(Clearwisdom.net) A Minghui correspondent reports from Australia: On December 23, Judge John Bowman of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal announced that the Melbourne City Council had breached the Equal Opportunity Act of 1995 when it refused the Falun Dafa Association of Victoria participation in the March Moomba Parade. The court result attracted wide attention. Major media including Channel 9, ABC, NTDTV, The Age, Herald Sun all reported the news when it broke.
Earlier this year, Falun Gong practitioners had applied to participate in the annual Moomba Parade. Their request was initially approved and the parade host expressed "excitement" in a letter to the practitioners upon hearing that Falun Gong would participate in the parade. However, three weeks later, on February 11, the Melbourne City Council, led by Chinese-descent Mayor John So suddenly overturned their original decision, on the basis of Falun Gong's apparent "strong political associations."
The ban caused vehement discussion in the City Council. Some council members strongly opposed the decision to exclude Falun Gong from the parade. On February 28, Greens councillor David Risstrom put an article on his personal website saying, "I strongly oppose the decision by the Melbourne City Council to ban the involvement of Falun Dafa in Moomba as discriminatory and wrong on political, ethical and legal grounds."
In fact, the reason why the Melbourne City Council gave a green light to Falun Gong's request to join the parade all the way until making a 180-degree change by shutting out the group is obvious. Jiang's group is villainous in its persecution against Falun Gong and has extended its claws abroad. It tried to suffocate the voice of overseas Falun Gong practitioners by influencing pro-Party political politicians in foreign countries.
Judge John Bowman said in the verdict, "In my opinion, not only did the MCC discriminate against Falun Dafa, it treated it harshly," "Falun Dafa was, effectively, led along the garden path to participate in the parade, and then abruptly rejected." "Whilst obviously I make no ruling in relation to it, some might draw the inference that it was the MCC, and not Falun Dafa, that was motivated by politics."
Falun Gong practitioners are satisfied with the court's decision and responded, "Our only request is for the Chinese government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. We hope the Australian government will do all it can to help end the persecution. We have no other request."
According to media reports, the spokesman for the Melbourne City Council said the MCC accepts the court decision. The court set a directive hearing for February to determine the issue of the council's apology to Falun Gong.
Category: April 25 Events