The Morrison Government Sectarian Sleaze Cult Persecution Act got a drubbing last night:
The government suffered a major defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives overnight as MPs debated its contentious religious discrimination laws in a sitting which lasted until dawn was breaking over Canberra.
In dramatic scenes, several of the government’s own MPs voted with the opposition to have the government’s own bill amended.
It’s not unusual for Liberal politicians to cross the floor, but it is highly unusual for five to do so at once.
…Liberals Katie Allen, Bridget Archer, Fiona Martin, Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman all voted with Labor and the crossbench for protections against school discrimination to be extended to transgender students.
The bill now sits before the Senate, where it will be debated again, possibly changed again, and then put to a vote.
My view on this is the letter of the law is not the point. It’s the vibe of the thing and it’s going to promote atavistic attitudes no matter the “protections”. See the various Sleaze Cult schools around the country already jumping the shark over the past few weeks.
At the risk of conflating the personal and the political, there are a couple of voices conspicuously absent in this process that have me wondering. Where were openly gay reps Trevor Evans, Angie Bell and Tim Wilson last night?
The last of the three is most interesting. Isn’t Tim Wilson a “Modern Liberal”?
Was he too busy to cross the floor?
The $3300-per-head “small private dinner” – with guest speaker Tim Wilson – thrown by the Tasmanian Liberals’ “Leaders Forum” in Canberra on Wednesday night will surely add some coins to the campaign coffers.
We know Tim is capable of great wrath and bubble, after his performance when Labor sought to take back some super rorts last election, not to mention his prominence during the gay marriage debates.
He does have a record of being incensed by whacko notions of encroachment upon free speech. In his days at the IPA he bent over backward to shut down climate science because it was apparently all biased. Then, oddly, his stint as Human Rights Commissioner was defined by a libertarian attitude (which, in some ways, I agreed with).
Increasing the mystery, supporting the medieval Sleaze Cult Persecution Act doesn’t strike me as “liberal” or “modern”.
When it comes to the senate, Dean Smith and Nita Green will be in the hot seat next.
