The Australian Christian Lobby announced this afternoon that the cross-border NSW homosexual vilification complaint against Brisbane mother Katrina Tait has been dropped by the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board after the complainant withdrew his complaint.
“Earlier this year Mrs Tait made a Facebook post in support of ACL’s petition against Brisbane City Council’s promotion of drag queen story time,” ACL NSW director Kieren Jackson said. “Her post then became the subject of a NSW resident’s vilification complaint despite the post being made by a Queensland resident who made no mention of homosexuality.”
Details of the case emerged during a parliamentary inquiry into whether the Board should reject unmeritorious cases at the earliest opportunity.
“It is great that this worthless claim has been dropped. What is disappointing is that the complaint got this far,” Mr Jackson observed. “The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board could have saved Katrina a lot of unnecessary time and stress if it had dismissed the complaint straight away. This complaint was without basis, but the process was the punishment.”
“The ACL assists many everyday Australians like Katrina. They are concerned that they will be targeted with claims for stating reasonable opinions on controversial issues. No one should face the harassment Katrina did for simply trying to protect their children.
“Vilification claims must not be used to silence reasonable opinions. Discrimination law should not be used to cancel people and silence their ideas. The Australian Christian Lobby supports the efforts of the Hon. Mark Latham MLC to reform the law to prevent the Board accepting unmerited claims. The NSW Parliament should support these reforms.
ENDS
