Tasmanian gay rights advocates have welcomed the announcement of a Law Reform Institute inquiry into exemptions from the Anti-Discrimination Act.
The government announcement came as the Lower House of state parliament agreed to a strictly-limited exemption allowing faith-based schools to discriminate on the grounds of religion in enrollments.
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome said,
“The role of he Anti-Discrimination Act is to prevent discrimination against the most vulnerable members of society.”
“If there are exemptions they must be as narrow as possible to ensure powerful institutions including schools cannot abandon their weakest members.”
“We welcome this inquiry because it will give us a chance to show how the strong protections offered by the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act have helped create a fairer and more inclusive Tasmania and why exemptions would weaken this.”
Following he announcement of the inquiry, the Greens joined with the Labor Party in accepting a narrow Upper House exemption for faith-based schools on the grounds of religion.
The Liberals failed to obtain a wider exemption.
The exemption is part of a raft of anti-discrimination reforms including stronger protections for transgender and intersex people and protection from offensive conduct on grounds such as sexual orientation, race and disability.
The bill will now return to the Upper House where there has been resistance to the offensive conduct provisions on the grounds of free speech.
The Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act is the only one in Australia not to have exemptions on the grounds of sexual orientation.
During the current debate about religious exemptions no exemptions on the grounds of sexual orientation have been proposed.
However, Mr Croome said his concern is that a broad religious exemption could be used as an excuse to discriminate on other grounds including sexual orientation and marital status.
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome
