Catholic bishops call for more protections on charities and hospitals

Catholic bishops say the draft religious discrimination bill ‘should be amended to include religious hospitals and aged care’.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and the ACBC spokesman on religious freedom Peter Comensoli. Picture: AAP

Catholic organisations say the government’s draft religious discrimination bill does not provide adequate protections to faith-based charities, hospitals and aged-care providers or give enough certainty to religious groups who wish to hire staff based on their faith.

Responding to the draft bill, the Catholic Church’s peak body, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said section 10 of the legislation “should be amended to include religious hospitals and aged care”.

Section 10 of the draft bill provides for a positive expression of the right to religious freedom. This is a departure from previous arrangements in which religious liberty has been expressed in the form of exemptions in other discrimination legislation.

A growing number of groups are saying section 10 needs to be more clearly articulated and there is confusion about which kind of religious organisations would be covered, and whether they would be able to preference staff who shared their religious ethos.

The submission from the bishops conference said there was “no principled justification” for the exclusion of hospitals and aged-care providers. “The principal concern of the ACBC with the proposed exclusion of religious charities and other non-­educational religious bodies from clause 10 is the need to address employment. In the same way as is necessary in religious schools, Catholic health and welfare agencies need to be able to hire staff who support their religious mission and to set employee conduct standards.”

The Archbishop of Melbourne and the ACBC spokesman on ­religious freedom, Peter Comensoli, said the church could continue its work only “if we can employ staff who support our mission”.

“This bill would provide important protection against discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or activity and a positive protection of our freedom to act in accordance with our religious faith, but excludes vital parts of the work of the church,” he said.

The peak Catholic education body has also warned the government its exposure draft needs revisions because there is nothing in the bill to stop the states and territories from passing new laws driving faith from the public square.

The National Catholic Education Commission questioned whether faith-based educators would be able to preference teachers on their religion when it came to hiring decisions.

“Catholic schools employ some staff who are not baptised as Catholics. In common with all staff, non-Catholic staff are required to be supportive of the teachings and mission of the Catholic Church, act as role models to students and do nothing that would undermine the transmission of those teachings.

“On a narrow reading of section 10, a secular authority may regard certain employment decisions as outside section 10 even though such decisions are vital to ensuring that a Catholic school operates as a Catholic school.”

Scott Morrison’s decision to defer consideration of religious exemptions in anti-discrimin­ation regimes to the Australian Law Reform Commission was also identified as a key problem.

The ALRC is not due to report until December 2020.