Thursday 4 January 2018

Why does the gov want to keep secret submissions to religious freedom review?


So the gov has decided that submissions made to the religious freedom review will not be made public, in a major departure from process and their claim of an "open gov". This is a serious concern. 

For the review to have an credibility at all requires transparency. To have the submissions kept secret would give the impression of a star chamber making decisions about our lives without us having any idea of what input they had to come to that decision. It's no secret that winding back anti-discrimination laws in Australia are aimed squarely at us LGBT who have dared to gain marriage equality, thus sparking the review. The far right bitter and twisted gov christians have their feathers flying all over the place in a great flap. What they tried on in parliament to put discrimination against us into law over marriage equality they will be trying on in the review into religious freedoms. 

LGBT aren't even represented in this inquiry, but of course the churches are. This will have an impact on our lives if the churches get their way and we're not even supposed to see the process? No representation and a secret process? Bullshit!

Honestly this is the most homophobic anti-gay gov I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing. They're at war with us, clinging to their pitiful religion of paedophilia and self serving secrecy to protect them. The state should be taking away some of their religious freedom to be an autonomous law to themselves, not expanding them to inflict pain on a vulnerable minority. 

BTW you can read my submission here as I put it online when I made it as a matter of course.

LGBT advocates are now calling for transparency:
LGBTI advocacy group just.equal has called for the religious freedom inquiry led by Philip Ruddock to make its submissions public. 

The call was made in response to news this week that the submissions will not be published. 

 “It’s vital that the Ruddock inquiry adopt the conventional process for publicly releasing submissions if its findings are to have any credibility,” said just.equal spokesperson Ivan Hinton-Teoh. 

“The misuse of religious freedom to justify discrimination is an important issue for many LGBTI Australians and we have a right to know what different interest groups are influencing our federal government. 

 “It is the height of hypocrisy for an inquiry into freedom of religion, conscience and speech to keep its submissions under wraps. 

“It is astonishing that the Turnbull government would make submissions secret when this review could entirely re-shape Australian anti-discrimination law. 

 “It begs the question, what has the government got to hide?” Star Observer 

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