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The
email below ( Posted: 21-12-05) was sent by Joe Cambria to the Chief
Executive Officer of the Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria challen=
ging
the Equal Opportunity Commission to take action about an anti-Muslim arti=
cle
that was in fact much more scathing than the Christian Pastors the EOCV h=
as
prosecuted. Dear
Ms. Szoke: I
have just read a piece in Brookesnews.com referring to the racial
vilification laws as the Bracks blasphemy law=
s. The
writer, Mr. Gerry Jackson, makes reference to the case your office brought
against the two Christian ministers and the "aggressive" way in
which your office persecuted these two men. The pastors were, as we are t=
old,
simply quoting passages from the Koran and then asking the congregation to
"pray and love all Muslims". This
has a certain smell about it, Ms Szoke, remin=
ding
many of us of what used happen in Star Chamber proceedings in earlier tim=
es
in England when people were prosecuted in secret trials for speaking up
against the Crown. I
believe Mr. Jackson has thrown down the gauntlet with this piece. He
describes himself as an active liberal party member daring your office to
prosecute him. Mr. Jackson is portraying the Islamic Prophet as a vile
person. I don't believe your office can avoid prosecuting Mr. Jackson jud=
ging
from what he wrote in this article, which has been posted on the web. Ms.
Szoke, if I can please make an observation? I=
f you
fail to go after Mr. Jackson, the legal attack against the two pastors
becomes obviously selective and capricious, smacking of opportunism. If y=
ou
move to prosecute Mr. Jackson, the political position you place the State
Government in could have adverse political consequences. After all, going
after a Liberal Party member who writes a piece and then publishing it on=
the
web that directly flies in the face of the blasphemy laws will simply look
like a Stalinist prosecution. I
am sure that, as a matter of courtesy, Mr. Jackson will be notifying the
pastors' legal representatives about his article written in Melbourne and
therefore violating the Bracks Blasphemy laws=
. He
will, I'm sure also notify these representatives of your failure to act if
you fail to bring action. As
you can see, prosecuting a Liberal Party member will smack of Stalinism.
However failing to act will immediately jeopardize the current ongoing ca=
se. I
am also copying this email to several people including the leader of the
opposition, the Prime Minister and several journalists to ensure this
correspondence receives the proper attention. See here for the article in question. Below
is the evasive reply (in rather poor English) received by Mr
Cambria plus a rejoinder from Mr Cambria "Thank
you for your email of 20th December 2005 concerning issues in relation to=
the
Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (Vic) ("the RRTA"), whi=
ch
also contained a recent article by Gerard Jackson from BrookesNews.com. Y=
our
email attributed the Equal Opportunity Commission with a particular role
under the RRTA which is incorrect - I would like to address these
inaccuracies. In
particular, apart from very limited circumstances, the Commission is not
responsible for initiating and pursuing complaints under the RRTA. Compla=
ints
under the RRTA are lodged by individuals or representative bodies who fir=
stly
decide whether they wish to initiate a complaint, and then decide how far=
they
wish to pursue the matter. The
vast majority of complaints are finalised in =
the
course of the Commission's impartial investigation and conciliation
processes, however, if complaints are not conciliated, the person or body=
who
lodged the complaint can have the matter referred to the Victorian Civil =
and
Administrative Tribunal ("VCAT"). Where
a request is made to refer a complaint to VCAT the Commission has no
discretion in the matter and must act on that request. The Commission is =
not
a party to hearings at VCAT and plays no part in their determination. I n=
oted
above that there are very limited circumstances in which the Commission c=
an
initiate a complaint under the RRTA. Thus far the Commission has not used
this power. The
other matter you raised concerned the actions of a former staff member of=
the
Commission, in relation to the seminar that was the subject matter of the
recent RRTA case involving the Catch the Fire Ministry. In the context of=
the
Commission's role under the RRTA that I have described above, the Commiss=
ion
upholds the most stringent standards of confidentiality, impartiality and
political independence in all its dealings. The Commission does not pre-e=
mpt
or manufacture complaints - we provide a free, impartial and confidential=
complaint
resolution service for people, and offer education and information about
discrimination, sexual harassment and racial and religious vilification. =
The
Commission's education and complaint resolution functions are kept strict=
ly
separate and all complaints are subject to strict confidentiality standar=
ds.
If a staff member, past or present has acted improperly they did so witho=
ut
the authority of the Commission, and all Commission staff are regularly
reminded about the parameters of their role and the differences between
outreach, education and advocacy. With
regard to the article your forwarded to me I d=
o not
intent to make any comment. Dr
Helen Szoke, Chief Conciliator/Chief Executive
Officer, Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria, Level 3, 380 Lonsdale Str=
eet,
Melbourne, VIC 3000 Ph: (03) 9281 7170 Fax: (03) 9281 7159 web: www.e=
oc.vic.gov.au
Dear
Ms. Szoke: Thank
you for taking time to reply. It's not obvious little can be done about G=
erry
Jackson's accusations regarding the Islamic Prophet. I spoke with Gerry a=
bout
the issues you mentioned in your letter and he suggests you simply follow=
the
same course of action your office did when it went after the two Christian
Pastors. That is, request May Helou from your
office to ask a couple of Islamic converts to read the contents of Gerry's
article and file a complaint. It doesn't seem very hard does it, after all
Ms. Helou seems to be accomplished in such ta=
sks?
As I see it, what's "good" for the Pastors is "good" =
for
Gerry Jackson, don't you think? |
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The original
for this material comes from John Ray’s weblog: Australian Politics |