Qld Labor MP’s brazen attack on churches

An inconsistent level of antipathy would seem to indicate religious bigotry (intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from himself) inasmuch he only publicly criticises the tax free status of Christian not-for-profit organisations.

Instead, Brown offered his extraordinary attack couldn't be motivated by Christophobia because he's a "Catholic", and was only concerned about the "$0 for state roads vs $50k to move a church hall".

Neighbouring Member of the Queensland state Parliament, Mark Robinson, summised Brown's apparent discrimination demonstrated need for the federal bill protecting religious freedom:

So Don, your "faith" leads you to believe that Labor Governments should discriminate against ALL faith based welfare programs – The Cage, Salvos, Catholic, School chaplaincy… But you're not #faithphobic? You are the reason we need the LNP Federal religious protection Bill.

Of course, a possible alternative explanation could be not religious bigotry per se, but a problematic level of ignorance of the accepted wisdom across the political spectrum around public policy regarding organisations such as unions, churches and sporting groups which are registered as not-for-profit for tax purposes.

As a Labor MP, Don Brown may also justifiably fear the backlash from the unions he represents more than Christian voters in his electorate if he did comment negatively on union's tax free status. It's no secret how much unions donate to Labor election campaigns, so such fear wouldn't be irrational, but biting the hand which feeds you would be.

For those MPs who don't understand why churches are exempt from paying tax on offerings, donations and income from other sources, allow me to educate you on what your primary, secondary & tertiary education failed to. If you're a radical secularist, you probably won't allow the facts to get in the way of your latent prejudice, so feel free to find something in The Guardian to confirm your bias without reading further.

Taxpayers, who you claim to be concerned about getting value for money, take money they've already paid tax on and donate or pay it to community organisations such as sporting clubs and churches to do good in the community. Why this is of benefit to the society as a whole and why governments across the Western world agree to not tax that money again is because NFPs provide exponentially far more value and benefit to the community than the government could with the same revenue they forego by not taxing them.

Ultimately it will be up to the residents of Redlands & other electorates to decide whether they want another $50,000 spent on state roads instead of helping community groups which do critcally important social good the likes of which are done, and done better, by the Cage Youth Foundation and faith groups.

If Don Brown MP's commentary doesn't represent the values and policy posture of the Qld Labor Party and her government, it would now appear urgent Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk force her sniping backbencher to apologise to The Cage and churches across his local electorate and the state for his ill-considered public display.

The Cage Youth Foundation is a social enterprise with government-approved charity status which provides counselling, school breakfasts, workshops & mentoring programs, youth suicide prevention support, and work-readiness courses among other community programs for teens & adolescents.

According to their website, "Cage" is an acronym for "creating a good environment" and the not-for-profit's (NFP) vision is to: