Vic Equal Opportunity board quits
All but one board member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission have tendered their resignation to Attorney-General Robert Clark.
The final two resignations, which were announced, last night, leave the commission without a functioning governing structure.
The loss of the board members follows Clark’s (pictured) rejection of the newly selected head of the Equal Opportunity Commission, and leaves chairman John Searle, who was handpicked for the position by Clark, as the sole board member.
The board unanimously selected a candidate for the position of commissioner and presented them to Clarke three months ago as replacement for Helen Szoke who resigned from the position of commissioner a year ago.
Board member Carolyn Creswell last night faxed her resignation to Clark’s office stating her disapproval of Clark’s veto of their selected candidate.
''I feel very disappointed that the unanimous recommendation of our seven board members for the candidate of a new commissioner was rejected without any just reason,” she said in her resignation.
''The board conducted a thorough recruitment process that included the use of an executive search agent, advertising the position in newspapers across Australia, and interviewing short-listed candidates.
“On 2 April 2012 … the board forwarded a unanimous recommendation to the Attorney-General. On Friday, 22 June 2012, the Attorney-General rejected the board's recommendation.”
Equal opportunity laws in Victoria have been amended since the election of the Baillieu government to decrease the power of the commissioner and roll back the plans to allow a commissioner to launch public inquiries in serious cases of discrimination.
The five board members who resigned were all appointed by former Attorney-General Rob Hulls with the sixth member, Professor Kuruvilla George, resigning earlier this year after sparking condemnation by publicly opposing same-sex marriage.
The board positions were due to expire in September.
About the Author
Alex Dunkin
"Tall, dark and handsome", and a borderline coffee addict. Grew up in country South Australia prior to travelling and living overseas and then returning to the state to undertake university degrees in journalism and international studies with a focus on the Italian language. Constantly writing new material, both journalistic and creative, with a couple of recent awards under his belt including the youth prize in the New Mardi Gras literature prize.
Comments (4)
John Searle indicated that he "has no issues" with gay marriage, in a recent interview on ABC radio:
http://mikeybear.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/veohrc-chair-john-searle-speaks-out-in-support-of-same-sex-marriage/
It would be excellent if he could be pursued on this angle.
Michael.
is this the path that Victoria is on, following Queensland. Let's hope not. But this is not a good start.
Feels like something is arising there, of no good
radical53, there is "something arising, of no good". It's the evil that reduces homosexuality to a minority and the crusade to crush queer rights.
Robert Clark. You all should know his name. He is the LNP Attorney General of Victoria, the clown who told parliament in a famous hate speech, homosexuality is a destructive lifestyle choice, and threw in it is a sick disease and homosexual molester children more. Now the Equal Opportunity Commission is a wreck, who is surprised people cannot work with Robert Clark?