37 per cent of Australians support laws protecting religious freedoms

37 per cent of Australians support laws protecting religious freedoms

New polling shows that just over a third of Australians support the introduction of laws enshrining religious freedoms, but just as many are undecided on the issue.

37 per cent of those polled by Essential said they support the plan, which is becoming a flagship issue for new Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Just 26 per cent of those polled said they opposed the idea, with 37 per cent undecided.

The high level of respondents unsure on the issue seems to reflect the government’s vagueness on what religious freedom laws would actually entail.

Despite the Philip Ruddock-led review of religious freedoms handing its report to the government in May, the report has yet to be released publicly and the government is yet to officially respond to the findings.

Morrison has described his desire to see religious freedoms more protected as “preventative”.

“I’ve seen where this issue has gone over the last ten years. And issues of freedom of speech, I’ve seen where they’ve gone over the last ten years. I’m not quite sure I’m pleased with the trajectory,” he said last week.

Advocates have already warned that the religious freedom push could simply be a means to enact covert anti-LGBTI legislation.

“There is no threat to religious freedom so we fear the real purpose of any new law will be to take existing discrimination protections away from LGBTI Australians,” said just.equal spokesperson Rodney Croome, who also promised to lobby the Senate to oppose any legislation introduces around religious freedoms.

Among supporters of the major parties, Coalition voters proved most supportive, with 48 per cent of Liberal and National party voters in favour.

34 per cent of Labor voters indicated support, while 37 per cent of Greens voters said they supported the move as well – with 43 per cent of voters who supported ‘other’ parties opposing potential laws in the highest numbers.

In a statement released when Morrison took over the top job from outgoing Member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian Christian Lobby indicated they were confident in Morrison’s approach to religious freedoms.

“We look forward to continuing our constructive conversation with the government on religious freedom,” ACL Director Martyn Iles said at the time.

“It’s now been over three months since the Ruddock Review was released. Religious freedom must be a priority for the Morrison ministry in light of increasing numbers of Australians who are getting in trouble with the law for living out their faith.”

An earlier version of this article misstated support for the laws as being “two-thirds” of Australians.

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2 responses to “37 per cent of Australians support laws protecting religious freedoms”

  1. It sounds suspiciously like they want to enact legislation to exempt gay people from anti discrimination laws – why else are they taking so long to release the report? Gives us little choice but to wait and see – and perhaps prepare ourselves for yet another fight!

    • Obviously we’re all waiting to find out what ScoMo actually means by ‘religious freedom’ but it would be a very sad indictment on Australia’s religious community if the only “freedom” they want is to bash the gay community. I’d certainly be accusing Australia’s Christians of enacting Islamic sharia law by stealth if they tried it.

      Ha ha what a great t-shirt campaign: Sharia ScoMo! On an anti-gay unity ticket with Saudi Arabia.

      If they want religious freedom, but they want to pick and choose how consistent they are with actually applying it, then Australia’s Christians could be on the receiving end of a bunch of lawsuits. But if they want the freedom to discriminate against each and every one of us sinners who disagree with them and not single out gay people then I’m actually pretty okay with that. The test is consistency, hypocrisy is after all criticised in the bible.