Page 4463 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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I will be interested - and, indeed, my party will monitor this - to see whether there are any areas where this legislation can be abused. I am pleased to see that clause 89 has been inserted by the Labor Party, because I think it will provide a disincentive for people to abuse some of this legislation. Perhaps there is a question - and I am sure Mr Stevenson is going to raise it - of whether we really need this or not. We will see. Other States have it. The problems seem to have been in terms of interpretation and definition rather than how the actual Act has worked and how discriminating circumstances can be resolved.
Clauses 7 and 8 of this Bill are largely intended to attempt to overcome this. I think most examples of discrimination have been put in there, with one very noticeable exception. Clause 15 deals with employer and employee bodies and organisations, and it makes it unlawful for a body or an organisation of employers or employees to stop someone becoming a member on the grounds set out in clause 7. It also makes it unlawful for such an organisation to deny access to a member or to deprive a member of rights of membership.
But there is no provision in this Bill to stop discrimination against someone because that person is not a member of a trade union, an employee or employer body or a business group, or a students association. We are concerned about the issue of compulsory membership of organisations - of unions, of some employer bodies, and of student unions; hence, the two amendments we would seek to make to clause 7. With those amendments, I think that class of persons or those areas of discrimination will be well and truly covered. But, in the view of the Liberal Party, that is a glaring omission and something that we would seek to address.
I know that Mr Berry does not like that idea, but that is absolutely typical. This is meant to be a discrimination Act - an Act against discrimination - and we certainly do not like the idea of someone being discriminated against because they refuse to join a particular body. This is meant to be a free country, and I thought that was what this Bill was all about.
Mr Berry: It is a free country because of trade unions, Bill.
MR STEFANIAK: It is a free country because of a number of other things, Mr Berry; for instance, because a lot of soldiers went off and died in a few world wars, because we have a Westminster style of democracy and because a lot of reforms were made in the nineteenth century when we pioneered democracy. There are a hell of a lot of reasons.
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