Religious freedom draft legislation released by Morrison Government
Draft legislation on religious freedom has been released by the Morrison Government allowing employees who work for big business to have their right to express religious views protected unless their employers can show it will cost them money.
National
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Employees who work for big businesses will have their right to express religious views protected unless their employers can show it will cost them money, under a draft released by the Morrison Government.
Attorney-General Christian Porter on Thursday released the government’s long-awaited draft legislation dealing with religious freedom, which follows Liberal elder statesman Philip Ruddock’s review, commissioned after the legalisation of gay marriage.
Religious groups have been eagerly awaiting the proposals in the wake of the Israel Folau case, which saw the Australian Rugby Union player sacked for tweets expressing his religious views about fornicators and gay people.
Under the government’s proposed changes, it would be illegal to discriminate against someone because of their religion. But it stopped short of creating a legal right to freedom of religion.
Mr Porter said the proposed laws ensured religious people would be protected in what was a “necessary and difficult” balancing exercise.
Conservative Christian groups expressed dismay over the Bill.
Australian Christian Lobby managing director Martyn Iles said “while on the surface the Bill appears to deal with some significant issues … there is no robust protection for people such as Israel Folau”.
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Opponents of increasing religious protections are also opposed to the Bill because they think goes too far.
Amnesty Australia called the Bill “a licence for religious groups to use their beliefs to condemn and attack groups in the community”.
Under the proposed legislation, businesses with at least $50 million a year in revenue would have to prove that employee compliance with a particular condition to limit religious expression is necessary to avoid “unjustifiable financial hardship to the business”.
Originally published as Religious freedom draft legislation released by Morrison Government