In early December the Morrison government announced some changes to their contentious Religious Discrimination Bill, after revealing in November the first draft would be reconsidered. LGBTIQ+ advocates have been concerned about the bill since its inception, and these changes have raised new worries that the legislation will provide more avenues for discrimination against queer folks. […]
The Morrison government have released a new draft of the controversial Religious Discrimination Bill, after withdrawing its first draft in November. The updated bill announced today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney General Christian Porter has seen some major changes, following criticism from LGBTIQ+ and women’s advocacy groups, as well as approximately 6,000 written […]
The Australian Human Rights Commission have laid out their opposition to the government’s proposed religious discrimination legislation. While the Human Rights Commission says it has supported the idea of legislation to protect religious belief for over two decades, there are some elements in the government’s bill that it find problematic. The HRC is concerned that […]
Labor’s Shadow Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, is calling on the Morrison government to be more transparent with the development of their religious discrimination legislation. While the proposed legislation has been approved by cabinet, and shown to religious and family groups, it has not been shared with the opposition, or LGBTIQ groups concerned about its content. […]
Politicians, entertainers, activists and religious leaders have come together to draw attention to the wide range of Australians who do not want to see new religious freedom laws implemented in Australia fearing it will lead to an increase in discrimination against LGBTI people. Comedian Tom Ballard, journalist Helen Razer, PFLAG spokesperson Shelley Argent and the […]
Attorney General Christian Porter has formally announced the issue of how to balance religious freedom and protections from discrimination for LGBTIQ+ students and teachers has been referred to the Australian Law Reform Commission for review. The government had previously indicated this would be there plan of action when Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to reach […]
Rainbow Territory, the LGBTI rights group based in the Northern Territory has called on their government to speed up reforms of the anti-discrimination laws. The call comes as an ABC report alleged an Alice Springs hotel was racially profiling clients and assigning rooms based on people’s ethnicity. The hotel has denied the suggestion but has […]
The federal government has pushed off any further debate on changing the exemptions to the anti-discrimination laws that allow LGBTI students and teachers to be expelled or fired from their jobs. Initially Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged to fix the laws within a fortnight, but the government has now referred the issue to the Law […]
Greens senator Janet Rice has told equality campaigners that she believes bill to change to anti-discrimination act so that students can not be expelled from schools over their sexuality or gender identity has a good chance of passing the senate when parliament resumes this week. “(It) looks like it’s potentially got the support of the […]
The federal opposition have announced they will work with the crossbench to refer the government’s bill that aims to remove exemptions that allow religious schools to expel students who are LGBTI+ for inquiry. In a joint statement from Minister for Education Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, Labor said they plan to “hold […]
