Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Religious discrimination

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:45): (1484) The mockery of Jesus Christ at Sydney’s recent Mardi Gras highlighted the sickening double standard entrenched in today’s culture. We saw an image of an Aboriginal stripper pretending to spear Jesus at a festival that receives millions of taxpayer funds and has the support and participation of the Prime Minister. This is deeply offensive not only for Christians but also to Indigenous people. But it is not the first time that Christianity has been vilified at a Mardi Gras. In fact it has become an annual sport. We routinely see men parading as sexualised nuns. Throughout the 1990s we saw the fake head of Christian MP Fred Nile paraded on a platter, reminiscent of the beheading of John the Baptist. LGBTIQA+ spokespeople routinely speak about the hurt and harm against their community, and I am asking you now to spare a thought for how men crossdressing as sexualised nuns to a sneering crowd would make those nuns feel – humiliated, denigrated, unsafe, vilified. How would public celebrating of the fantasised beheading of Fred Nile make him and his family feel? Would they feel safe? How on earth has this gone unchecked and unchallenged for over a decade?

Proponents of the Mardi Gras say that it is about celebration. If you have to routinely mock, ridicule and desecrate others to celebrate yourself, it is abuse. Groups that use language such as ‘kindness’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘tolerance’ should be held to the same standard that they are demanding. State and federal governments have laws against vilification and discrimination that are meant to protect people on the basis of race, religion and sexuality. Interestingly, during many of the recent speeches on the anti-vilification bill not once was offence towards Christianity mentioned, not because Christians are not facing hatred but because no-one knows about it. I know many Christians that have lost their job and their reputation and have been threatened or demonised through the media for holding basic Christian beliefs. I know this firsthand. I was vilified and lied about. Let us not forget that according to the media I was apparently anti-gay, and as a result I was kicked out of my political party momentarily. I was punched in the head on the streets of Melbourne in the first week of sitting and I was unable to live in my own home for months. The Mardi Gras claims to be about love, but what we saw last week was completely opposite to it. We cannot pretend that we are an equal and egalitarian society when groups are treated like this. In the interest of restoring respect and reassuring people of faith in this state, the action that I seek is for the Premier to condemn the above actions of the Mardi Gras and ensure that Victorian taxpayer funds do not go towards groups or events promoting Christian vilification.

The PRESIDENT: I think the problem with the action is that it is another jurisdiction. I understand that it was the Mardi Gras in Sydney, which the Premier has not got administration of. We will put it through. She will probably give the answer I have given you, but we will put it through and we will test it.