Fed: Bid for
Senate inquiry into
Scientology fails
Publication: AAP Political News
By
Gabrielle Dunlevy and Bonny
Symons-Brown
CANBERRA,
March 11 AAP - Labor and the coalition have been accused of choosing
to look away from claims of abuse in the Church of Scientology,
by blocking a
Senate investigation into the tax-free status of religious groups.
Independent
senator Nick Xenophon on Thursday failed to win sufficient support
for an inquiry into whether church groups should be subjected to a
public
benefit test, like that in the UK.
His
move was
prompted by complaints from former members of the Church of Scientology,
and
"hundreds" more allegations since first raising the issue.
Claims
of forced abortions, imprisonment in boot camps and separation of
families were also aired this week on the ABC's Four Corners program.
Both Labor and the coalition voting against Senator Xenophon's move.
Labor
frontbencher Joe Ludwig said a Senate inquiry was unwarranted, as there
were already two other inquiries looking into taxation matters,
including the
tax-free status of religious groups.
Liberal
senator Eric Abetz said the inquiry would turn the Senate into a
"de-facto criminal investigations bureau" and worried it would allow
disaffected people from all types of groups to air their grievances.
Senator
Xenophon later told reporters he had broadened the scope of the
proposed inquiry to look at the tax-free status of all religious groups
on
"good faith" after talks with both parties.
He
will next week introduce another motion for an inquiry into specific
allegations against Scientology.
Labor
and the coalition must explain why they had chosen to "look
away" from the issue, Senator Xenophon said after the vote.
"(Prime
Minister) Kevin
Rudd and (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott need to
explain to the Australian people why they have looked away, why they
have
walked away from an issue of public importance," he told reporters.
"We need to put this in perspective, the Australian parliament has had
inquiries into whether Tasmania should have an AFL football team ...
yet they
won't have an inquiry into very serious allegations of abuse, of
misconduct."
The Australian Greens supported the bid, with leader Bob Brown
labelling Scientology
a "dangerous
cult".
"It's about entrapment of people by sects who take over people's lives,
their livelihoods, their families," he said.
Debate on the motion turned nasty when Liberal backbencher Cory
Bernardi
accused the Greens of conducting religious witch-hunts.
"This is the organisation, remember, that wanted the members of the
Exclusive Brethren Christian organisation to mark their businesses so
people
would know who they were," he said.
"The
Star of David ... that the Greens wanted to impose."
The symbol was used by the Nazis during the Holocaust as a way of
identifying
Jews.
Senator Bernardi later withdrew the inference.
AAP
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