Religious discrimination laws defeat delivers another blow to PM in bruising week

Scott Morrison has suffered another major blow after after five of his own MPs crossed the floor to force controversial religious discrimination laws to be shelved, adding to a bruising few weeks of internal leaks and bad polling for the Prime Minister.

Controversial religious discrimination laws have been all but shelved, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison lost control after five of his own MPs crossed the floor to back changes from an independent.

It is a major blow for Prime Minister Scott Morrison after a bruising few weeks of internal leaks and bad polling.

It is now likely the laws, which were a major election promise from 2019, may not pass before voters head to the ballot box later this year.

In a marathon sitting of the Lower House stretching past 4am on Thursday five Liberal MPs — none from Queensland — crossed the floor and joined Labor to back an amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act preventing religious schools from expelling gay and trans students based on their sexuality or gender.

The change — put forward by independent South Australia MP Rebekha Sharkie — prompted the Australian Christian Lobby to call for the government to pull the Bill saying the amendment “completely undermined” the legislation.

It is now likely the laws, which were a major election promise from 2019, may not pass before voters head to the ballot box later this year. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

“These protections have enabled faith-based schools to teach their religion and conduct their schools according to their faith values,” ACL’s Wendy Francis said.

“The loss of this protection would outweigh any benefits that could be obtained by the Religious Discrimination Bill.”

In a letter to Ms Sharkie on Thursday afternoon Attorney-General Michaelia Cash warned the rushed amendments — intended to give added protections to transgender and gay children at schools – opened a new can of worms for discrimination — this time based on sex, intersex status and breastfeeding.

While not explicitly stated in the letter, the advice is understood to have come from the Australian Government Solicitor.

“By expressly stating that it is unlawful for a religious educational institution to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy, this drafting leaves open the possibility of religious schools to discriminate on other grounds, being a student or prospective student’s sex, intersex status or breastfeeding,” Ms Cash wrote.

“Religious educational institutions cannot currently discriminate against students on these grounds.

“This drafting could therefore undermine the existing protections for students against discrimination.”

There are now only two Senate sitting days left in March when the bill could potentially be put through the Senate.

The Liberal MPs that crossed the floor were Bridget Archer, Trent Zimmerman, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen and Dave Sharma.

Cairns-based MP Warren Entsch, prior to the laws being totally put on ice, had secured a deal to fast-track a review into the laws in a bid to give transgender students more protections sooner.