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In January this year, Aussie tennis legend Margaret Court was persecuted for her view that marriage is between a man and a woman. On the 50th anniversary of her world record 24 tennis Grand Slams, she was presented with a trophy in Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena, but not allowed to speak.

At the same time, lesser champions John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova ranted against her in a different part of the venue.

Now Margaret Court is being penalised again. But this time, the poor and needy in the community are being made to suffer as well.

Margaret now pastors the Victory Life Centre church in Perth. Among other things, her church provides free food, clothing and shelter for the growing number of people who need it.

The Margaret Court Community Outreach used to distribute 30 tonnes of food each week. But since the COVID pandemic hit and many people lost their jobs, they’ve been handing out 70 tonnes – more than double. As Andrew Bolt said on his Sky News program on 8 October, “Something had to give!”

So Victory Life approached LotteryWest. This body runs WA lotteries and is required to donate to charitable causes. Victory Life applied for a grant to buy a freezer van to help support desperate WA families.

But LotteryWest said no.

It told staff from the Victory Life Community Services Inc that they needn’t apply in the future either. It said LotteryWest is a major sponsor of the Gay Lesbian Mardi Gras. Any Victory Life request would not be successful because of Pastor Margaret Court’s views on marriage and gender issues.

“We do not discriminate,” LotteryWest told the staff. “We sponsor the LGBT parade, but not this church charity outlet.”

LotteryWest does not appear to know what “discriminate” means!  

It is yet another case of people suffering discrimination for stating a view shared by many other Australians. Free speech is under attack in this country as never before.

Curiously, section 62 of the WA Equal Opportunity Act says it is an offence to discriminate against another person in the provision of grants on the grounds of a person’s religious convictions.

I have written to the WA Equal Opportunity Commission. I have asked them require LotteryWest – a WA government agency – to obey section 62 of the Equal Opportunity Act, and stop discriminating against Victory Life Community Services, whose help for the needy is vital during the COVID pandemic.

Margaret Court is planning to lodge a complaint against Lotterywest with WA's Equal Opportunity Commission.

But in the meantime, we need to send a strong statement to Lotterywest that religious discrimination is not okay and that the decision should be reversed immediately.

You can sign the open letter to Lotterywest at the following link:

https://familyvoice.org.au/campaigns/tell-lotterywest-don-t-discriminate-against-margaret-court

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice

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Tennis champion Margaret Court has criticised the West Australian Lotterywest charity that rejected her grant application last week, because she holds faith-based views on marriage and gender.

Margaret Court’s charity had invited Lotterywest to donate funding for a freezer truck that will assist the delivery of food to the needy. Lotterywest denied the grant, informing Margaret’s husband the charity would not receive any funding. According to reports, Lotterywest said they would never give Margaret Court funding, as Lotterywest is the principal sponsor of WA's Pride Festival.

“As you know there's been a bit of publicity out there and just something I'd like to put straight,” Court said at her church service on Sunday.

“I know when you're going through persecution, and Barry and Brian went into lottery's commission, and you know there was discrimination that came through all that.

“But some of the things that the press is saying from many years ago – that I said transgender, lesbians, that their children are the devil - I never said that”.

She said the Margaret Court Community Outreach is committed to helping all people -  “whether you're a lesbian, whether you're transgender … we love all people and down in our MCCO all people are accepted in there.”

“I'll always stand for marriage and that's my beliefs and I shouldn't be discriminated because of my beliefs.  And I will always stand with the word of God and it's been brought up in me since I was little so I'm not going to change for anybody,” she explained.

Sign our petition calling on Lotterywest to reverse its discriminatory decision

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Our October OnPoint magazine features the extraordinary story of Tasmanian Liberal Senator Claire Chandler, so I thought I should update you on the latest news.

Last month, Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Sarah Bolt ordered the senator to attend a “conciliation conference” with a person who claimed to be offended and insulted by a newspaper column she wrote in July.

The senator had pointed out the significant danger to women in contact sports from transgender women who, being born male, were significantly bigger and stronger. She also said: “Women’s sport, women’s toilets and women’s changing rooms are designed for the female sex and should remain that way.”

I believe most Australians would agree. But Sarah Bolt told Senator Chandler that these reasonable words were potentially “prohibited conduct” under Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act.

Section 17 of this law says a “person must not engage in any conduct which offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules another person on the basis of an attribute…” (including race, age, sexual orientation, religious or political belief and gender identity).

I’ve lost count of the newspaper columns that offended and insulted my political or religious beliefs! But I didn’t call the thought police.

Last week I wrote about Bernard Gaynor being hauled before the NSW Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.  Archbishop Porteous had the same experience when he was hauled before the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner in 2015, merely for distributing a booklet about his church’s teaching on marriage.

Bravo Senator Chandler for standing firm!

On 30 September she said: “I have written to Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner to reiterate that I will not be withdrawing, retracting, modifying or apologising for my comments on women’s sport and women’s facilities…

“All Australians should be free to discuss public policy issues and to acknowledge the realities of biological sex without being silenced by anti-discrimination tribunals and unelected bureaucrats…

“The appropriate course of action for the Commissioner to now take is to dismiss this complaint as vexatious, trivial and without substance…”

The Commissioner didn’t do that. Instead she required Senator Chandler to sign a confidentiality agreement that would have prevented her speaking about the complaint process. Senator Chandler refused to sign.

The complainant backed down. He withdrew his complaint. Victory!

On 1 October Senator Chandler wrote: “I have learnt this afternoon via the media that the anti-discrimination complaint against me has been dropped by the complainant. I am both relieved at this outcome and furious at the abuse of process which has occurred.

