Moderate Libs urged to push religious discrimination bill

Moderate Liberal MPs are being urged to pass the religious discrimination bill through the lower house and refer it to a joint parliamentary committee.

Nationals MP Anne Webster. Picture: Gary Ramage

Moderate Liberal MPs are being urged to pass the religious discrimination bill through the lower house and refer it to a joint parliamentary committee, with senior government figures promising to address concerns over indirect effects on gay staff and students.

Scott Morrison was expected to bring on a procedural vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday after Labor reserved its position on the bill until the human rights committee handed down its report next year.

Labor MPs on Tuesday agreed they would attempt to delay a vote in the lower house but if their motion were defeated, they would not stand in the way of the legislation being sent for review.

A Labor caucus spokesman said if the government succeeded in bringing on the vote in the lower house, the opposition would not oppose it. However, it would make clear the “principles that will guide Labor’s final position and concern about the government’s need to deliver on its three-year-old commitment to protect LGBT children from discrimination”.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said Labor supported protecting people from religious discrimination but not “at the expense of other rights that are already there in legislation”.

“We need to step through the bill that was only provided last week to the opposition and the broader community, and make sure we are alive to that possibility. That we’re delivering rights we all agree should be delivered – a right to freedom of religion – (and to ensure) that we’re not infringing other rights,” he said. “Even the Prime Minister accepts there’s a need for an inquiry to look into this legislation in fine detail.”

Labor’s caucus unanimously agreed to reserve its position until the joint parliamentary inquiry reports on the bill. Labor MPs agreed if the government tried to force the debate to be brought on, they would aim to delay it through “procedural matters”.

Nationals MP Anne Webster, chair of the human rights committee, said the bill was a “significant omission from the federal anti-discrimination framework”.

Public hearings will be held at Parliament House on December 21 and January 13-14, with the committee asked to report back by February 4, days before MPs are due to return for the first sitting week in Canberra. The 2022 federal parliamentary sitting calendar, released this week, shows the Senate will have only five days to pass the religious discrimination bill before a likely election in May.