Religious freedom bill shelved after uproar from Christian lobbyists

The Coalition’s contentious religious freedom bill has been shelved after uproar from senators and Christian lobbyists as well as legal advice about changes.

The Coalition’s contentious religious freedom bill has been shelved following uproar from Christian lobbyists and legal advice that added protections for LGBTQI students had unintentionally exposed others to discrimination.

In a major political blow for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, it is now unlikely his government will be able to fulfil an election promise to introduce the laws after an amended version of the bill was dumped from the Senate agenda on Thursday.

Amendments to the Sex Discrimmination Act designed to prevent gay and trans students being expelled from a religious school on the basis of their sexuality proposed by Centre Alliance MP Rebekah Sharkie were supported by Labor and five Liberal MPs who crossed the floor during a marathon Lower House debate stretching past 4am on Thuesday.

But in a letter sent to Ms Sharkie on Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Michaelia Cash said “concerns have been raised” the wording of the MP’s amendment left students open to discrimination on the basis of sex, breastfeeding or intersex status.

“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 said in the letter.

There are only two Senate sitting days left in March when the bill could potentially be put through the Senate, though several Coalition sources said the government would not want to have religious freedom pulling focus during the budget week.

The Australian Christian Lobby wants the government to walk away from its own bill entirely, arguing amendments had “completely undermined” it.

Despite Labor leader Anthony Albanese describing the successful amendments as a win and vowing to push for further changes in the Senate, both parties voted to scrap the legislation from Thursday’s Senate agenda.

Five Liberal MPs crossed the floor to support a crossbench amendment to protect transgender as well as gay students from being expelled on the grounds of their sexuality or gender.

Liberal MPs Trent Zimmerman, Bridget Archer, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen and David Sharma all voted to repeal a section of the Sex Discrimination Act that allowed religious schools to discriminate against students on the grounds of both sexuality and gender identity.

Mr Zimmerman described it as “one of the most difficult weeks of my time in parliament”.

Senator Jacqui Lambie, pictured in Parliament House in Canberra, has blasted the PM over the bill. Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

Earlier in the day, one senator had slammed the legislation as “selfish”.

Tasmanian Senator Lambie lashed Scott Morrison over the legislation, telling Channel 9 it was “absolutely disgusting” the bill had passed.

“Certainly for me I will not be voting for it … Tasmanians, we are very happy to have (existing discrimination laws) we’ve got down there and overruling it is absolutely disgusting,” Ms Lambie said.
She said the debate had been a “waste”.

“It makes (Mr Morrison) look very selfish that this is his own ambition to get this done, all it’s done is cause a lot of division in society and there’s a lot of things we could have been talked about – ICAC, political donation, aged care, getting the reforms through as quickly as possible,” Ms Lambie said.

She added: “He’s spent a whole week on doing what he believes – what he believes in himself, not what the Australian people wanted and I just think that – I think, you know, that is enough.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

Labor has vowed to fight to make further amendments to the controversial bill after it passed in the House of Representatives overnight.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese told breakfast television hours later that Labor senators would “pursue” further changes to the bill in the Senate, including stopping Muslim women from being discriminated against for wearing a hijab and protecting older Australians who receive home care.

“We will be pursuing amendments further in the Senate. We await to see what the government does now,” Mr Albanese said.

Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

“Were claiming credit for the amendments that were carried. We fought very hard … but we think there are further amendments that should be made. ”

Mr Albanese said despite the bill being passed without every amendment Labor put forth, it was a “constructive debate”.

He said the fact that students would now be protected from discrimination in schools was “a very good thing”.

“The government was very frustrated by that, and ended up voting against one of their own bills, which was rather an extraordinarily petulant response … perhaps when they have a bit of sleep they might realise that wasn’t a very rational thing to do,” he said.

“I support ensuring that people can’t be discriminated against because of their religion or because of their faith. But I don’t support discriminating against other people as part of this legislation.”

He added that the 62-62 split on another of the bill‘s amendments – which had to be decided by speaker Andrew Wallace – proved the legislation was “not taking the nation forward as one”.

It comes as the controversial bill passed the lower house after a marathon overnight debate just after 4am.

The Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 has passed the House and will be transmitted to the Senate. During consideration in detail, Government amendments were made, while amendments moved by Opposition and Crossbench Members were defeated.

— Australian House of Representatives (@AboutTheHouse) February 9, 2022

The religious discrimination legislation aims to stop someone from being discriminated against because of their beliefs.

Coalition MPs Bridget Archer, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen, David Sharma and Trent Zimmerman crossed the floor to vote for Labor’s amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, which will protect gay and transgender students from being expelled by schools.

The government had earlier only promised to make it unlawful for gay students from being expelled, meaning transgender students could still be asked to leave their school.

Labor also tried to pass amendments to prevent discriminatory statements in the name of religion but was ultimately defeated.

On the religious discrimination bill itself, Mr Zimmerman- who gave an emotional address about his young son during the debate on Tuesday, and brought a rainbow flag into parliament – abstained from voting altogether, while Ms Archer crossed the floor again.

The bill will now face the Senate.