An incredulous Karl Stefanovic of the Today show this morning interviewed attorney general George Brandis on the subject of the conservative marriage bill they want to introduce into parliament for debate. Stefanovic, understandably, seemed gobsmacked by the idea that in 2017 people in the gov were proposing laws that would see gays refused service in shops because they're gay, saying "What is this, the 60's?"
If the RWNJ's thought they were going to get support from Brandis to defend their discriminatory bill they were severely disappointed. I'm no fan of "it's OK to be a bigot" Brandis, but very occasionally he does get something right. As he did on this occasion.
You can watch the video of the exchange at the link.
“My own view is that people, like ministers of religion, should not be obliged to conduct a ceremony of marriage against the teachings or doctrines of their church and Senator Dean Smith’s bill does provide an exemption of that kind,” he said.
“The exemption can’t be so wide that it basically throws in the bin the whole of anti-discrimination law.”
When asked by TODAY co-host Karl Stefanovic about inclusions in a bill drafted by conservative Liberal senator James Paterson, which would give business owners the right to refuse service to gay people, Mr Brandis said the legislation would be “morally wrong”.
“It’s already against the law,” Senator Brandis said. “If you are a gay man or a gay woman and you go into a florist and say ‘I’d like to buy a bunch of flowers’, it’s just wrong and illegal for florist to say ‘I don’t’ serve gay people’ just as it would be wrong or illegal for the florist to say to an indigenous person ‘I don’t serve indigenous people’.
“If it’s legally and morally wrong to discriminate against one gay person, I don’t know how it becomes right to discriminate against two.” Nine News *watch video at the link
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