Queer & disabled Territorians face rollback of anti-discrimination protections

Under proposed changes to the Northern Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act (1992), the Country Liberal Party (CLP) intends to scrap a key provision of the Act that provides legal protection to LGBTQIA+ and disabled people, along with other marginalised communities, from vilification and hate speech.

In confirming that it planned to proceed with repealing Section 20A, which was passed by the previous Labor government three years ago, the CLP claimed earlier this year that the provision could lead to people being “attacked for telling a joke”.

The CLP also intends to reinstate Section 37A of the Anti-Discrimination Act, which will give religious schools the right to discriminate against staff based on sexuality, marital status and gender identity.

Responding to the NT Government’s planned changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act, the Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Jeswynn Yogaratnam, said that repealing Section 20A “would leave Territorians unprotected from public hate speech, actions that incite hatred, ridicule, or serious offense against protected attributes such as race, religion, disability, age, gender identity, domestic violence status and more.”

Furthermore, Mr Yogaratnam said that repealing Section 37A of the Anti-Discrimination Act will not only allow religious schools the right to discriminate against staff based on sexuality or beliefs, but would also send a clear message to LGBTQIA+ students at affected schools that “they are not good enough to be teachers or apply for any job in such schools in the future.” Mr Yogaratnam added that “the current law already permits faith-based institutions to hire staff who uphold religious values as required by the role, making this broad exemption unnecessary and harmful.”

A coalition of organisations, led by Equality Australia, last week sent an open letter to NT Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, urging the NT Government to retain all of the current protections in the Anti-Discrimination Act, meet with affected people and communities to hear their experiences and concerns directly, and conduct a proper and comprehensive consultation process before rolling back any of the current protections.

If the CLP’s amendments proceed, the Northern Territory will become the only jurisdiction in Australia where people have no legal protection against vilification.