Australia’s Labor government has come under fire from each side of the ideological divide after comments earlier this month that indicated it was abandoning its controversial proposal for a Religious Discrimination Act.
While addressing a press conference in Western Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked for an update on the progress on laws that may enshrine religious protections individually from existing laws similar to the Sex Discrimination Act. Mr Albanese’s reply suggested that it might now not be going ahead during their current term, with the Prime Minister blaming the Federal Opposition for a failure to secure bipartisan support for the bill.
“One of the things I’ve spoken about is the necessity for greater social cohesion,” Mr Albanese said.
“And the last item that Australia needs is any divisive debate regarding religion and other people’s faith … I do not intend to have interaction in a partisan debate with regards to religious discrimination.”
The news was greeted with dismay by religious and faith groups, who’ve been calling for greater protections for religious freedom and expression, saying that folks are facing increasing discrimination for exercising their sincerely held beliefs.
The topic has come under increasing scrutiny after a report from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) into religious educational institutions and anti-discrimination laws commissioned by the federal government offered quite a few recommendations, including removing section 38 from the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA)—which offers protections for schools and other institutions taking religious beliefs under consideration when hiring and firing staff.
Faith groups have argued that any changes to the SDA would require the introduction of separate laws specifically protecting religious freedoms. With the implementation of a separate Act looking increasingly unlikely, they’re calling for a moratorium on the proposed changes.
“While it’s disappointing that there stays little or no protection against discrimination on the idea of spiritual belief or activity, the proposed legislative package had tied religious discrimination laws to the removal of serious protections for religious freedoms in other laws,” Monica Doumit, Director of Public Affairs and Engagement for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, told The Catholic Weekly.
“So the prime minister’s announcement also needs to mean these protections remain in place. It can be a considerable betrayal of spiritual communities if the federal government pushed ahead with repealing religious protections without offering anything in return.”
However, quite a few progressive and LGBTQ lobby groups, who’ve long called for amendments to existing discrimination laws that may remove exemptions on the idea of spiritual belief, have attacked the federal government over what they’re calling a failure to guard LGBTQ teachers and students.
“Under the present Sex Discrimination Act, schools can fire teachers and expel students due to their gender identity or sexuality,” Liberty Victoria, a number one civil liberties organisation, said in a press release.
“Social cohesion will only be achieved when LGBTQIA+ persons are free to be themselves in school and at work without fear of being fired or expelled.”
The Federal Opposition has rebuffed claims that it has not been willing to hunt a bipartisan consensus on religious protections, as a substitute blaming the federal government over what it claims is an absence of consultation with religious and faith groups, and accusing it of an unwillingness to take their concerns under consideration.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, whose role is accountable for legal affairs and who acts as the federal government’s senior legal adviser, had asked the Opposition to supply a line-by-line response to the proposed laws, but his Opposition counterpart, Senator Michaela Cash, said that faith groups be involved within the consultation process, allegedly resulting in a fractious meeting between the 2.
“[Faith groups] have provided line-by-line feedback on the draft bills, and recommend options that may not only protect faith-based education, but in addition address concerns across the drafting of existing provisions on the Commonwealth statute book,” Senator Cash wrote in a letter to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
“The Coalition doesn’t intend to bypass or undercut that clear stakeholder feedback, which was provided on a bipartisan basis.
“It is apparent that the subsequent step is for the federal government to redraft its laws, taking that feedback under consideration.”
