Religious discrimination bill ‘an attack on the disabled’, say advocates

Disability sector advocates have written to federal MPs warning the Morrison government’s religious discrimination bill will seriously erode protections for people with disabilities.

Former Tasmanian anti-discrminiation commissioner Robin Banks is an adviser to Disability Voices Tasmania in the campaign against the federal religious discrimination bill. Picture: Sam Rosewarne

Disability sector advocates have written to federal MPs to say the Morrison government’s religious discrimination bill will seriously erode protections for people with disabilities.

Peak groups advocating for people with disabilities have urged MPs to vote down the bill and provided material to key opponents to use in parliamentary debate.

People with disabilities constitute a large proportion of complaints to anti-discrimination bodies, some relating to demeaning, offending and insulting conduct by people of faith.

These have included cases of people suggesting their physical or mental disabilities were linked to a lack of faith or to sins, or that they could be “healed” by prayer.

“Australians with disabilities experience belittling or humiliating interactions with a lot of ­people, some of whom are people of faith, so we’re a group that probably has the most to lose by this legislation,” said Michael Small, Disability Voices Tasmania chair.

“Frustratingly, the issue has been reduced to a ‘gays bash god’ issue, which is far from our reality.

“We really have enormous concerns. The bill if it becomes law will override a whole series of protections for people with a ­disability.”

The peak groups, as well as providing a statement of concern, have suggested real-life examples to MPs to use in debate.

These include a schoolgirl told by a playmate that she was in a wheelchair because her parents didn’t believe in god; a Tasmanian teacher told by a colleague that she was in a wheelchair because she “had something to learn in life”; and a disabled woman being “regularly” told “if you came to our church, you could be healed”.

The peak national and state groups said the bill’s protection for statements of religious belief would “give licence” to such extreme views. “They are views commonly expressed to people with disability,” says the statement of concern.

“The bill will legitimise these views as long as they are personally held beliefs of religious doctrine and are made in good faith.”

The Australian Federation of Disability Organisations said the bill would override anti-discrim­ination laws that prevented ­humiliating, insulting, demeaning or ridiculing conduct against ­people with disabilities.

In Tasmania, which has arguably the nation’s most far-reaching anti-discrimination laws, disability advocates are being aided by former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks.

As commissioner in 2015, Ms Banks accepted a complaint against Hobart Archbishop Jul­ian Porteous over Catholic Church attacks on gay marriage.

Ms Banks said the bill would override legal protections that set out “normative standards of ­behaviour”.

“We have no qualms about saying that sexually harassing a woman using words is unacceptable behaviour,” she said.

“Similarly, we should say harassing a person with a disability about their disability should be un­acceptable behaviour.”

Archbishop Porteous has urged MPs to pass the bill, ­arguing that anti-discrimination laws have been used to undermine freedom of religious ­expression.

Government backers of the bill argue that it strikes the right balance between competing rights.