Rocco Mimmo
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Rocco Mimmo, Sydney lawyer and chairman of the Ambrose Centre for Religious Liberty, says the Church has a role in public debate and that it was a "great relief" that a proposed national human rights act appeared to be on hold.
Rather than a Charter of Rights, Australia may end up with a Parliamentary committee which will scrutinise bills that come before the House for compatibility with the international instruments on human rights, Mr Mimmo believes, according to Sydney Archdiocese' Catholic Communications.
Such an arrangement, he believes, would pose far less of a threat to religious freedom, citing what has happened in Britain since the UK adopted a Charter of Rights in 1998 as an example of why Australians should be wary of creating its own Charter of Rights.
"Increasingly, the Act in Britain has been interpreted as individual rights and the state and public authorities have been called on to mandate lifestyle choices in the name of equality and/or human rights," he is cited as saying.
Other interpretations of Britain's Charter of Rights have led to incidents such as the Anglican church being forced to employ a homosexual as a youth worker and pay him compensation for initially refusing him employment; an English nurse being fired from her job after offering to say a prayer for the 78-year-old woman she was caring for and the owner of a hairdressing salon being ordered to employ a Muslim even though she kept her hair covered at all times as part of her religion.
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Relief as Australian Human Rights Charter Put on Hold (Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese)