Thankfully, the Australian Government has decided not to implement a "charter of human rights" at the national level.
The Victorian experience has proved that implementation of human rights legislation tends to be counter-productive. Who would have thought that Christian pastors could be hauled into court at immense personal expense and found guilty of inciting religious hatred for merely quoting the Koran in a seminar designed to increase christians' understanding of Islam?
The ACL has published a response to the Government's decision which Christian Today has reprinted here.
While welcoming the Government's decision, ACL points out that there are some groups such as asylum seekers, people with disabilities, the homeless and indigenous people whose rights need to be addressed.
It's good that they are doing this, but it would be so much better if people's own values and morals could take the place of legislation.
ReplyDeleteWell we don't want to get to the state that you have over there where people are afraid to mention God in public schools, or preach some parts of the bible for fear of litigation.Often the legislation takes the approach that people bringing a complaint get legal aid but those being complained against do not, and if they lose they have to pay all the costs, but the complainant doesn't pay anything if they lose.In Victoria they had a case where two pastors were prosecuted for running a seminar about the beliefs of Muslims and how they differ from Christians. It was all done in an open, respectful way. But they were prosecuted for vilifying Muslims because they quoted the Koran. The complaint was brought by a couple of Muslims who went there specifically to find offence to complain about. Eventually this was overturned but at great expense and cost of time and emotion for the pastors involved.Now they have tightened the legislation further so that the Human Rights Commission can bring cases without anybody complaining first. So it doesn't matter if nobody was offended, the thought police will be able to generate some offences anyway. I'm glad I live in New South Wales.
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