Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will raise just a couple of things. Firstly, I think the government is making a sensible decision here. The Prime Minister did refer to the Exclusive Brethren as an extreme cult—and not without warrant. This is a cult that within recent decades required members to drink whisky because the elect vessel did. It is a cult that requires that women not be in a position of authority over men under any circumstance. More notoriously, it is a cult that separates for life parents from children and children from grandparents and brothers and sisters. It breaks up families in the most cruel circumstances if they happen to leave the cult, because they are excommunicated. The literature on that is far and wide.

So much for freedom of speech and conscience. This clause, if it were allowed to stand, would simply give Exclusive Brethren bosses the right to deprive people in their workplaces of their freedom of speech, of their right to hold discussions. It would deprive them of their right to freedom of association. It would deprive them of their right to join a union. This has nothing to do with whether I like or do not like this organisation; it has everything to do with extending the right of 4,000 people in Exclusive Brethren workplaces to have an association, to have the unions brought in to hold discussions with them. That right—as we have heard from the government—should not be withdrawn by the employer. I might add, where is the conscience against being a member of another organisation? These employers have very prosperous businesses in Australia. They do not mind being part of the organisation of the Australian market, but when it comes to a union they draw the line. It is simply wrong. We should ensure that this excuse for depriving people in workplaces of their rights is not used by any religion—Christian or non-Christian—and it should not be extended to the Exclusive Brethren.