Opposition leader Anthony Albanese says the government has yet to share it’s latest draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill, despite wanting to debate the legislation in Parliament this week.
Albanese says the Prime Minister asked to discuss the legislation late last year, but since then there’s been no response.
“Last year on Wednesday night I was asked to have a meeting and discussion,” Albanese said at an event in Canberra this morning. “I wrote back to him agreeing to do just that, to have a discussion and… crickets. I’ve heard nothing from the Prime Minister because they don’t know what their position is.
The Labor leader said the government had held off on addressing the legislation, and was now trying to rush it through parliament.
“The process has been rushed. These problems arose because the Prime Minister promised four years ago that something would happen in this area and has waited until the last days of parliament to have a discussion.”
Albanese said his party still had concerns about the bill and would not accept legislation that causes discrimination against other people.
“We need to see what they come up with, I’ve had concerns raised with me,” he said. “We will examine it, and we want to make sure we protect people of faith and don’t introduce either intended or unintended consequences of discrimination against others.”
“We want a society in which no one is discriminated against.”
Last week two parliamentary committees handed down reports recommending the bills be passed. During the hearings for both reports representatives from The Greens and Labor often complained that there was little time to fully investigate the issues related to the bill due to the inquiries tight timelines.
OIP Staff
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