Western Australia and religious vilification laws

In August 2004, the Western Australian government released a Consultation Paper proposing racial and religious vilification laws.
Our email on this is attached as a pdf document below.

Submissions closed on 3 September 2004, with approximately 2000 submissions received. Many opposed the laws.

The good news is that, on Monday 8 November, the Western Australian government announced that they will not introduce religious vilification laws.

In the preceding two weeks, stronger laws concerning racial vilification had been passed by the parliament. However, the government has decided that religious vilification laws would be divisive!

The Consultation Process:
The government released a Discussion paper in August 2004.

The Consultation paper

Getting the Paper...
1. The Consultation Paper in Word format. Click here.

2. Phone the Office of Multicultural Interests on 08 9222 8800 for copies.

3. The Consultation Paper is also on Office of Multicultural Interests website (or EOC).
Click here for the website.

4. The actual paper is on the right hand side of this page when you click here.

The result
Following a great effort by groups concerned about the impact of the legislation on free speech, the proposal has been dumped. The Cabinet decided to drop the proposal on Monday 8 November.

Two articles in the West Australian commented on the decision and the reaction.

The first said that the Catholic and Anglican church representatives had opposed the law, but the Uniting Church was in favour, with "Social justice consultant Rosemary Hudson Miller saying the move should be widened to protect all vulnerable groups, including homosexuals and the mentally and physically impaired."

In the second article, Ethnic Communities Council of WA president Suresyh Rajan said "The State Government was guilty of "absolute hypocrisy" in dropping the idea of criminal laws against religious vilification."

"Premier, Dr. Gallop said the decision not to try to create religious vilification laws was taken at a Cabinet meeting on Monday. He denied his foreword to the consultation paper was a commitment. He said the need for racial vilification legislation was universally supported. "But in terms of religion, it's highly divisive... one person's religious affirmation can be someone else's vilification," he said."