[Greens-Media] Greens move to outlaw discrimination against GLBTI people

[susan.pennicuik at parliament.vic.gov.au]

Greens move to outlaw discrimination against GLBTI people

1 February 2008

When Parliament resumes next week, Greens MLC Sue Pennicuik will move a
motion to introduce a private members bill to purge exemptions in the Equal
Opportunity Act which currently allow religious schools and small business
to discriminate on the grounds of sexuality, gender identity, and other
grounds.

'This Sunday, state Greens MPs Greg Barber, and Colleen Hartland, along
with special guest Senator Rachel Siewert and I, will join the Pride March
in St Kilda to celebrate sexual diversity and call for an end to the
discrimination and injustice faced by GLBTI people in our community,' she
said.

'The Equal Opportunity Act contains exemptions that allow religious schools
and small businesses to discriminate on any grounds, including age, race,
gender, religious belief, impairment, marital status, breastfeeding,
physical features, industrial activity, marital status, sexual orientation,
parental status or status as a carer. In 2007, the Greens moved amendments
to the Equal Opportunity Amendment Bill 2007 to remove these exemptions,
which were blocked by all other parties in the Legislative Council,’ she
said.

'The existing legislation, introduced by the Kennett Government, would
allow the owner of a business employing less than five people to reject a
job applicant because they were gay, lesbian or breastfeeding. It means
that employees in small businesses and religious schools have less rights
than people in the rest of the community,' said Ms Pennicuik.

'The Greens believe discrimination is not a relative concept.
Discrimination is either right or wrong in principle, and it is wrong to
allow discrimination if there less than five people in a workplace or if a
person happens to work in a religious school', said Ms Pennicuik.

'Labor governments should work together to introduce a nationally
consistent scheme to immediately expunge all discriminatory clauses from
state and commonwealth legislation, including the Marriage Act, so that
same sex couples have all the same rights as heterosexual couples',she
said.

Greens GLBTI policy s.3.1.3: "Amending the Equal Opportunity Act 1995 to
remove exemptions for religious organisations to discriminate on the
grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity"

Greens Education policy s.3.3.11: "Ensuring all schools that receive public
funding are subject to the same level of accountability, transparency and
non-discriminatory staff recruitment and student enrolment policies."Raili
Simojoki


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