The federal government has refused to release the Philip Ruddock led review into religious freedom, claiming it should remain confidential while cabinet is deliberating its findings.

Yesterday the senate passed a motion order the government to table the report its been keeping under wraps since May this year. The inquiry into religious freedom was ordered to placate conservative MPs who were frustrated that the postal survey delivered a positive result for marriage equality.

Former Howard era Attorney General Philip Ruddock headed up the inquiry panel which travelled around the country getting feedback on the issue. Unlike most senate inquiries no recordings of the testimony were kept and the sessions were conducted in private. The final report was delivered in May, but the government has not made its findings public.

Since dethroning leader Malcolm Turnbull last month, new Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repetitively said that bringing in new legislation to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech was a priority for his government. Morrison recently told Sky News that while he could not identify a current threat to religious freedom he wanted to protect people of faith from threats that may arise in the future.

Today Mathias Cormann, the government’s leader in the senate, wrote to the Senate President declaring that the report they were seeking was currently being reviewed by the cabinet and therefor was exempt from the senate’s order for it to be released.

Senator Cormann said it was not in the public’s interest for the contents of the report to be known at this time.

“The release of the document at this time would harm the public interest in that it would interfere with the proper consideration by and the deliberative process of cabinet.” Senator Cormann wrote.

Attorney General Christian Porter said the report will be released at the same time as any proposed legislation is introduced in the parliament. The government has also denied freedom of information requests for the report from the media.

OIP Staff