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Between these two extremes of black and white, there is a wide range of behavioural choices of varying shades of grey. In introducing anti-discrimination legislation, it is necessary to strike the right balance between freedom of choice and freedom from discrimination. Otherwise, the law will not be acceptable to the general public. To arrive at such a balance, a genuine and extensive public consultation exercise must be carried out. Otherwise, anti-discrimination legislation introduced will not achieve its aims and may end up provoking far worse behaviour than that which it seeks to prevent.
The majority of the public was hardly involved in the development of the Hon. Anna Wu's three Bills. They are not familiar with their content. They are not aware of the impact the legislation would have on their daily lives. They are not prepared for the adjustments that would be required to comply with their provisions.
The Sex Discrimination Ordinance and Disability Discrimination Ordinance already cover two types of discrimination and harassment. The Hon Anna Wu's three Bills between them provide for eight additional grounds of unlawful discrimination. If all the anti-discrimination Bills are enacted, a person when selecting a tenant or employee, say, would need to check in order to ensure that he or she did not contravene any provision of any one of ten prohibited forms of discrimination. How can the community be expected to understand, learn and adapt overnight to such wide- ranging restrictions on their freedom of choice?
H
I would be the first to agree that the three Bills under present consideration were prepared with the best of intentions. But the problem of discrimination in the wide variety of areas covered by them has not been properly ascertained, the impact of the Bills' provisions on affected parties, such as employers and employees, landlords and tenants, has not been thoroughly assessed. Alternative legislative and non- legislative approaches to the problems they seek to address have not been fully considered. A few examples will give a better illustration of these points. With respect to the Equal Opportunities (Family Responsibility, Sexuality and Age) Bill, does it allow a school to decline to employ as a teacher someone who is an active homosexual? Does it make it unlawful for an employer to decline to employ someone as a salesperson of products which promote a youthful image on the grounds that they are over 45 years old? The mere assurance that in some cases, differential treatment would be considered reasonable is not much help to the average citizen who may not have the legal knowledge to make the value judgement.