Christian schools pressure Porter on religious freedom bill

The Attorney-General has been urged to rethink the government’s proposal to create a freedom of religion commissioner.

Attorney-General Christian Porter. Picture: AAP

Christian Porter is under pressure from Christian schools and social and legal groups to make further changes to his religious freedom bills, with the government expected to finalise its legislation by March.

Ahead of submissions closing on Friday, the Attorney-General has been urged to rethink the government’s proposal to create a freedom of religion commissioner and consider impacts on sporting teams.

Christian Schools Australia, which educates 60,000 students across the nation, will make 13 recommendations in its updated submission lodged this week, including scrapping a proposal for a freedom of religion commissioner because it could not be guaranteed the officer holder would be a “person of faith”.

CSA, which said it appreciated Mr Porter’s work in revamping the government’s initial exposure drafts, also called for the Charities Act to be amended to ­ensure support of traditional views of marriage by charities were recognised as being for the “public benefit”.

The Christian schools group is also pushing for protected statements of belief to not be constrained by state “vilification” laws, and warned of potential impacts arising from moves by Victoria, Queensland and the ACT to ban “conversion therapy”.

“As indicated previously, a far more balanced approach would be to exclude any religious activity that constitutes a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment under commonwealth or state/territory law,” the CSA submission says.

“The amendments in the second exposure draft are welcomed but not sufficient. The concerns held in relation to encroachment on protections are clearly demonstrated as valid by the legislation currently before the parliaments of Queensland and Victoria.”

The CSA also raises concerns over the creation of a religious freedom commissioner at the Australian Human Rights ­Commission and wants provisions related to the appointment be removed from the religious discrimination bill.

“CSA recommends that the ­office of freedom of religion commissioner should not be established as it cannot be guaranteed that the … commissioner is a person of faith.”

The Australian understands faith leaders consider Mr Porter’s second exposure draft as a positive “step forward” and the government was listening to feedback but still believed extra work was required.

In an memo to the Law Council of Australia, the Law Institute of Victoria raises concern that the draft bill has “privileged religious expression over discrimination protections and patient health needs”.

The LIV advocates for further clarity considering implications for the health sector, sporting sector and calls for the creation of a nat­ional charter of human rights.

It warns that sporting groups will be saddled with “unnecessary legislative requirements to clubs which ­already focus on ­inclusion”.

“The government should consider whether it is reasonable for a person to refuse to play against an LGBTIQ-associated team ­because of a club’s religious ­beliefs, and whether a person publicly demonstrate this rejection,” it says.

“For example, a sportsperson may refuse to shake another person’s hand because of their ­religious background, and others within a team and spectators witness it. In this example, the bill may effectively allow discriminatory sporting behaviour which may be difficult to control.”

Equality Australia also pushed back against the updated religious discrimination draft bill, saying it threatened workplaces, schools and services that were “safe and ­inclusive and privileges individual religious beliefs over the rights of patients”.