Western Australia Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to release the Ruddock Review into Religious Freedom in Australia.
Speaking on News Corp columnist Miranda Devine’s podcast Hastie said he hoped Morrison would bring in bold policies.
“I’d be very confident that Scott Morrison, as our new prime minister, working with Christian Porter as our attorney-general – he’s going to take action on religious freedom,” Hastie said.
Hastie said Morrison has “lead the charge” against the same-sex marriage bill last year and fought hard to have amendments added to the bill to protect religious freedom.
Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has also called on the Prime Minister to take a solid stance on religious freedom.
The NSW Senator, who was given any Ministerial positions by the new Prime Minister, told The Australian that she was pushing for Morrison to make substantial policy changes and religious freedom was an area where the Liberal party could differentiate itself from the opposition.
Getting out of the Paris climate agreement was Senator Fierravanti-Wells recommendation to the new Prime Minister, alongside making a strong stance for religious freedom.
“On the energy issue, there needs to be a clear distinction between us and the Labor Party, including considering ditching the Paris agreement and more coal-fired power,” she said.
“The other issue pertinent to our conservative base is strong religious freedom protections. We hope the Ruddock committee report will provide proper and appropriate protections.”
On last night’s episode of the ABC program 4 Corners the senator repeated her belief that Malcolm Turnbull had damaged the Liberal party by allowing the marriage debate to go ahead last year.
“The same-sex issue I think divided the Liberal party a lot, and certainly from a conservative base, irrespective now of whatever the vote may or may not have been nationally, the reality is that I’m talking about the party and where the party is, and where our support base is, so we’ve seen an range of issues, issues pertinent to religious freedom, we’ve seen a range of things where there is a difference of opinion and so therefore those have in the more volatile atmospherics of a post Abbott situation have amplified I think to create a greater perception amongst our base that the party is moving more to the left.” Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.
National President of the Liberal Party Nick Greiner, who was a supporter of marriage equality, told the program that criticisms of the Prime Minister based around the outcomes of the marriage debate were “abject rubbish”.
OIP Staff
