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 Tasmania's anti-discrimination watch dog
has decided the Liberal Party and Timber Communities Australia (TCA) have a
case to answer over allegations they incited hatred during last November’s federal
election.
Commissioner Sarah Bolt has referred to the
Anti-Discrimination Tribunal a number of complaints against pamphlets and TV
ads which declared same-sex marriage, as well as the recognition of intersex
conditions, to be "dangerous" and "harmful".
The advertisements were used to dissuade
electors from voting for Green candidates.
One of the complainants, Martine
Delaney, welcomed the referral and said it would give the Liberals and the TCA
an opportunity to defend their conduct.
"Groups like the Liberal Party and
Timber Communities Australia should be able to make their point without
stirring up prejudice against minority groups," Delaney said.
“If you have concerns about another
party’s policies, they should show some facts and explain why those policies
are bad. In none of these cases has any one of these groups attempted to do so.
They’ve just gone, ‘danger, danger, warning, warning’”.
Delaney told GayTAS the TCA and Liberal Party ads shared very similar
characteristics.
“Both groups’ ads featured large red and
black danger signs, and rather than having dot points they had skulls and
crossbones, and both labeled same sex marriage and intersex recognition as
dangerous,” she said.
Delaney was also involved in complaints against
similar election materials published by the Liberal Party and members of the
Exclusive Brethren during the 2006 Tasmanian state election. That case is also currently
before the Tribunal and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act does
not set any fines, and restoration is left to the Tribunal to determine.
Delaney said the cases would break new
legal ground as they involved “matters about classes rather than individuals”.
“If the cases are successful, I’ve asked
that they spend just as much on community education programs as they spent on
the original ads. Why shouldn’t they spend just as much money to correct the
misinformation they spread?
“At the moment it’s unclear where the
Tribunal would go with that. There’s no precedent,” she said.
Delaney rejected claims Tasmania was
still the haven for homophobia it was painted to be a decade ago, and said she
would be treated “no differently in Melbourne or Sydney”.
“The North-West Coast still has pockets
of homophobic people, as does most of Australia, but the North-West Coast has
moved a hell of a long way – as has the rest of Tasmania.”
Delaney said she had involved herself in
continuing that change.
“I’m involved in various LGBT reference
groups, as well as education and training, and generally I poke my head up in
the press.
“By putting the issues in the public eye
you generate discussion and change.”
But it is not all work, she said, citing
her hobbies as playing soccer and stand-up comedy as an out transgender woman.
“It makes people stop and think. But
like any change, it’s a slow process.”
The anti-vilification case is expected
to be completed by the end of 2009.
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