Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Member for Goyder Kezia Purick is pushing for the NT’s Anti-discrimination Act to be reviewed two years on from changes taking effect

Transcript

Member for Goyder Kezia Purick is pushing for the NT’s Anti-discrimination Act to be reviewed two years on from changes taking effect · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We have been speaking about these legislative changes or these
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: changes to the Anti Discrimination Act, and the Independent Member
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: for goid A Kesier Puric is proposing an amendment. She
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  Speaker 1: joins me on the line right now, Good morning to Eukesier.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 3: Now Kezier, what exactly are you proposing?
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  Speaker 2: What I'm proposing is that a clause be included at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the built piece of legislation such that
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  Speaker 2: the legislation has to be reviewed within two or at
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  Speaker 2: two years of operation, and that that review should be
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  Speaker 2: completed within twelve months and delivered to the Parliament.
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  Speaker 3: Now, I know.
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  Speaker 2: Having this kind of clause in a piece of legislation
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  Speaker 2: is not uncommon. It's nothing special, and we have pieces
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  Speaker 2: of legislation on our statute books already that have a
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  Speaker 2: similar clause. So I'm not trying to be tricky at
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  Speaker 2: all with the government. I'm just wanting to put this
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  Speaker 2: clause in because of the huge upheaval controversy surrounding the
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  Speaker 2: fact that the government has excluded the religious or schools
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  Speaker 2: of faith, which proves you weren't excluded, and given that
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  Speaker 2: they say they consulted and they did or the government did,
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  Speaker 2: but then after the consultation, they put some new amendments
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  Speaker 2: in and didn't go back and consult it with anyone.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm trying to stay the government. Look, you're going
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  Speaker 2: to push it through on your numbers anyway, regardless of
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  Speaker 2: the issues and the concerns by stakeholders and community. So
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  Speaker 2: do the decent thing, do the right thing. Say Okay,
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  Speaker 2: we're listening to you. So within two years we'll review
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  Speaker 2: it to see if the impacts that you claimed this
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  Speaker 2: is stakeholders will have happened. And if they have, then
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  Speaker 2: of course government has to address that. But there's no
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  Speaker 2: skin off their nose to do this though. I hope
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  Speaker 2: the government and the opposition will support it. The Independence
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  Speaker 2: have indicated to me they will support it.
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  Speaker 1: So time will tell Teezier are you going to be
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  Speaker 1: Are you going to be supporting the actual act or
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  Speaker 1: the changes the changes when it comes to this discrimination
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  Speaker 1: bill antidiscrimination bill, will you be supporting?
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  Speaker 3: Voting yes and supporting that.
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  Speaker 2: No. I can't support yes for the whole bill because
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  Speaker 2: there's parts of it that are not acceptable to stakeholders
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  Speaker 2: and my stakeholders, my constituent schools, I have, Saint Francis,
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  Speaker 2: the Catholic school. I have sapla Christian school. I've been
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  Speaker 2: written to by parents, I've spoken to the schools. I've
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  Speaker 2: had dialogue with other people not in my electorate. Whilst
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  Speaker 2: the bulk of the amendments and the bill are fine,
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  Speaker 2: but no one has this us with and let's not
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  Speaker 2: get this bogged down with oh, we've got to be
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  Speaker 2: free of discrimination. Well of course we do, and that's
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  Speaker 2: that's accepted across our community. Now it doesn't matter. You
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  Speaker 2: know what the person's attributes are and whether that's expanded
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  Speaker 2: or not. And I'm happy for gude dogs to be
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  Speaker 2: changed to therapy dogs and all that sort of stuff,
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  Speaker 2: you know, contemporary modern that's all fine. But because you've
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  Speaker 2: vessted this clause in government, and because you've you've left
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  Speaker 2: sections in it that are so general and so broad,
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  Speaker 2: it's going to capture all the journalists like yourself, Matt
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  Speaker 2: kaying Ham. And let's not forget a cartoonist down in
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  Speaker 2: Sydney who basically was driven to his death because someone
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  Speaker 2: complained about one of his cartoons. This is a couple
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  Speaker 2: of years back that it was offensive and he got
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  Speaker 2: hauled up towards some human rights commissioner or whatever, and
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  Speaker 2: that led him to his early demise. Now that part
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  Speaker 2: of the bill is not acceptable, so I can't vote
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  Speaker 2: for the whole thing when they've got glaring errors and failings.
