Liberal MP Bridget Archer has confirmed she’s prepared to cross the floor and vote against the government’s Religious Discrimination Bill.
The Tasmanian MP has told The Age newspaper that her concerns about the bill extend beyond there being protections for LGBTIQA+ students and teachers, explaining that she also holds concerns about the bills ‘Statements of Belief’ provisions.
“I can’t see a way at it stands at the moment to reconcile the concern I have and the main fear of the bill such as the statement of belief,” Archer said.
“That seems to be the impasse that can’t be bridged.”
Last week Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowed to add amendments to the legislation that would protect LGBTIQWA+ students from being discriminated by faith-based schools. Many moderate Liberals however are still reportedly concerned about the lack of protections for teachers, and how the legislation will affect other professions.
Archer has previously voiced concern about how the bill will override Tasmania’s existing laws which are seen as being the ‘gold standard’ of discrimination law in Australia.
Debate on the bill is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, but it’s expected to be a subject of discussion in the Liberal Party Room on Tuesday with no clear consensus within the party on how it should proceed.
On Friday two parliamentary inquiries both recommended that the bill should be given passage with only minor amendments. Attorney General Michaelia Cash has called on the Labor party to throw their support behind the bill, while Shadow Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, has said there are still “complex issues” to be decided.
Tasmanian community advocates have slammed the two parliamentary inquiry reports into the Federal Religious Discrimination Bill.
Former Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Robin Banks, speaking on behalf of a coalition of organisations against the Tasmanian override, said the inquiries had ignored the concerns of Tasmanians.
“The inquiries have ignored the concerns of Tasmanian groups, particularly people with disability, women, LGBTIQ+ people and employees of faith-based organisations, and have failed to grasp the value of our gold-standard Anti-Discrimination Act.”
“Particularly galling is the dismissal of real life experiences of discrimination as ‘hypothetical scenarios’.”
“We expected the reports to favour the Government Bill because the majority of inquiry members are from the Government, but we didn’t expect them to be this one-sided.”
“These reports have no credibility because they misunderstand, misconstrue and misrepresent Tasmania’s anti-discrimination law.”
Banks went on to say an analysis of the inquiries shows the vast majority (almost 80%) of submissions were against the Bill while half of witnesses called were for it.
“It’s a fact that the inquiries had a bias toward the small minority of Australians who support key features of the Bill.”
“The many faith groups that oppose the Federal Bill, including faith groups in Tasmania, were largely overlooked.”
“Despite the devastating impact of the pandemic on older people and people with disability in Australia, and overwhelmed health services and concerns about unvaccinated kids starting school, our Federal Government is pursuing one of the most divisive legislative packages we have seen, a package that overrides a fair go for all in the name of those very few people of faith who seek to discriminate against others.”
Among the groups in the Tasmanian coalition raised concern are Disability Voices Tasmania, Unions Tasmania, The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Women’s Health Tasmania, The Independent Education union (Tasmania), The Multi-Cultural Council of Tasmania, Equality Tasmania and The Faith Network of Tasmania.
Graeme Watson
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