"We have no confidence Lorraine Finlay will uphold our existing discrimination protections and fear she will work to weaken them at every opportunity."
"We will write to the Federal Government asking for a dedicated LGBTIQA+ Commissioner, and to the Australian Human Rights Commission asking that Ms Finlay does not hold the LGBTIQA+ portfolio as her predecessors have."
In 2018 Ms Finlay was the co-author of a submission to the Ruddock religious freedom inquiry which declared, "In our view, there is presently an unjustifiable imbalance between religious freedoms and anti-discrimination laws, with the balance weighted in favour of the latter....We are increasingly concerned about the growing number of examples in recent years that demonstrate religious freedoms being undervalued and eroded in Australia."
To justify this position the submission cited six examples, all of them arising from the marriage equality debate. The authors declared, "these examples will undoubtedly multiply in coming years following the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia."
The submission concluded that, "In our view (the) way to proceed would be to look at amending existing anti-discrimination laws (at both the state and federal level) so that they strike a better balance between conflicting human rights".
The Ruddock inquiry went on to find no threat to religious freedom in a post-marriage equality Australia.
Mr Croome said,
"Ms Finlay is a purveyor of the fear-based narrative that LGBTIQA+ equality poses a threat to religious freedom, and that, as a consequence, anti-discrimination laws be weakened so religious bodies have special legal privileges to treat us badly."
"She is not an appropriate person to defend the human rights of LGBTIQA+ Australians."
All quotes are taken from the following submission:
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/religious-freedom-submissions/14792-1.pdf
For a copy of this statement on the web, click
hereFor more information contact Rodney Croome on 0409 010 668.
