Bankstown MP says Labor too ‘woke’, must represent religious communities

Labor risks straying too far down a path of “wokeness” and must recalibrate to better represent multicultural electorates with religious populations, a senior opposition MP has declared.

LABOR risks straying too far down a path of “wokeness” and must recalibrate to better represent multicultural electorates with religious populations, a senior opposition MP has declared.

The remarks come as NSW parliament committee will today hand down a report recommending the state government introduce a bill to protect individuals from discrimination based on religious activities.

Member for Bankstown Tania Mihailuk — a member of the committee — said Labor’s platform is not delivering electoral success and links this to a failure in recent years to represent religious communities.

Member for Bankstown Tania Mihailuk speaks on legislation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic at state parliament. Picture: AAP

“Voters in my electorate of Bankstown, one of the most diverse and religious electorates in NSW, fully understand that Labor does not share all of their conservative social views,” Ms Mihailuk writes today in The Daily Telegraph.

“But many ask if it is too much to ask of the Party they support to not sneer at them for holding those views, or worse still, forbid them from having them at all?”

Ms Mihailuk said Labor should reject “the false dichotomy that it must choose between supporting religious or LGBTIQ communities”.

“We should instead return to where Labor has traditionally stood and led – from the sensible centre that protects all groups from discrimination, and guarantees human rights for all,” she said.

She says the party had been most successful “when it has found the common ground within its broad church of progressive and more moderate constituents, including on matters of faith”.

“However, on this deeply personal issue we have in recent years failed to ensure that all voices and views are represented, and we are now risking straying too far down the path of ‘wokeness’.”

Ms Mihailuk said after the party’s longest stint in opposition for more than a century in NSW now was the time to reflect.

She points to the 2016 census where 74 per cent of people identified as religious.

“What now unifies these disparate groups is a fair and reasonable expectation that they can observe and practice their religion without fear of discrimination, and with the protection of the right to religious freedom,” she said.

Of 19502 responses received to the joint select committee on the Anti Discrimination Amendment (religious freedom and equality) bill, 73.53 per cent were in favour of the bill.

The committee will table a 123 page report into a bill introduced by Mark Latham in 2019, which seeks to amend the anti discrimination act 1977 to make discrimination on the grounds of religious beliefs unlawful. It recommends the Government introduce its own bill by the end of 2021.

The draft report finds: “after considering the evidence the committee formed the view that there was a clear need to protect individuals from discrimination on the grounds of religious beliefs and activities”.

It also found “there was a need to protect not for profit religious organisations from discrimination”.