Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appears to have backed further away from religious discrimination legislation, according to new reports.
New comments from the Prime Minister, published by The Australian, indicate the government will not be moving forward with the long-promised legislation without cooperation from the opposition.
“One of the things I’ve spoken about is the need for greater social cohesion and the last thing that Australia needs is any divisive debate relating to religion and people’s faith,” Albanese said at a press conference in Perth last Friday.
“The timing, I said, had to be that we would introduce legislation during the budget session if agreement could be reached.
“Agreement hasn’t been able to be reached because there’s been no suggestions from the Coalition of amendments of the legislation. So I don’t intend to engage in a partisan debate when it comes to religious discrimination, and I think that is unfortunate.”
Advocates warn Labor will lose votes without protections
National advocacy group Just.Equal has warned the Albanese Government will lose votes without fulfilling its election promise to protect LGBTQIA+ teachers and students in faith-based schools.
Just.Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome says YouGov polling commissioned by the group shows Australians, especially Labor voters, want students and teachers protected.
“Our research in the LGBTQA+ community has shown that a substantial number of LGBTQA+ people who voted Labor in 2019 voted Green in 2022 because of Labor’s poor record on LGBTQA+ equality,” Croome said.
“Together this research shows Labor will lose votes if it fails to fulfill its promise of protecting LGBTQA+ students and teachers from discrimination.”
Croome questioned the Prime Minister’s suggestion a “divisive debate about people’s faith” could impair “social cohesion”.
“It would be shameful to see social cohesion for LGBTQA+ people sacrificed to the current fear campaign from some religious leaders about non-existent threats to religious freedom.”
“The Government’s reticence is not about freedom for faith, it’s about pandering to prejudice.”
Croome said that several states and territories already prohibit discrimination against LGBTQA+ people by faith-based schools and services, including Tasmania, Victoria, the ACT, the Northern Territory and, in part, Queensland.
“Several states and territories have shown the sky does not fall in when faith-based schools and services are prohibited from discriminating against LGBTQA+ people.”
“There is no evidence religious schools have suffered in any way from strong state and territory anti-discrimination laws, so there is no excuse for the Federal Government to balk at reform.”
Croome added that states which have been lagging behind, like Western Australia, also have no more excuses.
The WA Government has consistently said it won’t act until it sees what legislation the Federal Government intends to pass.
“Should the Feds fail, WA has no more excuses. Indeed, it has a greater responsibility than ever to act.”
Religious discrimination legislation a long-running saga
Religious discrimination has been an issue high on the agenda for successive Australian governments, both Labor and Liberal, but action on legislation has been stalled for many years.
Concerns over religious organisations having exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people based on religious beliefs have been raised by advocates, allies and politicians alike, amplified in the wake of the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite.
Following the postal vote, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull commissioned a religious freedom inquiry, led by former Attorney General Philip Ruddock. Among the findings of the Ruddock Review, released in 2018, was the issue that LGBTQIA+ young people and teachers are particuarly vulnerable to discrimination in religious schools.
In June 2022, Attorney General Mark Butler confirmed Australians would see religious discrimination legislation this term.
Back in March this year, the PM threatened to shelve the bill without bipartistan support for change. Later that month, Albanese flagged the government could work with the Greens to move a bill forward.
