Religious discrimination bill strikes a fair balance

Unlike the world’s theocracies or atheistic communist regimes, Australia has long been a broad church, respecting individuals’ and families’ wide variety of personal religious beliefs or their right to hold none at all. That plurality and freedom is worth preserving, which is the reason for the Morrison government’s religious discrimination bill.

It was promised at the 2019 election after the hard-fought 2017 same-sex marriage plebiscite. Attorney-General Michaelia Cash wanted to “take the politics out of this”, and she appears to have succeeded.

Faith leaders want bipartisan support for the bill, and the opposition appears set to wave it through the lower house and refer it to a Senate committee. That committee will be directed to report by February, in time for legislation to be passed before the election.

On Monday, 25 Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders called for “substantive protections for people of faith against faith-based discrimination”.

The bill protects key areas of concern held by many voters – the rights of schools to teach the doctrines of their faith and to employ members of their own faith.

Allowing religious schools to operate in accordance with the tenets, beliefs and teachings of their faith should protect them against being forced to impose programs such as Safe Schools. The same employment provisions will apply to religious-run hospitals and nursing homes. But they will not be allowed to turn away patients and residents on religious grounds. Fair enough.

Their remit, as it has been for centuries, is to serve those in need of their care and services, regardless of creed. There is no “Folau” clause, which will limit the risks of outbreaks of overly zealous, simplistic and hurtful outbursts.

Moderates within the Coalition – including Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma, Bridget Archer, Andrew Bragg, Fiona Martin and Angie Bell – reportedly are concerned about the possibility of gay students being expelled from religious schools or gay teachers being sacked from those schools. So is Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown, who claimed the bill failed to “protect everyone in the Australian community equally” and that current federal law allowed discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teachers and students in religious schools.

But the government is standing by Scott Morrison’s 2018 promise that the expulsion of gay students must be avoided. As Senator Cash explained, the government is dealing with that issue by briefing the Australian Law Reform Commission to strengthen anti-discrimination laws to ensure that a student could not be expelled from a school on the basis of their gender or sexual identity. On available information, such instances are rare.

The ALRC’s review of anti-discrimination exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act, including Labor amendments in 2013, will be handed to the government within 12 months of the religious discrimination bill passing.

In a sphere where emotions for and against laws run high, Senator Cash has undertaken widespread consultation and struck a sensible, sensitive balance. As some Coalition MPs argued on Wednesday, there is no reason to water down the legislation. It is more of a shield than a sword. West Australian Liberal senator Matt O’Sullivan was correct when he said the bill didn’t “encroach upon other rights protected by law” and would “not authorise hate speech, violence or discrimination against anyone”.

The Liberal Party, as he said, “believes in tolerance, freedom of thought, speech, worship and association”.

So do most Labor supporters, and most people in the wider community.