Vic EO Act – Religious Exceptions hearing 

Public hearing in Melbourne

The Presbyterian Church has told a Victorian parliament committee hearing that it would defy the law and take the consequences if the Victorian government removes the religious exceptions from the Equal Opportunity Act.

The committee, the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, is considering the matter of removing exceptions from Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act.

Barney Zwartz, writing in The Age, reported on the people who spoke at the hearing last week:

• David Palmer, of the Presbyterian Church's Church and Nation Committee, told the committee the church would defy the law - and "take the consequences" - if the religious exceptions were removed.
• Anglican Archbishop Philip Freier said they could not see any need to change the law.
• Catholic bishop Christopher Prowse said ‘that weakening religious exemptions would force secularisation of services by religious agencies, which would have a profoundly negative effect.’
• The Islamic Council of Victoria opposed removing religious exceptions – saying they were saw them as ‘a shield allowing them to practise their faith, not as a sword to propagate Islam.’
• Peter Faris QC said such things had been done in communist Russia where ‘everyone was equal’!

Meanwhile, Helen Szoke of the EOHRC said that some discrimination was sometimes needed “to achieve equal opportunities long-term, and religious freedom had to be balanced against the demands of equality.” However the EOHRC has supported the removal of some of the exceptions in their submission.

Read the full article:

Church would defy loss of exemptions
Barney Zwartz, The Age, August 6, 2009.