Planned religious freedom laws worry IKEA

Global homewares giant IKEA has pushed back against Scott Morrison’s planned religious discrimination act.

In a submission to Attorney-General Christian Porter, IKEA Australia country retail manager Jan Gardberg said the company believed there was merit in ‘protecting the rights of Australians of faith’ but not at the ­expense of overriding existing anti-discrimination laws. Picture: AAP

Global homewares giant IKEA has pushed back against Scott Morrison’s planned religious discrimination act, as legal experts warn loopholes in the draft bill leave it “largely useless”.

IKEA’s Australian operation said it did not support new legislation that restricted “other human rights”.

Adding to the growing number of voices publicly opposing the government’s legislation, former Victorian crown counsel Mark Sneddon said the current religious discrimination draft bill left Australians of faith still open to discrimination.

IKEA is embroiled in a high-profile religious freedom case in Poland, where a former employee claimed he was sacked for posting Bible verses condemning homosexuality.

The man uploaded texts from the Book of Leviticus and Gospel of Matthew onto the IKEA Poland intranet on a day the company had asked to show solidarity with the LGBTI community.

In a submission to the federal ­Attorney-General’s Department, IKEA Australia country retail manager Jan Gardberg said the company believed there was merit in “protecting the rights of Australians of faith” but not at the ­expense of overriding existing anti-discrimination laws.

“We are committed to maintaining the principles and the ideas of internationally recognised human rights and to actively work towards influencing positive change in all markets and areas of our business,” the submission said.

Attorney-General Christian Porter has not confirmed when he will table the legislation, which has drawn opposition from religious, business and social groups.

Religious communities and conservative groups are awaiting the government’s final bill after significant concerns were raised about the level of protections in the first draft released last year.

A submission from the Institute for Civil Society, run by Mr Sneddon, described Mr Porter’s second draft as a “considerable improvement” on his first bill but a number of concerns remain “unaddressed”.

The society said the test that a religious person was acting within the tenets of their faith is still “highly problematic” and that the definition of “religious activity” could leave courts to dismiss the bill in comparison to other anti-discrimination laws.

“A narrow interpretation of what constitutes a ‘religious ­activity’ could render the Bill largely useless,” the submission said.

“The words ‘religious activity’ … may be read too narrowly in ­accordance with some existing ­judicial precedent and be restricted to activities such as prayer and worship, but not to the manifestation of religious, moral or ethical views.

“That interpretation has the potential to exclude religious statements on matters such as marriage, gender or the family from the Bill’s protections, or to exclude religiously motivated acts, or to exclude refusals to perform ‘secular’ acts that are contrary to religious teaching.”

Mr Porter would not confirm what additional consultation with interested parties had occurred in recent weeks.