Attorney General Michaelia Cash is reportedly ready to start another round of consultations over the government’s long promised ‘religious freedom’ laws.
The proposed legislation has already been through several drafts, but has yet to be submitted to the parliament. Prime Minister Scott Morrison had originally proposed to have the laws introduced to parliament before Christmas 2019 but successive proposals have been heavily criticised as being unworkable, discriminatory and unfair.
On May 26th Senator Cash told a Senate Estimates committee that she had only conducted one meeting on the issue since taking over the role of Attorney General from Christian Porter, but would not disclose who the meeting was with.
Last week the government said it had not been able to move forward with its promise to remove legal loopholes that allow religious schools to expel students over their sexuality, citing the need to pass the Religious Freedom bill first.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that a community meeting hosted by Community Action for Rainbow Rights in Sydney on Saturday described the proposed bill as “right wing backlash against the gains won by LGBTIQ people” when marriage equality was passed.
Pushing forward action on the religious freedom laws is lobby group Freedom for Faith. The organisation describes itself as a Christian Legal Thinktank led by people drawn from a range of denominational churches including the Australian Christian Churches, Australian Baptist Churches, the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, and the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney.
At the same time the Australian Christian Lobby has launched a new petition urging the government to follow through on its promise to bring in the legislation.
The lobby group says legislation is needed to stop businesses from firing people who express religious beliefs, while at the same time advocating for religious based organisations to have the right to fire people who do not live up to their religious standards.
OIP Staff
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