Sydney (Australia), Oct 31, 2019 (Yes Punjab News)
In response to the Australian Government’s invitation, the Australian Sikh Association (ASA) made a joint submission with United Sikhs to the federal Attorney General on the Religious Discrimination Bills and the impact on Australian Sikhs.
The interest in commenting on the Bills relates to the paramount importance of the protection of the right of freedom of religious belief and practice for Australian persons of Sikh faith and the efficacy of the Bills in doing this.
ASA, the pre-eminent representative body for Sikhs in Australia, operates the Gurdwara Sahib Glenwood in NSW which welcomes a congregation of between 5,000 and 10,000 each week.
United Sikhs is an United Nations affiliated, international, non-profit, non-governmental, humanitarian relief and advocacy organization, aimed at empowering those in need, especially disadvantaged and minority communities across the world. It is registered as a not for profit non-government organisation in 10 countries, including Australia.
“We support wholeheartedly the enactment of the Bills into Australian federal law, which will make it illegal to discriminate on religious grounds in all States. Although it has been the position under Australian federal law that it is unlawful to discriminate on other grounds in certain areas of public life, religion-based discrimination has never been expressly protected by the Australian federal law.
It has been protected in differing degrees by some States and Territory legislation, thereby creating confusion and inconsistency,” said Mejindarpal Kaur, International Legal Director of United Sikhs. who co-signed the submissions which were filed on 2 Oct. 2019.
The submission highlights various daily examples of religion-based discrimination against Australian Sikhs.
Even though the Bills, on their face, endeavour to protect the fundamental human right of freedom of religion of all Australians in certain areas of public life. In our submissions we highlighted that further clarification is necessary to ensure consistent application of the protections intended by the Bills to all Australians.
In particular, the general exceptions need to be simplified and improved with respect to their intent to override inconsistent State and Territory laws which create opportunity for inconsistent religion-based discrimination.
“The status quo position with regards to the protection of religious freedom is plainly unsatisfactory. It not only places Australia far behind the position across all comparable jurisdictions internationally, but also behind our own domestic expectations,” said Balvinder Singh Chahal. Company Secretary of ASA, who co-signed the submission.
Presently, there exist aspects of Australian law which fail to protect these rights. For Australian Sikhs, these include aspects of the law which require the removal of articles of faith such as a Turban and a Kirpan.
Background on Sikhs in Australia Examples of Religious Discriminations against Sikhs
In Australia, the Sikh faith is the fifth largest religion. Victoria has seen the sharpest increase in the number of Sikhs over the last five years, with recent Census data revealing that there are no less than 52,762 Sikhs in Victoria.
NSW has the second largest Sikh population in Australia, where at least 31,737 Sikhs reside, followed by Queensland with 17,433, Western Australia with 11,897 and South Australia with 8,808 living there.
Canberra (ACT) has a total of 2,142 Sikhs, while Northern Territory and Tasmania have smaller populations, of under 700 Sikhs each. In fact, the number of Sikhs living in Australia has risen in the vicinity of 500% in the past 10 years.
We look forward to Australian Sikhs not having to compromise their faith and being able to proudly wear their Kakaar (articles of faith).
