#ITC23

#ITC23: Sue Hackney, Jim McKenna and Rufus Black on Cobaw (part 1)

In June 2007, a staff member at Cobaw Community Health Services, Sue Hackney, tried to book a camp on Phillip Island for a weekend forum. She was booking on behalf of a group of young people identifying as same sex attracted. The camp manager said they wouldn’t be welcome, because of the religious convictions of the Christian Brethren, which owned and ran the camp. The young people, and Cobaw, brought a complaint which ventilated one of the most significant issues in Australian public life: when should religious beliefs provide an exemption from anti-discrimination law?