Page 4487 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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The Chief Minister was not, of course, involved in the development of this legislation, except for a minor aspect which she referred to - changing one of the many definitions. The only involvement she had was in that. When the matter was being drafted it started off, in fact, from us, as it did from the Labor Party, as the proposed Anti-Discrimination Bill.
I want to put these matters squarely and fairly. I am aggrieved by the Chief Minister's refusal to apologise to the house. We will consider until Thursday what we should do about her. However, the fact is that we both used the term "Anti-Discrimination Bill". But then parliamentary counsel thought - and I recall this very clearly - that it should be "Discrimination Bill". The Bill deals with anti-discrimination and it deals with discrimination.
There are lots of passages in this Bill that allow discrimination. I will not bore the house, but members can go through them in the index. They will see that the Bill really deals with discrimination. It allows discrimination in a whole range of areas. As I said, when we get to it, it will be an interesting topic. Part IV lists - as exceptions to unlawful discrimination - insurance, superannuation and religious bodies.
I invite members to look at the table of provisions. If they look at Part III, they will see 14 headings for unlawful discrimination. In Part IV they will see 10 general exceptions to unlawful discrimination and nine exceptions relating to sex, marital status or pregnancy, which include genuine occupational qualifications, clubs for one sex, services for members of one sex, and pregnancy. Turn the page to page iii, and you see under Division 4 exceptions relating to religious or political convictions.
I invite members going through this index to note that the majority of provisions deal with discrimination, not with anti-discrimination. Let us be quite frank about this. Human rights is about discrimination as well as anti- discrimination. There has been a slow process of eroding discrimination; but the fact is that, if you look at the preamble to the Bill on the front page - as my colleague Mr Jensen has just reminded me - you will see that it says, "An Act to render certain kinds of discrimination unlawful and to provide for related matters".
We have a tendency in this Assembly - we are new - to want to follow other States. There is good sense in that. There is good sense for a number of reasons to follow New South Wales, because we are surrounded by that State. We have drafted here probably the best and latest version of this Bill in the British Commonwealth. This evening I have been looking through the Canadian legislation and similar legislation in North America at large. On balance - there is an argument either way - I believe that we should adopt
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