“If I had not refused to sign a confidentiality agreement, I would be currently sitting in a conciliation conference on the basis of a spurious complaint which the Commissioner had no legal authority to accept…

“It’s clear that the Anti-Discrimination Act needs to be substantially amended to prevent these tactics being used in the case of frivolous complaints…”

This is a victory for free speech, and I salute Senator Chandler for her courage. But the battle, which FamilyVoice has been waging for two decades, continues.

With your prayers and support, we can keep fighting!

Peter Downie - National Director

FamilyVoice Australia

Netflix

A grand jury in the US has indicted Netflix over its controversial “Cuties” film.

On September 23, a Tyler County Grand Jury in Texas indicted Netflix over the film due to its “promotion of lewd material depicting a child”.

Texas Rangers served the company with a Summons on October 1.

It is a State Jail Felony, however, no jail time applies to criminal convictions relating to companies.

“After hearing about the movie Cuties and watching it, I knew there was probable cause to believe it was criminal,” said Criminal District Attorney Lucas Babin.

“The legislators of this state believe promoting certain lewd material of children has destructive consequences.  If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn’t the need to prosecute more, not less?

“A grand jury Tyler County found probable cause for this felony, and my job is to uphold the laws of this state and see that justice is done,” said Babin.

Netflix has faced a fierce backlash over the film with the streaming giant losing 2.5 million subscribers.

On September 4th the Andrews’ government narrowly passed the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (State of Emergency Extension and Other Matters) Bill 2020 with the help of three cross benchers - Greens, Reason Party and Animal Justice Party.

The bill extended the government’s emergency powers for a further six months and allows a state of emergency to be declared in rolling four-week blocks.

The Coalition, most cross benchers, and many thousands of concerned Victorians, including FamilyVoice supporters, opposed the extension of powers.

The Herald Sun (25th August 20) stated, “State of emergency powers allow our democratically elected governments to, for a limited time, impose a level of authoritarian rule. These powers, by their nature and ambit, are in essence the opposite of our cherished, democratic freedoms. If left open-ended, such extraordinary powers invite abuse and result in an incremental move towards authoritarianism.”

Now the Andrews government is trying to push through another radical piece of legislation – what former Victoria Police chief commissioner Kel Glare calls a “dangerous grab for unfettered power.”

The Covid-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2020 allows the ongoing operation of essential services like courts, local governments, support payments, permits, hearings and renewals etc.

Dangerously, however, the bill also gives authorised officers - anyone nominated by the Department of Health and Human Services - the right to detain, as long as necessary, those whom they deem to be a serious risk to public health.

Victorians would not even need to be diagnosed with COVID-19 to be subject to detention, but merely a "close contact" of someone with the virus - and authorised officers’ decisions would be difficult to contest.

Significant abuses of power and the disregarding of checks and balances have already occurred during the state government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 outbreak. The government should not be handed open-ended permission to trample the rights of Victorians.

The bill has already passed the state’s lower house. Please tell upper house MPs that you are not happy with the Andrews governments power grab and that the ‘Omnibus’ bill must be amended.

Or use this link below to enter your address, then > region > view member. Send an email to the address provided, letting your representative politely know how you feel.

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/electorates

Victoria’s Upper House members of parliament by region

 

Eastern Metropolitan

Bruce Atkinson                                 bruce.atkinson@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Matthew Back                                   matthew.bach@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Rodney Barton                                  Rodney.Barton@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Shaun Leane                                      shaun.leane@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Sonja Terpstra                                   Sonja.Terpstra@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Eastern Victoria

Melina Bath                                        melina.bath@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Jeff Bourman                                     jeff.bourman@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Jane Garrett                                       jane.garrett@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Harriet Shing                                      harriet.shing@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Edward O’Donohue                        Edward.ODonohue@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

Southern Metropolitan

Georgie Crozier                                 georgie.crozier@parliament.vic.gov.au;

David Davis                                         david.davis@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Enver Erdogan                                   enver.erdogan@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Clifford Hayes                                    Clifford.Hayes@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Nina Taylor                                         Nina.Taylor@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

South East Metropolitan

Tien Kieu                                             Tien.Kieu@parliament.vic.gov.au;

David Limbrick                                   David.Limbrick@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Gordon Rich-Phillips                        gordon.rich-phillips@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Adam Somyurek                               adem.somyurek@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Lee Tarlamis                                       lee.tarlamis@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

Western Metropolitan

Catherine Cumming                        Catherine.Cumming@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Bernie Finn                                         bernie.finn@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Cesar Melhem                                   cesar.melhem@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Ingrid Stitt                                           Ingrid.Stitt@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Kaushaliya Vaghela                         Kaushaliya.Vaghela@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

Western Victoria

Stuart Grimley                                   Stuart.Grimley@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Bev McArthur                                    Beverley.McArthur@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Andy Meddick                                   Andy.Meddick@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Jaala Pulford                                      jaala.pulford@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Gayle Tierney                                    gayle.tierney@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

Northern Metropolitan

Nazih Elasmar                                    nazih.elasmar@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Craig Ondarchie                                craig.ondarchie@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Fiona Patten                                      fiona.patten@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Samantha Ratnam                           samantha.ratnam@parliament.vic.gov.au;

 

Northern Victoria

Mark Gepp                                         mark.gepp@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Jaclyn Symes                                      jaclyn.symes@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Wendy Lovell                                     wendy.lovell@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Tania Maxwell                                   Tania.Maxwell@parliament.vic.gov.au;

Tim Quilty                                           Tim.Quilty@parliament.vic.gov.au;