Amendments threaten to scupper religious discrimination bill

The passage of amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act through the lower house is a huge blow to the Morrison government, with five of its own MPs crossing the floor to vote for the changes along with Labor and crossbench MPs.

This represents a crushing defeat of the Morrison government’s position and threatens to scuttle the passage of religious freedom protections entirely. There is now a real prospect that religious protections in Australia could be weakened as a result of the parliamentary manoeuvres which are now occurring.

The Prime Minister aimed to limit the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure gay students could not be expelled or discriminated against. The more complex issue of protections for transgender students were to be referred to the Australian Law Reform Commission for review.

This was to ensure any further changes to the SDA could protect transgender students from discrimination, while also preserving the ability of educators to run single sex schools and teach in accordance with their faith.

Member for Reid Fiona Martin crossed the floor to vote with Labor on their amendments.

But the removal of section 38(3) from the SDA — as passed by the House of Representatives overnight — is being interpreted by some faith based schools as a full frontal attack on their ethos.

Their view is that the passage of a new religious discrimination act will now be meaningless if section 38(3) is removed.

In this way, the religious discrimination bill and the changes to the Sex Discrimination Act were linked — part of a package deal. The government’s defeat on the SDA now threatens to torpedo the broader religious discrimination act and render its passage through the upper house irrelevant, even if it sails through without Labor’s amendments.

Conservative government MPs were concerned on Thursday morning that the changes to the SDA in the lower house would represent a net loss in terms of protections for religious schools and constitute a massive breach of faith with faith based communities.

Liberal member for Higgins Katie Allen also crossed the floor. Picture: AAP.

They told The Australian it was imperative the changes to the SDA were not endorsed by the Senate given Labor is confident it has the numbers and that the bill should be pulled rather than risk defeat.

One senior conservative told The Australian: “It’s more harm than good. If you pass the Religious Discrimination Act plus these changes to the Sex Discrimination Act, it does more harm than good. That’s the view of conservatives.

“You’d be better off with nothing.”

The problem is that the government does not control the upper house.

If Labor, the Greens, Jacqui Lambie, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff combined forces, it would only take one Coalition Senator to cross the floor for the removal of section 38(3) to be passed into law.

This would be a humiliating defeat for Morrison. Focus is shifting to what NSW Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg might do in this situation.

Trent Zimmerman was one of the five Liberal MPs to cross the floor. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

Christian Schools Australia Director of Public Policy, Mark Spencer, responded to the passage of the SDA amendments through the House on Thursday morning by saying it could alter what faith based schools were allowed to teach.

“These amendments undermine the ability of schools of any faith to provide teaching on sexuality and gender in accordance with their beliefs. It goes to the very heart of religious teaching, a fundamental human right,” he said.

“Once again we call on the parliament if it is genuinely concerned about discrimination relating to the provision of education the solution is the immediate commencement of the ALRC review process.”

But the nightmare scenario for the government is a double loss: that the removal of section 38(3) is passed by the upper house into law and that the Senate fails to pass the separate religious discrimination bill.

Labor is proposing a series of amendments to the religious discrimination legislation in the upper house which the government will not support, meaning a Senate impasse is likely.

Bridget Archer, left, and Dave Sharma, right, also voted with Labor. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gary Ramage

This would constitute a net loss for religious freedoms in this country — a weakening of the protections for religious schools in the Sex Discrimination Act accompanied by the failure to pass the promised religious discrimination act.

If the government is forced to drop the religious discrimination bill or kill it off in the Senate and break a key election promise — as now seems more likely — it will not just be because of Labor.

It will also be because it was unable to mount a persuasive enough case to prevent five of its MPs — Fiona Martin, Bridget Archer, Katie Allen, Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman — from crossing the floor.

This would loom as an ominous sign for party unity just months out from a federal election and undermine any attempt by Scott Morrison to blame Labor for the failure to pass new religious protections as he heads towards polling day.