National lobby group, Just.Equal Australia, has written to moderate Liberals warning them the devil will be in the detail of Prime Minister, Scott Morrison’s, proposal to prevent discrimination against LGBTIQ+ students in faith-based schools.
The Prime Minister has said he will protect LGBTIQ+ students from discrimination by faith schools, responding to a renewed push from moderate Liberal MPs, some of whom have indicated this is a condition for their support for the Prime Minister’s Religious Discrimination Bill.
Spokesperson for Just.Equal, Rodney Croome, said more information is needed about what the Prime Minister is offering.
“The devil will be in the details of Mr Morrison’s proposal because it could quite easily turn out that the protections he is offering are hollow.”
“For example, amending the Sex Discrimination Act to prohibit sexuality and gender identity discrimination, as some moderate Liberals have proposed, would be pointless because the Religious Discrimination Bill broadens the scope for faith schools to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ students and teachers on the grounds of ‘religious belief’.”
“As the actions of Citipointe Christian College clearly show, there are faith-schools camouflaging discrimination against LGBTIQ+ students by invoking ‘religious beliefs’ rather than discriminating directly on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity.”
“If the Sex Discrimination Act is amended and the Religious Discrimination Bill is passed in its current form, the Government will have given with one hand and taken with the other.”
“In addition, a deal would be unacceptable if students are only protected from expulsion, if there are no changes to those parts of the Religious Discrimination Bill allowing harmful ‘statements of belief’ against LGBTIQ+ young people and if the changes do not protect LGBTIQ+ teachers in faith-based schools.”
“We have written to all moderate Liberals outlining the potential problems with a deal, and asking to brief them.”
The bill is set to be debated when federal parliament return this week. On Sunday Attorney General Michaelia Cash met with Labor’s Mark Dreyfus to provide more detail about the government’s latest proposed alterations to the legislation.
On Friday to parliamentary reports recommended that the bill be passed without significant change.
OIP Staff
You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
