Christian ban smacks of hubris

The McGowan government in Western Australia has pushed the boundaries of cancel culture to a new and worrying level by banning a Christian organisation from hiring public facilities because its views do not align with those of WA Labor. The policies used to stop the Australian Christian Lobby from booking Perth Concert Hall and the Albany Entertainment Centre may well contravene anti-discrimination laws. But it is, above all, an insidious form of censorship that would be more at home in a totalitarian state. Under new guidelines introduced by the McGowan government, venues administered by the Perth Theatre Trust will not accept bookings by individuals or organisations “where the content of the event does not represent the views of the West Australian government or the vast majority of Western Australians”.

The ACL was deemed too political, presumably because of its objection to the McGowan government’s voluntary assisted dying legislation that came into effect this month. What next? Will the Perth Theatre Trust be required to ensure future plays pass the McGowan political sniff test before being considered? This is routine in countries such as Singapore, where playwrights must submit scripts to government censors before going into production. Will ethnic minorities be banned because they fail to align with the views of “the vast majority of Western Australians”? Or is the ban reserved only for Christians? One thing that is clear is there is no bar on gold-standard hypocrisy from Labor members in the west. Political events may be banned, but not if they are booked by members of the McGowan team. Government-supported venues were hired out to WA Labor Party candidates and the party in the lead-up to the March election.

Banning opponents the right to access publicly funded spaces smacks of hubris and has no place in a democratic state.