Victory for free speech in Tasmania

[David Nicholls]

MEDIA RELEASE

Victory for Free Speech in Tasmania

Atheist bus-advert rejection to be conciliated

The Office of the Anti-discrimination Commissioner has determined that Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd has a case to answer. A compulsory conciliation conference between the Atheist Foundation of Australia and Metro Tasmania Pty Ltd will take place on 4 August 09.

The initial excuse given by Metro Tasmania was they had changed their policy. Metro Tasmania has now amended that excuse.

Without the insistence of the Atheist Foundation of Australia in sighting the alleged changes to policy, the false Metro assertion that the policy had changed may have gone unnoticed.

President of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, David Nicholls said; “This disclosure came as quite a surprise as we were more interested in the fact that Metro Tasmania bus advertising space had previously contained religious oriented signs on a number of occasions. Even on this, Metro Tasmania has not made any admissions. I am very disappointed with their attitude. Getting to the truth has been akin to pulling teeth.

“I would ask anyone who has knowledge of faith based posters on Metro Tasmania buses in the past to contact our lawyer, James Crotty.”

Contact details:

James Crotty
Phone: (03) 6223 8666
E-Mail: admin@jamescrotty.com.au (mailto:admin@jamescrotty.com.au)

David Nicholls
President
Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc
PMB 6
MAITLAND SA 5573

Phone: (08) 8835 2269
E-Mail: info@atheistfoundation.org.au (mailto:info@atheistfoundation.org.au)

[Donna]

Great result, congrats are in order! :)

[David Nicholls]

Protium & tteyes,

Thanks for that good people; I very much appreciate your kind words. I must admit it has been a considerable trial and often, I had wished it would all go away. But what is at stake here is a very important principle, that being, the freedom to express peaceably views in society, especially those that encourage equality of each person. The laws in Tasmania at least show they are up to the task of recognising discriminatory behaviour when it happens no matter to whom it happens.

The AFA has complaints in progress in other states of Australia as well as putting forward a case to the United Nations against states whose present laws are inadequate. We have fluked being in the position of making a positive contribution to ant-discrimination legislation in Australia.

Even though I have lost some weight over this whole exercise and expect to lose more because of the tensions involved in the effort to have Atheists seen legally no differently than other folk, I probably needed to lose some anyway. :)


David

[Simon Gardner (UK)]

Aah. Progress.

[Fearless]

David vs Goliath... well done!

Like I was saying to a mate the other day who was worried about losing his job. If you know what you are doing is right and you haven't done anything wrong, by rights you should have nothing to worry about, otherwise you may just have grounds to take them to trial.

You knew what was right, you knew they were wrong and you had your day of victory.

Stay true David and these small achievements may pave way for big change in the future, like a ripple in a pond. :)

[SinisterDexter]

Great work and great news. Well done.

[David Nicholls]

Fearless & SinisterDexter,

Ta muchly for your words of encouragement. The pond is huge but thankfully, we have a lot of people throughout the world throwing an ever increasing number of pebbles. ;)

David

[Worldslaziestbusker]

Great news!
This issue got me interested in the AFA website and will garner my membership shortly. Riding the buses in Canberra I found a number of the ads were religious in nature. Seeing the AFA message go past on a bus would have really brightened my day.
Your efforts are appreciated as this is an important issue. Thanks for taking it on. If there are any mundane tasks that can be delegated to help you please make it known.
WLB

[davo]

Great stuff David, a pleasure watching you represent for freedom of expression, in this case for a large proportion of our population without belief.

[David Nicholls]

Worldslaziestbusker & Davo,

I truly value your gracious sentiments but there is a long road ahead yet with complaints to the ‘authorities’ in the mainland states only just begun. And the case we are sending to the United Nations will take a number of years to resolve.

This demonstrates that Australia certainly needs a Bill of Rights even though that has complication with it. The interesting thing about this is that a Bill or Rights would not be necessary if politicians actually did their job without utilising their own personal beliefs in decision making, many of those of a religious flavour. That and ‘dirty’ deals skews politics to the disadvantage of many who elect them.

The long standing deep seated faith component in any society is difficult to uproot. On the other hand, religion is its own worst enemy when it comes to democratic rule. Dogma and democracy cannot abide together comfortably and that is why atheism is becoming more outspoken where it is not oppressed by brute force.

David

[Vonnie]

Well done, David. Positive news indeed.

Vonnie

[David Nicholls]

Vonnie,

Thanks. We have just this minute widely broadcast the Media Release to Australian and overseas media locations. It will be interesting to see if the press is as interested in a positive outcome for Atheism as it was in the rejection of the advertisements.

David

[KeithW]

David will the hearing be "Public" I would like to attend if possible.

[David Nicholls]

KeithW,

Sorry, no. It will be a meeting in private between representatives of Metro, our lawyer, James Crotty and Ms Michelle Parker representing the Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner. I will be linked by phone to the meeting. It is anticipated that it will run for about 2 or 3 hours.

David