Doug PollardOpen Letter to Victorian MLCs
It's not just the building that's crumbling, the Liberals values are, too
An open letter to all Victorian Legislative Council members
I am appalled and dismayed by the Government's decision to ram through a second vote in the lower house on the amendments to equal opportunity law in defiance of all convention and tradition. I thought Liberals were all for playing by the rules and respecting our heritage.
Past convention has been that a Bill cannot be voted on twice in the same parliamentary session: if it's lost, as this was when Mary Wooldridge failed to turn up, then it should have stayed lost..
The amendments, which leave intact the existing right for religious-run businesses (such as schools, hospitals, clinics, aged-care homes, adoption agencies and counselling services) to refuse to help gay, lesbians, transgender folk, single mums etc., in addition restore their right to practice similar discrimination when hiring staff, even for totally non-religious functions like gardening. I thought Liberal values were about judging people on their merits, not their beliefs.
Bear in mind that because of their presumed 'religious' character, these businesses are tax exempt. And most of them are propped up by taxpayers money - our money. I thought the Liberal position was that we should all be on a level playing field.
This is not about balance or fairness: I don't see much fairness or equality, only entrenched prejudice giving the self-styled 'religious' rights and privileges over anyone who dares to disagree with them.
We have all seen where that leads to in Catholic schools, orphanages and vestries, for example.
But the really wrong part of this is the message that it's OK for one lot of people to discriminate against another lot of people purely on the basis of personal prejudice, provided it can be dressed up as 'faith'.
After all, there are plenty of people of 'faith' who do not desire to lord it over other people, who disagree with the very narrow fanatical subset of Christians, Jews, Muslims to whom you are pandering.
I thought moderation was a Liberal value: seems I was wrong about that too.
So may I implore you, whatever your party, to vote down this measure. And to move a fresh one to take away the right of these people to discriminate in service provision, too.
I have no objection, by the way, to them being as discriminatory as they wish, so long as they pay for the privilege themselves, and don't expect to do it tax free and on my money.
Or is this not a Liberal government at all?
bruce.atkinson@parliament.vic .gov.au
greg.barber@parliament.vic.go v.au
candy.broad@parliament.vic.go v.au
andrea.coote@parliament.vic.g ov.au
georgie.crozier@parliament.vi c.gov.au
richard.dalla-riva@parliament .vic.gov.au
kaye.darveniza@parliament.vic .gov.au
david.davis@parliament.vic.go v.au
philip.davis@parliament.vic.g ov.au
damian.drum@parliament.vic.go v.au
khalil.eideh@parliament.vic.g ov.au
nazih.elasmar@parliament.vic. gov.au
andrew.elsbury@parliament.vic .gov.au
bernie.finn@parliament.vic.go v.au
matthew.guy@parliament.vic.go v.au
peter.hall@parliament.vic.gov .au
colleen.hartland@parliament.v ic.gov.au
gavin.jennings@parliament.vic .gov.au
david.koch@parliament.vic.gov .au
jan.kronberg@parliament.vic.g ov.au
shaun.leane@parliament.vic.go v.au
john.lenders@parliament.vic.g ov.au
wendy.lovell@parliament.vic.g ov.au
jenny.mikakos@parliament.vic. gov.au
david.o'brien@parliament.vic. gov.au
edward.o'donohue@parliament.v ic.gov.au
craig.ondarchie@parliament.vi c.gov.au
martin.pakula@parliament.vic. gov.au
sue.pennicuik@parliament.vic. gov.au
donna.petrovich@parliament.vi c.gov.au
inga.peulich@parliament.vic.g ov.au
jaala.pulford@parliament.vic. gov.au
simon.ramsay@parliament.vic.g ov.au
gordon.rich-phillips@parliame nt.vic.gov.au
johan.scheffer@parliament.vic .gov.au
adem.somyurek@parliament.vic. gov.au
lee.tarlamis@parliament.vic.g ov.au
brian.tee@parliament.vic.gov. au
gayle.tierney@parliament.vic. gov.au
matthew.viney@parliament.vic. gov.au
Current Affairs
Rainbow Reporter
Dear Doug,
This morning I used my ability as a member of the Legislative Council to deny leave for the government to second read the bill, so it will not now be second read until 14 June.
Regards,
Sue Penniciuk