Religious freedom laws: Proposed changes meet with division in LNP ranks
Federal Coalition MPs have already begun speaking out against the proposed religious freedom laws with at least one MP saying they could not support the lack of protection for one section of the community.
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Gay students will be protected from expulsion but transgender students will not under changes to proposed religious freedom laws that have exposed deep divides within the federal Coalition.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had supposedly secured support from the majority of the party to support the amended laws, but Coalition MPs began speaking out against the bill within hours of the marathon meeting.
As part of the changes, the government will amend the Sex Discrimination Act to prevent gay students being expelled by religious schools but similar protections for transgender students will instead be considered by a 12-month review.
One MP — Tasmanian Bridget Archer — immediately after the meeting confirmed she cold not support the bill and said she was “horrified” at the lack of protection for transgender students.
Others, like Queensland MP George Christensen, were outraged at the watered down version of an election promise meant to outlaw discrimination against people of faith and faith-based institutions.
“This is a wet lettuce of a bill,” he said.
A number of Queensland MPs had voiced concerns about a lack of protection for LGBTQI+ students, with the Citipointe Christian College gender contract drama bringing the disparity to the fore.
The Carindale school last week withdrew contracts it had issued to parents requiring students to agree to specific gender roles and denounce homosexuality or face expulsion.
Bowman MP Andrew Laming, in a speech to parliament, slammed the move by the school to introduce contracts as “revolting” before revealing he wanted more protections afforded to transgender students within the religious discrimination bill.
“(Principal) Brian Mulheran’s notion of gender contracts are just revolting and I’m glad that they were consigned to history,” Mr Laming said.
He said there needed to be more protection, not just from expulsion, but from schools using “other tactics” to force out transgender students.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said the decision to narrow the protection for transgender students pending a year-long review by the Australian Law Reform Commission was in order to “strike the balance” and ensure the change has no “unintended consequences”.
Senator Cash argued the removal of the exemption for religious school to discriminate on the basis of their gender identity could “effectively nullify the intention and ethos of religious same-sex schools”.
“Matters such as uniforms, bathrooms, as well as the wishes of other parents to send their children to a single-sex schools would need to be addressed,” she said.
The legislation will now be debated in the House of Representatives, with Labor yet to reveal its final position.
Olympian Ian Thorpe travelled to Canberra to meet with government and opposition MPs on Tuesday, urging them not to back the bill.
“What this is, is it becomes a state-sanctioned discrimination,” Mr Thorpe said.
“To give rights for people while excluding another group of people, for me, is discrimination.”
Originally published as Religious freedom laws: Proposed changes meet with division in LNP ranks
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