Society

Amendments improve Equal Opportunity bill in South Australia

Last month the Equal Opportunity (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill passed the House of Assembly in the South Australian Parliament. Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, in announcing the passing of the Bill, stated that carers, contract workers, mentally ill people, breastfeeding mothers and people wearing religious dress were among those set to most benefit from the new equal opportunity legislation. Christian MLC's Dennis Hood and Robert Brokenshire from the South Australian Family First party were instrumental in making substantial changes to improve the Bill in the Legislative Council.

The most significant change was that the clause relating to vilification was removed from the Bill. This provision would have restricted free speech (including the public reading of some parts of the Bible). This provision was withdrawn after Family First collected 13,000 signatories against the Bill. A number of amendments filed by The Hon. Dennis Hood MLC of Family First were passed to protect faith-based schools, as well as the freedoms of speech and association for faith-based institutions in particular. The three significant Family First amendments that passed were:

1. Amendments to clarify that churches retain a right to hire administrative staff with lifestyles agreeable to churches. Although most church-run hospitals, nursing homes and so forth are, in effect, now run as secular organisations, there are a number of what are often called parachurch organisations that regard the lifestyle of their staff as important in the conduct of their daily business. These organisations do tremendous work in the community and the proposed regulation could have led to their demise.

2. A removal of the power for the Commissioner to initiate proceedings in cases where no complaints have been lodged. Most interstate commissioners do not have the power to initiate their own complaints. The provision will allow the Equal Employment Commissioner to become the arbitrator of what is acceptable and what is not. The Commissioner is unelected and such issues are best left to the legislature.

3. A removal of a requirement for schools to place their sexual hiring policy on their websites. The original clause required schools to place a notice on their website if they would not hire people with a particular lifestyle. This obligation was considered onerous because it opens the schools up to criticism, protest, and potentially, persecution. Schools now will not be required to put any such policies on their website.

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