Page 1896 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
unlawful for someone to do a public act that is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group of people, and the act is done because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all people in the group. What an irony that this is the exact claim the local Liberals are now trying to prosecute. At the federal level, the Liberals want to repeal the protections against racial vilification, and yet today they are trying to prosecute a case for racial vilification.”
Career-wise these statements and others made during this debate are incredibly damaging to have on the public record for me and there can be no doubt those words have had an effect on me professionally and most importantly personally. This was but one event I do, and my career depends on being able to apply and lobby for funding for projects from both business and government. Given the extremely hurtful and adverse personal and professional statements made by members of the ACT Legislative Assembly who are respected in the community and their obvious government ties, my future business opportunities in some areas are now severely limited. Such political interference has damaged my reputation and my dealings with government and arts community contacts.
Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly should be made aware that their words about non-elected, ordinary members of the public whether negative or positive carry weight. Scoring political points at the expense of someone’s career and well-being was never the intended use of privilege and certainly doesn’t live up to the high standards that I, as a citizen of the Australian Capital Territory, expect from my elected representatives.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video