Of course they never interfered with Aboriginal religious rights, did they? - Diet Simon ----- Original Message ----- From: Trudy Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: news-clip <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: news-clip <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 7:48 AM Subject: AAP: Abbott under attack for stance on gay workers > If churches can't provide a secular service without discrimination > then they should not be used for government services to citizens. > --- Trudy > =============================================== > > National > 3:21 pm AEST September 11 2000 > > Abbott under attack for stance on gay workers > > AAP -- > > Civil libertarians today accused the federal government of being an accomplice to discrimination by > supporting Catholic employment agencies' right to sack gay workers. > > Employment Services Minister Tony Abbott backed claims by the Catholic Church that its Centacare > agency had the right to dismiss workers whose lifestyle was at odds with church policy. > > Liberty Victoria said exempting Centacare from anti-discrimination guidelines of the Human Rights and > Equal Opportunity Commission was a breach of international commitments and Australian law. > > Vice-president Jamie Gardiner said religious organisations had a right to dictate personal issues for > members and clergy, but no one else. > > "Membership ... within the church is quite different from employment in things not purely religious and it > is fundamentally wrong for the federal government to seek to be an accomplice in discrimination which > Australia has in fact already promised the world it won't do," he said. > > "It's not up to Tony Abbott or this current incumbent ... to go back on our undertakings to the rest of > the world, and to ourselves." > > A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott, a former trainee for the priesthood, said the principle applied to other > religions as well as the Catholic Church. > > She said it was common sense to allow religious organisations to set criteria for their staff. > > > ************************************************************************* > This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without > permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, > scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal > copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of > the copyright owner, except for "fair use." > > > > ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
