Church Schools Beware!
In the week before Parliament rose for the Christmas Recess and the March election, some 45 Bills were being pushed through the Legislative Council. As a new member of Parliament, I asked the longest serving member in the Upper House, how we would cope with so much business at the end of the session. I had already experienced a night when we debated until 3:30am in the morning, and we still had 43 Bills to go.
The longest serving member, and the one whom the leaders of political parties constantly refer to for advice is the Hon Rev Fred Nile. Fred’s advice to me, was to watch carefully the fine print as Governments often try to slip amendments through in such a busy time hoping the Opposition and the Cross Bench do not notice.
Hence I was reading the amendment to the Opposition’s amendment to the Anti-Discrimination (Heterosexual Discrimination) Amendment Bill moved by The Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, the sole Australian Democrat in the Upper House. He said in passing, “If the Christian Democratic Party is serious about this issue – Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes said that his party hates all forms of discrimination – it will accept my amendment. I move: That Opposition amendment No. 2, be amended by omitting proposed section 49ZO (3).”
That rang alarm bells with me. We believe in anti-discrimination, but this has to be applied with common sense. For example, I remember being rung for support by a Jewish Aged Person’s Home where a person they had rejected as a suitable member of staff was threatening to take them to the Anti-discrimination Board. I strongly supported the Jewish Home because the person trying to get a job there was a Palestinian Muslim. I think he was trying to make a test case out of his application.
I defended the Jewish community’s decision not to employ him because a Jewish Aged Care Home is a place where senior Jewish citizens come in old age and sometimes frailty, and they deserve to live with tranquil surroundings and without the trauma of having a Palestinian Muslim being among the caring staff.
For example, I did not think the elderly Jews would be tranquil and serene if such a staff person was dispensing their medication. There may have been no danger at all, but perception was the issue.
With the Australian Democrats amendment, no Christian school (in this case they would be the only ones to whom the new law would apply) no Christian school would have the right to choose staff according to Christian values. That is, they would lose the right to reject people who applied for work, who openly rejected Christian values, Christian beliefs, Christian ethics, Christian sexual practices and the like.
The main reason parents pay for their children to attend a private Christian school is that their children might be taught by staff who lived and modelled Christian values. Now, under the Australian Democrats that right would be taken away.
The Hon Dr Arthur Chesterfield Evans said, “This morning Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes said that he was serious about anti-discrimination. Why then are private schools – that is, church schools – allowed to practise sexuality discrimination of any kind? Honourable members who are serious about this bill will support my amendment.”
He knew that in supporting his amendment, all church schools in NSW would lose immediately their right to choose Christian staff. That is not acceptable, because this is a fundamental tenet of such schools, that Christian schools should be led by Christian staff.
Fortunately we were vigilant and noticed the fine print. I am glad both the Labor Government and the Coalition Opposition could see the trap, and they joined with the Christian Democratic Party in defeating the Australian Democrats and their friends, the pagan Greens. Unfortunately the Labor Government in Queensland last week passed such legislation, and now, Christian Schools in Queensland have lost their rights to choose Christian staff.
You have to be alert, even after 3:30am late night sittings, to uphold Christian principles. That is why we need Christians in Parliament to support Christian principles so this state does not go the way of Queensland or the way advocated by the Australian Democrats.
This is GORDON MOYES.
