Politics

Satanists Are Looking Forward To Being Protected Under ScoMo’s New Religious Discrimination Laws

"Should this Parliament vote to enact this legislation then Satanists across Australia will aggressively use this law to ensure that we can access all the privileges it guarantees."

Noosa Temple of Satan, Satanists

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A group of Queensland Satanists have made a spectacular submission on the government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, vowing to access “all the privileges it guarantees” if the laws pass.

“Praise be Scott Morrison – if his Religious Freedom Bill is passed by Parliament it will open the gates of Hell onto the Streets of Australia,” The Noosa Temple Of Satan said in a statement to Junkee.

Over the weekend the temple made a submission on the bill and posted it to their Facebook page, listing street evangelism, school chaplaincy programs and access to public facilities as some of the privileges they’d look forward to accessing under the new laws.

Have you sent in your submission? https://www.ag.gov.au/Consultations/Pages/religious-freedom-bills-second-exposure-drafts.aspx

Posted by Noosa Temple of Satan on Friday, 17 January 2020

“Satanism has a message so powerful that we do not need laws to protect it,” the statement starts.

“Simply put Noosa Satanists feel the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill is completely unnecessary and a waste of this Federal Government’s time. Having said that, should this Parliament vote to enact this legislation then Satanists across Australia will aggressively use this law to ensure that we can access all the privileges it guarantees.”

Considering our Prime Minister was aghast at the thought of gender-inclusive toilets, we’d love to see his face if a Satanic group managed to get a devil-worshipper in to preach to school kids.

On face value, the proposed laws make it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their religion, but dig a little deeper and they do a whole lot more than that.

The laws also override existing discrimination laws meaning religious people can freely express whatever homophobic views they like, religious organisations can refuse to hire someone if they’re from a different faith, and medical professions can refuse to perform certain procedures, like abortions for example.

Not surprisingly, that’s left many feeling like the laws are less about protecting religious folk from discrimination and more about giving them a right to discriminate.

Public comment on the second draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill is open until tomorrow. To make a submission or find out more, visit here.