Religious freedoms ‘poorly protected’, committee to say

A multi-party parliamentary committee is expected to report today that religious freedoms in Australia are limited.

Committee chairman Kevin Andrews. Picture: Josie Hayden

A multi-party parliamentary committee is expected to report today that religious freedoms in Australia are limited and open to more restriction by state anti-discrimination laws, as the Senate rejects extra religious protections in the same-sex marriage laws.

After amendments attempting to better protect freedom of religion and speech were rejected in the Senate yesterday, the report from the human rights subcommittee of the joint foreign affairs committee on religious freedom will be tabled today.

The finding is expected to follow key submissions suggesting religious freedoms in Australia were thin and subject to being overridden by state government anti-discrimination laws.

The parliamentary report, after almost a year of hearings, will provide a factual foundation for the religious freedoms’ review ordered by Malcolm Turnbull as part of the same-sex marriage debate to mollify fears of a backlash against free speech and religion.

The committee has been told Australia’s agreement to various international covenants — which George Brandis wanted to highlight in amendments to the same-sex marriage laws — provides little practical protection.

It is understood the unanimous report does not make any recommendations for legislative change.

But the committee was urged during hearings to extend protections for religious beliefs, consider a charter of religious rights or a bill of rights that protected religion.

Liberal Party elder Philip Ruddock, who served as John Howard’s immigration minister and was recently Australia’s Special Envoy for Human Rights, will head the review for the Prime Minister and report by the end of March. He will be assisted by a panel of experts including Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher, retired Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett, and Jesuit priest Frank Brennan.

Chairman of the committee, Victorian Liberal MP and former Howard government minister Kevin Andrews said last year: “It may come as a surprise to Australians to learn that there is very little legal protection for freedom of ­religion and belief in this nation. This is the evidence that has been given by legal and constitutional experts to the human rights sub-committee inquiry into freedom of religion and belief.”

In a submission to the inquiry this year, constitutional law expert at the University of NSW, George Williams, sounded the alarm on the lack of safeguards for religious freedoms in Australia and warned there was no constitutional protection to prevent the states from restricting them.

“Freedom of religion and belief received inadequate protection under Australian law,” Professor Williams said. “In contrast to other nations, protection of these rights is weak, or even non-existent.”

“The Australian Constitution offers no direct protection in respect of religion or belief at the state level. This means that states may pass laws that restrict ­religious freedom or belief.”

He warned the intention of section 116 of the Constitution was deliberately narrow in its construction, opting only to prohibit the commonwealth from legis­lating in respect of religion.

“The High Court has never struck down an Australian statute on the basis that it conflicts with freedom of religion,” he said. “This stands in contrast to the strong and clear protection provided for religious freedom under international law (via Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and in comparable nations.”