Christian Democrat Fred Nile, NSW MP, has introduced a bill criminalising the public wearing of face covering.
Ski masks on ski slopes become banned; marchers in Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade become criminals; those wearing costumes for school plays, Halloween, Jewish Purim are subject to arrest. Wearing life-saving motorcycle helmets becomes illegal. And this law sounds the death-knell for masquerade balls.
Heaven forbid there’s a SARS outbreak or swine flu epidemic, and our medical professionals
encourage people to wear surgical masks. Would the doctors become criminals for advising their patients to mask-up? Who would inform international visitors that their nose-through-chin surgical masks aren’t legal if they also wear a hat?
I have a medical condition leaving me excruciatingly chilled in winter. I wear a ski beanie resting on my glasses, a big woolly scarf embracing my neck, mouth, and up to my nose, and layers of warm clothing from the neck down. According to Nile’s proposed law, I become a criminal, merely because I rug-up to stay warm!
Nile’s bill has heaps of unintended, dysfunctional side effects. If Nile wants to ban the burka, then as a “good Christian,” he should be honest and forth-right, and so state his intention.
Judy Bamberger, CLA member
O’Connor ACT