Next fight looms as religious bills shelved after Liberals split

Angry Liberals are blaming Prime Minister Scott Morrison for putting them through a “shambles” in Parliament after he shelved a draft law on religious freedom to avoid a Senate defeat amid a new leak from federal cabinet.

Mr Morrison ended days of division on the Religious Discrimination Act by sending parts of the plan to a new inquiry after five Liberal MPs crossed the floor at 4am on Thursday to vote with Labor and the crossbench to prevent schools from discriminating against transgender students.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison ended days of division on the Religious Discrimination Act by sending parts of the plan to a new inquiry.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The move came after a key Liberal, NSW senator Andrew Bragg, told the government he was prepared to cross the floor in the Senate to defend the changes made by the five MPs in the lower house despite intense efforts by Mr Morrison to restore his original package.

Senator Bragg said he remained concerned students and teachers could be excluded from religious schools under existing law because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“This is wrong in a modern society and it should be fixed,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Parliament rose on Thursday night with MPs exhausted after an extraordinary all-night sitting of the lower house the previous night when the five Liberals – Bridget Archer, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin, Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman – crossed the floor against the government.

Government members vented their frustration with the Prime Minister for allowing the debate on faith to dominate their agenda for the week.

The concerns with Mr Morrison also crystallised in a leak on Thursday revealing he had been “rolled” in a federal cabinet discussion on Monday night when ministers rejected his plan to link negotiations on religious freedom with a separate bill to create a Commonwealth integrity commission.

Coalition sources told this masthead the Prime Minister had raised the prospect of putting the integrity commission to Parliament in a draft bill and that this could help persuade some MPs to also support the government on religious discrimination.

Cabinet ministers rejected this approach, which was backed by Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, out of concern that Parliament would amend the Commonwealth integrity commission bill in ways the government could not accept.

The idea of linking the bills appeared to be aimed at winning support from Ms Archer, who wants immediate action on a federal anti-corruption commission.

With Parliament limited to a single week of sittings before the federal budget due on March 29 and with the election campaign expected to start soon afterwards, Liberals and Nationals said the changes to sex discrimination and religious discrimination laws would be left in limbo.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese claimed victory in a frantic week in Parliament by forcing the issue to an impasse after he promised voters an amended law that he said would protect religious freedom, ban the vilification of people because of their faith and prevent schools expelling LGBTQI students including transgender children.

Mr Morrison insisted the draft Religious Discrimination Act should pass in its original form to ensure people of faith had the freedom to express their views, setting up an election contest with rival claims from the major parties to ethnic communities and others shaped by religious belief.

Mr Morrison also rejected the changes made by Labor, the Greens, independent MPs and the five Liberal rebels to the Sex Discrimination Act, a separate part of the package that sought to limit the ability of schools to expel gay and lesbian students.

The rare cross-party alliance in the lower house replaced the government plan for the Sex Discrimination Act with a broader change that also protected transgender students, although the amendment stopped short of banning schools from sacking teachers because of their sexual identity.

With the government sending the Sex Discrimination Act to an inquiry and shelving plans to bring the Religious Discrimination Act to a vote, Liberals expressed frustration at the way the furore had overshadowed their agenda without getting an outcome.

“This has been shambolic and everyone feels like they’ve been done over,” one Liberal said.

Another Liberal said the setback for Mr Morrison came after he made an “extraordinary” appeal for unity at the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday when he asked for unity on the religious discrimination bill and warned they would lose government if they did not stick together.

The Australian first reported on Thursday that Mr Morrison was “rolled” in cabinet on Monday night when he proposed a way to gain numbers in Parliament for the religious package by offering to bring on a separate bill to establish a Commonwealth integrity commission.

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