TASMANIA RISKS RECLAIMING ‘BIGOT’S ISLAND’ TAG
Tasmanian gay rights advocates have slated the State Government for its proposal to water down the state’s anti-hate speech laws, saying it will take Tasmania back to the dark days of public anti-gay hatred and that it goes further than religious leaders have called for.
In a bill to water down hate speech provisions released today, the Government allows hate speech if it “conveys, teaches or proselytises” a religious belief.
The religious exemption applies to incitement to hatred (section 19), as well as offensive conduct (section 17), despite Catholic Archbishop, Julian Porteous, telling ABC radio that he wants no change to the former provision (ABC local radio, Mornings with Leon Compton, Friday August 19th).
Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said,
“The Government’s proposal gives the green light to the kind of hate speech not seen in Tasmania for almost twenty years.”
“This bill will take Tasmania back to the dark times before homosexuality was decriminalised in the 1990s when the most degrading and disgusting things were said publicly about LGBTI people with impunity.”
“With this proposal we risk again being labelled ‘Bigot’s Island’ just as we were in the 1990s when we were the last Australian state to decriminalise homosexuality.”
“The Government is either so zealous or so incompetent that it has gone even further than conservative religious figures have called for, and has watered down all the hate protections in the Anti-Discrimination Act.”
“I will be writing to Premier Will Hodgman seeking on immediate meeting with LGBTI community leaders so we can put our case for retaining Tasmania’s strong anti-hate laws.”
Rodney Croome, Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group
