engaged in,” he said. “People should be free to live out your beliefs – not just if you’re a minister but also if you’re photographer or own a wedding reception venue.
“I don’t know what [the Turnbull government’s] policy is on that ... I don’t think the government has thought through the consequences of redefining marriage for other people’s freedoms.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general, George Brandis, told Guardian Australia “the Turnbull government has no plans to remove religious exemptions from the Sex Discrimination Act”.
“Similar to the development of any policy commitment, the mechanics for the plebiscite and amendments to the Marriage Act, including appropriate protections for religious freedom, will be subject to the usual cabinet, party room and parliamentary processes after the election.”
Anti-discrimination law already prohibits denying goods and services to people based on their sex or sexuality. Labor opposes any extension of discrimination law exemptions to allow them to do so in the context of gay weddings and all other church and Christian ministries. Premier Peter Beattie (former QLD Labor ) promised church leaders this would not happen and not to be concerned. But he was wrong. Christian organization like those in the USA and UK and now EU are subject to fines and jail when refusing service.
The Greens propose abolishing religious exemptions to commonwealth discrimination laws entirely.
The guide said Labor’s proposed LGBTI anti-discrimination commissioner would be a “rainbow cop” that would “have nothing to do except pursue court cases against Australians who disagree with same-sex marriage and Safe Schools”.
The ACL noted Labor policy to reprint documents with new prefixes to remove or change gender markers or increase identification options. The document raised the question whether this would: “make public toilets unsafe for women and girls”.
The Greens’ LGBTI spokesman, Robert Simms, said the ACL’s statement about bathroom safety was deeply offensive and transphobic. Simms doesn't realize parents are very angry with his statement.
