Weekend Wrap for 19 November 2023

NSW: The NSW government is moving to tighten laws against hate speech, threats and incitement to violence amid concerns criminal provisions introduced five years ago have not resulted in any successful prosecutions. The Jewish Board of Deputies, along with other groups including Faith NSW, have lobbied Premier Chris Minns and the government about laws they have described as “ineffective and impotent”. (11 Nov 2023)
Read more at The Age

WA: Stephen Dawson, Western Australia’s Minister for Minister for Emergency Services; Innovation and the Digital Economy; Medical Research and Volunteering says it’s “scandalous” that the state’s Equal Opportunity laws allow teachers to be sacked over their sexuality, and school students to be expelled. The State’s Attorney General, John Quigley, has recently given a long list of reasons why the legislation has not been updated. Most recently a spokesperson for the minister flagged that the new laws may not be able to proceed until after an update of federal laws was undertaken by the Albanese government, a claim that has been called out by rights advocates and equal opportunity experts. (12 Nov 2023)
Read more at Out in Perth

WA: Premier Roger Cook won’t commit to updating Western Australia’s outdated Equal Opportunities laws before the 2025 state election. The premier denied he’d “fobbed off” the reforms fearing a debate with faith leaders over the issue. The premier said he would continue to work with Attorney General John Quigley about a pathway for the legislation, but acknowledged there was concern within government ranks about the introduction of the laws. (15 Nov 2023)
Read more at Out in Perth

NSW: A Muslim religious leader, who has a history of making anti-LGBTIQA+ comments, has been appointed to New South Wales faith council, which brings together nineteen different religious leaders to provide advice to the government. In 2013, Imam Shadi Alsuleiman delivered a sermon where he accused members of the LGBTIQA+ communities, and people who had sex outside of marriage, of spreading diseases. In his sermon the religious leader described such behaviour as “evil actions”. (15 Nov 2023)
Read more at Out in Perth

VIC: Shepparton Library in Victoria has cancelled a planned Drag Storytime event after it was targeted by protesters. The children’s event was scheduled for Thursday but it was called off after protesters visited the Library on Sunday and staff were forced to lock the facilities doors and call-in police. Goulburn Valley Libraries chief executive Felicity Macchion told the ABC that the decision was made because it was “deemed too unsafe to hold the event”. (16 Nov 2023)
Read more at Out in Perth

NSW: Three of NSW’s largest religious aged care providers will not provide voluntary assisted dying services to residents when the state’s VAD laws become effective on 28 November 2023. Calvary Health Care, which has 16 aged care homes NSW, will not offer voluntary assisted dying (VAD) to NSW consumers when the state becomes the last in Australia to allow terminally ill people to choose the timing of their death. Anglicare, one of NSW’s largest aged care providers with 23 facilities, said they are “opposed to physician-assisted suicide in any form and is instead committed to providing life-affirming care and choice, including palliative care that supports a person’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.” A spokesperson for St Vincent's Care Services, which operates residential aged care facilities in QLD, NSW, and VIC (six in NSW), said that they don't provide VAD, but they “respect resident choice” so will not “block or impede” a resident's access to the service. (16 Nov 2023)
Read more at The Weekly Source

NSW: A powerful multi-faith lobby group launched by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns last month will urge the state’s new Faith Affairs Council to advocate against gay conversion laws that would affect the freedom of religious communities to practise their faith. When asked on Christian radio last month what his community-based lobby Faith NSW would recommend in relation to proposed laws on gay conversion practices, the group’s head Murray Norman said members of Faith NSW agreed on the need to be able to practise their faith. In the interview on 20Twenty show on Christian Vision radio, Mr Norman also explained that Faith NSW would make policy recommendations directly to the Faith Affairs Council, which would then advocate policy positions to government ministers. (16 Nov 2023)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia

TAS: The state government has confirmed that legislation to ban gay conversion therapy in Tasmania will not be introduced this year. A spokesperson for the government said consultation on the ban is still ongoing and they want to ensure that the legislation is correct before introducing it. A “deeply disappointed” Equality Tasmania has called on the government to fulfil its commitment to table the legislation before the end of the year. Victoria, Queensland and the ACT have already banned conversion practices, while the governments of NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have committed to doing the same. (16 Nov 2023)
Read more at Pulse Hobart

VIC: Victoria’s Jewish and Islamic schools will get cash to bolster security and the state Labor government will fund community groups to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia. On Saturday morning, the government announced an $8 million investment to ensure communities feel “safe, welcome and celebrated” with Jewish and Islamic schools to share in $2 million to improve security. The government’s funding package will give the state’s 27 independent Jewish and Islamic schools $20,000 each to install measures such as improved fencing, alarms and CCTV. They will also be able to claim costs for additional security. 18 Nov 2023)
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald