And this one is for E: Minister Free to call Scientologists Bastards: Rann
THE South Australian Government was at odds with the Church of Scientology last night after backing the right of a senior state minister to brand its members “bastards”.
Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith has also questioned the organisation’s tax-free status in comments to an anti-Scientology group called Anonymous, which it posted on popular internet site YouTube.
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While declaring Dr Lomax-Smith was entitled to her opinion, a spokeswoman for Premier Mike Rann distanced the Government from the remarks, saying they represented a private view.
…In a statement issued yesterday by its Sydney office, the church said Dr Lomax-Smith had a duty to refrain from making derogatory public comments that promoted intolerance.
Her criticism of the controversial church was captured on video during a demonstration by Anonymous outside the church’s Adelaide headquarters in May.
The footage shows an exchange between Dr Lomax-Smith and the masked anti-Scientology protesters in which she asks: “Are all of you related to someone who has been sucked in?”
In an apparent reference to the church, she says: “They should be taxed, the bastards. They shouldn’t be tax-free; we’re subsidising them. I like your masks.”
The High Court in 1983 upheld that Scientology was a religion and entitled to tax exemptions available to other churches.
Dr Lomax-Smith declined The Australian’s request for an interview yesterday, but issued a statement confirming she had spoken to the Anonymous protesters. “It was a private conversation and I was expressing a personal view,” she said in an email response. “There’s nothing more to add.”
Mr Rann’s spokeswoman agreed Dr Lomax-Smith had been speaking in a private capacity and had the right to do so.
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Australian women? Loudly and discordantly expressing opinions? I’m shocked, shocked I say!
Guess ‘free speech’ is what happens when women get the vote and get into politics…
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