Coalition Reaffirms Support For Religious Schools To Discriminate Against LGBTQIA+ People

The Coalition has unveiled their private schooling policy, reaffirming its support for religious schools retaining the ability to make employment and enrolment decisions based on faith, including exemptions that LGBTQIA+ advocates say permit discrimination against queer students and staff.

Opposition education spokesperson Julian Leeser addressed the issue during a speech to Christian Schools Australia on Monday night, defending the rights of faith-based schools to employ staff who align with religious doctrine and criticising proposals to remove existing legal protections.

Under current federal law, some religious schools are exempt from parts of the Sex Discrimination Act, allowing them to make decisions based on sexuality, gender identity, marital status or religious belief. LGBTQIA+ organisations have long campaigned for those exemptions to be removed, arguing they allow discrimination against queer teachers and students.

In a statement from 2021, Anna Brown, CEO of Equality Australia said that outdated exemptions to state, territory and Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws allow for LGBTQIA+ students, teachers or staff to be lawfully fired, expelled or otherwise treated unfairly by religious educational institutions.

“Instead of focussing on introducing new forms of discrimination to appease the conservative Christian lobby, the government should abandon the deeply flawed Religious Discrimination Bill and wind back outdated exemptions to existing anti-discrimination laws to reflect 21st century community attitudes.”

Leeser said that the Coalition would continue backing “parental choice, institutional autonomy, freedom of religion”.

“Unlike Labor we will never indulge the fantasies of the Law Reform Commission who wanted to attack your very identity as Christian schools.”

“We believe in parental choice, institutional autonomy, freedom of religion, and that schools with a faith mission should be able to remain genuinely faithful to that mission.”

“Religious freedom is about allowing schools not just to teach but to model the doctrines of their faith, without the threat of litigation. Religious schools want to educate, not litigate.”

Religious Discrimination Bill and Sex Discrimination Act exemptions

The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended in 2024 that exemptions allowing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ staff and students be removed from the Sex Discrimination Act, while still allowing religious schools to preference employees who support the institution’s faith ethos.

The Albanese government had previously pledged to reform the laws but shelved proposed legislation after failing to secure bipartisan support from the Coalition.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in 2025 that Labor would not reintroduce a Religious Discrimination Bill without “broad support”, following years of public debate over the issue.

The debate over religious discrimination laws intensified after the 2018 release of the Ruddock Review into religious freedom, which revealed that religious schools could legally expel LGBTQIA+ students under federal law. The disclosure prompted widespread backlash from LGBTQIA+ advocacy organisations, education groups and equality campaigners, leading both major parties to promise reforms.

Religious organisations and conservative groups have argued exemptions are necessary to preserve the religious character of faith-based schools, while LGBTQIA+ groups have maintained that anti-discrimination protections should apply equally to all students and staff regardless of sexuality or gender identity.