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  Speaker 1: Jaze, do you reckon that all of Labour's caucus are
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  Speaker 1: going to vote with them on this or do you
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  Speaker 1: think we're going to see a bit of discontent here
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  Speaker 1: based on exactly the reason.
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  Speaker 3: You've just told me that you're not going to support it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, they don't get a choice, you know, if they're
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  Speaker 2: part of caucus, they've got to vote the way caucus
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  Speaker 2: agrees to vote. You know, there won't be a conscious
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  Speaker 2: vote because if there was, would have indicated that before now.
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  Speaker 2: So whether they support it or not, it's probably irrelevant
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  Speaker 2: because as caucus they'll basically have to do as they're told.
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  Speaker 2: And bearing in mind most of those members, well not most,
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  Speaker 2: quite a few of them will have schools of faith
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  Speaker 2: in their electorate. So clearly they're not listening to their
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  Speaker 2: own constituent schools when it comes to drafting and bringing
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  Speaker 2: legislation to the Parliament, which is pretty poor because you're
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  Speaker 2: there to listen to them. I've heard all the fluffs
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  Speaker 2: from the minister and the Chief Minister and others and
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  Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff. They have not shown me
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  Speaker 2: any evidence. This should be evidence based policy. They have
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  Speaker 2: not shown me any evidence to support the changes in
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  Speaker 2: regards to schools of faith. And why this is such
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  Speaker 2: a broad definition of offensive and insulting, you know, don't
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  Speaker 2: just say oh, it's good, no, give me some evidence,
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  Speaker 2: give me some facts.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and I think that, yeah, I think you've hit
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  Speaker 1: the nail on the head there. And it's the same
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  Speaker 1: as what Lethanokiara was saying earlier as well, is that
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  Speaker 1: it's fine for the government to then meet with the
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  Speaker 1: bishop late yesterday afternoon and say this isn't going to
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  Speaker 1: be a concern because of X, Y and Z reasons.
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  Speaker 1: It's fine for her for the Chief Minister to say
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  Speaker 1: to me on the show yesterday it's not going to
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  Speaker 1: be a concern because of these different reasons. But if
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  Speaker 1: they're not in legislation, if they're not actually in that legislation,
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  Speaker 1: then it does leave you open to you know, to
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  Speaker 1: legalities and to concerns essentially.
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  Speaker 2: And see, the thing is, Katie, you know, like, not
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  Speaker 2: only can you know you say something offensive, my friend
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  Speaker 2: might find what you say offensive. You know, Okay, she
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  Speaker 2: then takes you to court, which or to this commissioner,
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  Speaker 2: any discrimination commissioner, what is she going to be judged
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  Speaker 2: during executioner or in one? Or does it mean then
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  Speaker 2: that I've got to take action in the Supreme Court?
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  Speaker 2: And we all know that, you know, any legal action
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  Speaker 2: that ends you in a court can be stressful. And
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  Speaker 2: we saw what happened to that. You know, the.
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  Speaker 3: Cost Yeah, and costly as.
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  Speaker 2: Well, costly financially and costly you know, emotionally and mentally
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  Speaker 2: to people. Now, you know, like what is this government thinking?
