Australian Government delays introduction of Religious Discrimination Bill

Australian Government delays introduction of Religious Discrimination Bill
Image: Image: Scott Morrison / Facebook.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed down on plans to introduce the government’s Religious Discrimination Bill that could potentially enshrine religious discrimination against LGBTI people, saying he will consult with the Opposition on the legislation.

However the government still intends to pass the legislation before the end of the year, and has not said whether it will consult with other stakeholder groups.

Equality Australia is concerned by this omission, with its Director of Legal Advocacy Lee Carnie saying she is strongly concerned that no commitment has been given by the Prime Minister to engage directly with either the LGBTI community, or with women’s groups.

“We know that LGBTIQ+ people and women are those most at risk of experiencing discrimination by religious groups based on religious beliefs, and we hold grave concerns that if this legislation is not crafted carefully it will hand a license to discriminate to religious organisations,’ Carnie said.

“We cannot support any legislation that hands a sword to one group to attack or harm another, and we need the Prime Minister to hear and understand our concerns.”

Carnie urged the Prime Minister to commit to meeting with LGBTI and women’s groups and said that Equality Australia would be doing “everything possible to ensure the voices of LGBTIQ+ people were heard.”

“In response to our pre-election survey the Morrison Government committed to consult with LGBTIQ+ organisations across the broad range of policy areas affecting LGBTIQ+ Australians,” Carnie said.

“We are calling on the Government to honour that commitment now.”

The government published its intention to move forward with a “Religious Discrimination” bill earlier today which would make it “unlawful to discriminate against people on the grounds of their religious belief or activity (including lack of religious belief) and establish the statutory office of the Freedom of Religion Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission.”

The bill would also, “amend existing Commonwealth legislation relating to freedom of religion, including amendments to marriage law, charities law and objects clauses in existing anti-discrimination legislation.”

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3 responses to “Australian Government delays introduction of Religious Discrimination Bill”

  1. If Christians, Jews, Muslims etc. are allowed to discriminate, though it will initially be against the GLBTIQD+ Community it will be widened to so that they can Vilify, spread Hatred, Loathing & Fear against anyone – Heterosexuals, Christians, Jews & Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics who don’t agree and/or obey them. We have seen what happens to anyone in Iran who converts to Christianity: they get Murdered on the orders of the Supreme Leader (they are always male) and his mates.
    We will have Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Plymouth Brethren etc. all trying to impose their rules on the rest of us and those who belong to any religion.
    South Australia used to be the leader in Social Change.
    Today the SA Government – both the previous ALP one and the current Liberal one refuse to address Child Sex Abuse. They refuse to introduce Mandatory & up to Term of Life Sentences Prison Sentences for Sex Offenders – Male, Female – be those offences against Adults or Children.
    We can only imaging why they refuse to take action and what we think is probably very close to the Truth: Too many mates are involved.

  2. Not surprising. The pro-Folau types cheer on the idea of preventing religious discrimination right up until the point that they realise they do more discriminating on religious grounds than any atheist ever.

    Few will remember that in 2002 the pro-Christian Labor state Attorney-General in SA put up a religious discrimination bill. He wound up withdrawing the bill. Why? Opposition from anti-religious progressive types? Not one bit. It was opposition from conservative Christian groups. I worked for a state MP at the time and our letterbox was flooded with mail from Christians pointing out that any anti-discrimination bill which affected freedom of speech was heavy-handed and reduced freedoms unnecessarily.

    Christians love discriminating against Muslims, Jews and (to borrow a Simpsons gag) Miscellaneous, and also other Christians. They might well hate this bill, history may well repeat.