Turnbull’s pledge on religious protections

Malcolm Turnbull has promised to legislate ‘warranted’ amendments for religious protections in same-sex marriage laws.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Malcolm Turnbull has signalled the government will move to legislate further religious protections and freedoms next year should the Ruddock inquiry set up in response to concerns over the same-sex marriage laws find more robust protections are warranted.

The Prime Minister also ­acknowledged concerns within his own partyroom and said the government would adopt any “sensible” recommendations and push for them to be legislated. The move to address concerns among colleagues, which he had failed to champion for protection amendments to be dealt with during the same-sex marriage debate, follows an analysis of the Coalition partyroom’s voting patterns. The analysis shows 89 per cent of Coalition senators and MPs voted for at least some of the substantive amendments to senator Dean Smith’s bill, including parental rights.

Mr Turnbull described the passage of the same-sex marriage bill as a “big achievement” in what was a “very difficult and vexed issue”. He said he would consider adopting as government policy any sensible recommendations that should flow from the inquiry panel headed by former attorney-general Philip Ruddock.

“Absolutely, you don’t set up panels like that for the purpose of ignoring what they say. I set it up following discussion with colleagues and indeed people on the No side,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Most people would be puzzled by the prospect that religious freedoms were not adequately protected in Australia. This is a very free society. This is an opportunity for those who have concerns that religious freedoms are not adequately protected to set out why they believe it is so. If there are changes to the law that are recommended then we will consider them very carefully. It is a very wise panel … they will come up I’m sure with some sensible proposals.

“I’m not saying we will act on all of them or any of them … but we are a sensible government and we take freedoms very seriously.”

The Prime Minister acknowledged overwhelming support in his partyroom for greater protections, particularly around the issue of parental rights and protections for traditional teachings in Christian schools.

Almost 90 per cent of Coalition MPs and senators voted for at least one substantive amendment contained in the five separate amendment bundles put to both houses of parliament last week.

In an indication that the private member’s same-sex marriage bill would not have survived a ­Coalition partyroom vote, only 11 Coalition MPs failed to support a substantive amendment. They included Senator Smith, Trent Zimmerman, Trevor Evans, Warren Entsch, Simon Birmingham, Christopher Pyne, Julia Banks, Jane Hume, Sussan Ley, Jane Prentice, and Llew O’Brien.

Only two members of Mr Turnbull’s cabinet (Mr Pyne and Senator Birmingham) refused to support any of the proposed amendments backed by conservative MPs including Treasurer Scott Morrison.

A majority of the partyroom, 52 MPs and senators, voted for every single Coalition amendment

“I’m very conscious of the support for the amendments … the real shame was the Labor Party didn’t allow a free vote on the amendments,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It may be a number of those amendments would have been successful had Labor allowed a free vote (as promised).”

Senior conservative MPs said there would be high expectations on Mr Turnbull to deliver on his promise to put religious freedoms back on the table following the review. “Dean Smith utterly failed to convince his colleagues that the protections for freedoms included in his bill were adequate,” one conservative MP told The Australian.