A Fyles government bait and switch tactic on their anti-discrimination Bill has left stakeholders in the dark over new laws intended to pass parliament later this month.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Gerard Maley has called on Labor to ’fess-up and put the actual Bill out for genuine consultation.
“Stakeholders don’t know that a key exemption being “edited” in the draft is deleted altogether in the actual Bill,” Mr Maley said.
“Other changes to the anti-discrimination Bill will have a massive impact on every Territorian.
“The new law would mean you could make a complaint on behalf of someone else – even if they don’t want a complaint made.
“You could also make a complaint simply by claiming something offended you.”
Mr Maley said amendments to the law would destroy people’s freedom to speak freely.
“It’s a sneaky way of making people too scared to exercise free speech,” he said.
“And it’s a sneaky way of forcing the ‘faith’ out of faith-based schools
“Schools are not wanting to actively discriminate – they just want to give priority to people of the faith – and this Bill removes that right.”
The extremely low bar Labor has set for causing “offence” could make a plethora of common words and phrases unlawful.
For instance, in Parliament the Labor Party has deemed it “offensive” to describe the dysfunctional government as incompetent, useless, a disgrace, pathetic, cowards, lunatics, and even felt a slow hand clap was offensive.
Mr Maley said there was no reason to rush the Bill through before Christmas and called on Natasha Fyles to take the time to conduct proper consultation with stakeholders.
“If this law is so good for the community, the government should have the guts to be upfront with the people it hurts the most,” he said.
“But Labor can’t look those people in the eye because they know they stuffed it up.”
ENDS