The Gillard Government put out a discussion paper for a proposed bill to encompass 5 anti-discrimination acts and consolidate them into one act.
The bill is called the "Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012".
Now let's get this clear - we need to understand the meaning of anti-discrimination.
Basically anti is a preposition and derives from the Greek anti - against. In the English language the meaning in general usage is opposed to.
Discrimination means unfavourable treatment based on prejudice.
The proposed bill allows religious organisations to discriminate against certain members of the population which religions deem to be against their interests in relation to such issues as employment, teaching, administration and several others.
Although these institutions are tax exempt - another anomaly when it comes to anti-discrimination, many are in fact subsidised by the government to carry out their discriminatory activities.
As I mentioned in a previous post, in South Africa as soon as the apartheid government wanted to introduce a new discriminatory piece of legislation, it was couched in terms which seemed to suggest the opposite.
This is, in fact, the intent of the current bill. It is designed to entrench discrimination and is the opposite of anti-discrimination.
It can therefore not be supported in any way as the bill now stands and Gillard has firmly stated that she has no intention of changing the direction of the bill - and as I also said before - this from an atheist unmarried prime minister living with a partner against the teachings of the religious institutions to which she is providing exemptions and for which she continues to provide funding and provide tax exemptions.
Gillard may look more personable now with her glasses than she has ever looked before, but the person behind the glasses is as steely-minded as ever and as Margaret Thatcher so infamously said, "The Lady is Not For Turning".
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