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  Speaker 2: You know, like you know, they're all big talk on
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  Speaker 2: mental health and well being and all that sort of stuff,
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  Speaker 2: and they bring in a piece of legislation that's going
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  Speaker 2: to do the exact opposite, is going to discriminate against
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  Speaker 2: people who choose to get employed or want to get
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  Speaker 2: a job or whatever. Like look at all the community,
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  Speaker 2: Look at all the halls and the things associated with
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  Speaker 2: the church. You know, Yeah, he's got one of my
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  Speaker 2: schools who's got a church hall of school hall and
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  Speaker 2: some some wild biking group or some radical KK group
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  Speaker 2: wants to hire the hall out and they say no,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, your group is immoral or you're discriminating
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  Speaker 2: against that. I'm offended to take that school to court.
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  Speaker 3: And who bloody knows.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I honestly, this is the whole point that
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  Speaker 1: so many of us really don't know, and the government
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  Speaker 1: has not done a good job at explaining it in
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  Speaker 1: any way.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's right, and not responding to the you know,
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  Speaker 2: the Bishop Gousei's and the Catholic dioceses concerns. And I'd
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  Speaker 2: also be interested. Last time, the Law Society of the
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  Speaker 2: MT had serious concerns. I mean we're talking five years
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  Speaker 2: ago in this first this first legislation is looking at
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  Speaker 2: being reviewed and the discussion back then was absolutely atrocious.
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  Speaker 2: Now the laws had serious concerns then, and I haven't
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  Speaker 2: seen any documentations on them this time to see whether
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  Speaker 2: of those concerns have been alleviated. So it's not people
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  Speaker 2: like me and churches and stuff like that. You've got
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  Speaker 2: the legal profession, yeah, saying the legislation is crook.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Kezia, we are going to have to get ready
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  Speaker 3: to wrap up.
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  Speaker 1: But I do want to ask or Jerry Woods just
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  Speaker 1: text through actually, and Jerry said, perhaps labor members can
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: abstain or not turn up. He reckons that they apparently
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  Speaker 1: did that with the MacArthur River vote.
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  Speaker 2: Well that's right, Malandarry McCarthy the Senate across the floor
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  Speaker 2: when it came to the MacArthur River vote.
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  Speaker 3: So who knows.
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  Speaker 2: People, I could have got a lot more courage than
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  Speaker 2: the current proper study labor politician, I can tell you now, Caje.
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  Speaker 1: Well let's see what happens. Hey, I've got a question
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  Speaker 1: from a listener, Kezi. Just very quickly, can I ask
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  Speaker 1: you about the rural school bus service and whether their
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: performance are based. The service is rapidly getting worse with
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  Speaker 1: kids yesterday, I believe waiting at GSLC for a bus
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  Speaker 1: home that was forty minutes late showing up Katie.
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  Speaker 2: This is CDC, the bus provider, but it's not their fault.
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  Speaker 2: They can't get bus drivers for their buses for the
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  Speaker 2: schools bus runs as well as for the Tawny Canoe
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  Speaker 2: to runs because the bloody violence and the social upheaval,
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  Speaker 2: you know, but they can't get the staff. So I
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  Speaker 2: say to the schools and the listener, please ring your
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  Speaker 2: school or are it's sad to say go to Facebook?
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  Speaker 2: But go to CDC's Facebook site and every day they
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  Speaker 2: put up information about which routes are changing, not only
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  Speaker 2: for schools but also for county stuff and just taking
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  Speaker 2: people around the community. This comes back to the law
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  Speaker 2: and order issue. There's no not enough bus drivers because
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  Speaker 2: they're set up with being attacked in their workplace and
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  Speaker 2: so we're stuck with the situation. I'm sorry to the listener.
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  Speaker 2: Ring your school or have a look at that site
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  Speaker 2: to find out what's happening with the rules.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and Kisi, I hope you're feeling better soon. I
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  Speaker 1: know that you are having to do Parliament remotely and
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  Speaker 1: certainly working remotely.
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  Speaker 3: You don't sound will we hope you recover quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Coti, thank you