Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has shared that her family has been on the receiving end of faith-based discrimination and vowed the government will keep moving forward with the Religious Discrimination Bill.
During an appearance on The Kenny Report on Sky News on Friday Senator Henderson dismissed the suggestion that religious discrimination is not an urgent issue for most Australians, sharing that members of her own family had been denied service because of their faith.
“Many Australians have suffered religious discrimination and that’s why our government made the vow it did to combat religious discrimination.
“In fact I remember my Grandfather, a Catholic, telling me a story, he couldn’t get a loan when he was a young man because the bank would not loan to Catholics. So many Australians have lived through some form of discrimination, some of it historical, and some of it current.
“It has been a strong commitment of our government,” Senator Henderson said, outlining that the government would still be pushing forward with the bill that was shelved from debate earlier this week.
Host Chris Kenny struggled to keep a straight face with the example of historical discrimination, saying he understood that kind of discrimination happened “back in the day”, but questioned if such discrimination was occurring now.
Senator Henderson said the senate inquiry she had chaired had given her examples that many Australians were still experiencing discrimination based on their religion.
“We heard very extensive evidence of religious discrimination, not just of course Christianity, but from Jewish organisations, from Muslim organisations. There is amongst some Australians deep concern about religious discrimination, like other forms of discrimination.”
The inquiry held by senate committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee was chaired by Senator Henderson and follows on from the Ruddock Review which was initiated by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the wake of the historic 2017 postal vote on marriage equality.
The Ruddock Review received 15,620 submissions from the Australian public, while the first draft of the Religious Discrimination Act published in 2019 received over 6,000 submissions, a second raft published in 2020 accepted over 7,000 submissions, while feedback on the current version of the Bill was done via consultative meetings.
The inquiry held by Senator Henderson’s committee looked an additional 221 submissions, alongside over 1,600 form letters. At the same as time another inquiry was conducted by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, it received 206 submissions.
The latest inquiry found that; “A range of submitters and witnesses supported the bills, with evidence to the committee detailing the anticipated positive impact of the bills on the lived experience of those holding religious belief, while also identifying specific provisions of the bills which, if enacted, would provide effective protection from religious discrimination.
“Other submitters and witnesses supported the principle of protecting religious belief and practice from discrimination but voiced concerns about the bills as a mechanism to achieve that protection.”
Those highlighted arguing that there were strong examples of religious discrimination in Australia included the Australian Catholic Bishop’s Conference, Christian Schools Australia and Adventist Schools Australia, The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, The Presbyterian Church of Victoria and The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network.
Senator Henderson said the government remained committed to their bill and would be working through the issues relating to it.
OIP Staff
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