Leaders take religious discrimination battle to the polls
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have set up an election clash over religious freedoms.
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have set up an election clash over religious freedoms, with both pledging to legislate protections for faith groups after the government shelved its plan in the wake of a humiliating defeat on the floor of parliament.
The Prime Minister’s failure to deliver on his 2019 election promise to legalise safeguards for religious groups after a revolt from moderate MPs, capped a horror two weeks for the Coalition, dominated by leaked texts attacking Mr Morrison as a “liar’’ and a “psycho’’, internal division and broken promises.
Despite Mr Morrison’s desperate party room plea for unity on the religious discrimination bill earlier this week, warning a failure to unite could cost the Coalition the election, five moderate Liberal MPs joined Labor and crossbenchers in amending the government’s planned changes to the Sex Discrimination Act, to torpedo his faith protections.
The Prime Minister’s authority was again undermined on Thursday by another damaging leak after The Australian revealed he asked cabinet to consider rebooting the government’s stalled national integrity bill as part of a compromise to win support for the religious freedom package.
Under the last-ditch tactical strategy to win over moderate Liberals and independents the national integrity bill would have been reinvigorated by incorporating features proposed by crossbenchers, led by Helen Haines, in the government’s framework.
Mr Morrison was rebuffed in cabinet, with ministers raising concerns about revisiting national integrity laws so close to the election in addition to elements proposed by the independents including retrospectivity provisions.
Labor, after successfully amending the government’s planned changes to the SDA to protect transgender students, on Thursday vowed to campaign on religious freedom and legislate faith protections if it won the election.
The Opposition Leader said a Labor government would ban discrimination against people of faith, while also protecting students and teachers at religious schools.
“Sadly, discrimination on the basis of faith is all too real,” Mr Albanese said. “It might be a Muslim woman or a Sikh man being vilified on the streets because of what they are wearing. It might be a group of Jewish or Christian students being attacked because of their faith.
“Labor is committed to ending this vilification and discrimination. In doing so we must not diminish protections for other people in our society. That is what good legislation would have done.”
The Labor leader’s commitment not to walk away from religious freedoms came as the government, reeling from the revolt by moderate MPs, conceded it would run out of time to legislate faith protections with only two Senate sitting days remaining before a likely May election.
Moderate Liberal MPs Bridget Archer, Dave Sharma, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen and Trent Zimmerman teamed with Labor in the early hours of Thursday to amend the government’s proposed change to the SDA aimed at protecting gay students from being expelled.
Facing certain defeat in the upper house after NSW moderate Liberal senator Andrew Bragg indicated he would join Labor and crossbenchers to push through the SDA amendments, Mr Morrison was forced to permanently stall the religious freedoms package, even though the religious discrimination bill passed the lower house.
In the 48 hours leading up to the final vote on amendments, the Prime Minister and Attorney-General Michaelia Cash held rolling meetings with moderate MPs, offering them fresh concessions to win their support. North Queensland LNP MP Warren Entsch and other moderates backed the government but Mr Morrison fell short 65-59 in the final vote.
He will now elevate religious freedoms as a key pillar of the Coalition’s re-election strategy alongside economic management, national security and leading the pandemic recovery.
Mr Morrison, who suffered a second blow in parliament after the Senate voted 29 to 25 to block Josh Frydenberg’s crackdown on shareholder proxy advisers, has flagged he will target marginal Labor seats with strong religious and multicultural communities. Liberal strategists are preparing to lobby faith voters via mail-outs and other direct campaigning strategies.
The Australian understands leading faith groups, including senior Catholic leaders, were refraining from harsh criticism of Labor in the hope they could work with Mr Albanese if he won the election.
Coalition sources said they were also concerned about a potential backlash, with Sydney seats held by Mr Sharma, Ms Martin and Mr Zimmerman boasting the highest concentration of faith-based schools in NSW.
Ms Martin’s marginal seat of Reid, which has large Chinese-Australian and Lebanese-Australian communities, is the most religiously diverse electorate in the state.
Some moderate Liberal MPs were privately scathing of the five rebel MPs following the vote, accusing them of “political immaturity” and making it harder for Mr Morrison ahead of a tough election campaign. But the rebel MPs claimed they were assured by Mr Morrison in December that the entire section 38 (3) of the SDA, which says it is not unlawful for schools to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, would be repealed. The MPs feel Mr Morrison did not live up to his word by limiting the reform to protect gay but not transgender children.
The government, Labor, Greens and crossbenchers on Thursday morning agreed to freeze debate on the amended religious freedoms package after the Australian Government Solicitor raised concerns in response to the rushed SDA changes.
The AGS advice said amendments to section 37 in the SDA and the removal of Section 38 (3), could spark positive discrimination against children.
In a letter to opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus and independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, who moved changes to section 37, Senator Cash said “significant concerns” had been raised that “religious education institutions will now be able to discriminate against students on the ground of the student’s sex, intersex status and breastfeeding”.
“It is section 38 of the SDA that provides specific, and limited, exceptions for religious education institutions,” Senator Cash wrote.
“In contrast, section 37 of the SDA provides a general exception for religious bodies (essentially churches, mosques, synagogues and similar bodies) to discriminate against people on the basis of all attributes and in all areas of public life.”
Senator Cash said amending section 37 of the SDA could allow these institutions to rely on the “general exception in that section, rather than on the more limited exceptions in section 38”.
“For example, this could allow religious education institutions to discriminate against people on broader grounds than currently provided for in section 38, such as discriminating in the provision of goods, services and facilities, or accommodation,” she wrote.
“By expressly stating that it is unlawful for a religious education institution to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy, this drafting leaves open the possibility of religious schools to discriminate on other grounds, being a student or prospective student’s sex, intersex status or breastfeeding.”
Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said he was disappointed by parliament’s failure to deliver stronger religious protections.
“The government’s bill is balanced and well considered and we had an expectation that the government and parliament would deliver, it is disappointing that the actions of several MPs have led to this outcome,” Mr McInerney said.
Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown said “many young gay and trans people will wake up and feel like they belong, thanks to those MPs that stood on the courage of their convictions for equality”.
Australian Christian Lobby executive director Wendy Francis said “taking away protections for Christian schools” was “a price too high to pay for the passage of the religious discrimination bill”.
Christian Schools Australia director Mark Spencer said: “Schools still have no certainty about the future legal framework and now people of faith have become “collateral damage” in a calculated campaign against faith-based schools.”
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