Faith leaders concerned over religious bill omissions

Faith leaders call for periodic reviews of religious discrimination laws, with senior government figures expecting moderate Liberals to raise concerns about aspects of the legislation.

Australian National Imams Council adviser Bilal Rauf, Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead and Great Synagogue chief minister Benjamin Elton. Picture:John Feder

Faith leaders have called for periodic reviews of religious discrimination laws and a bipartisan approach to rubberstamping the new protections that will be debated in parliament this week.

Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders said while they would have preferred stronger measures in the government’s religious discrimination bill, they would support “substantive protections for people of faith against faith-based discrimination”.

Adopting a pragmatic approach ahead of next year’s federal election, 25 religious and faith-based school leaders released a statement declaring nat­ionally enshrined protections were needed because there was “little if any legislative protection against discrimination directed at a person based on their religious identity and belief”.

“There are inconsistencies in the manner in which states and territories have addressed the issue, if at all. This is in contrast to the existence of federal legislation which protects against discrimination based on certain other ­attributes,” the statement said.

“Although we have not seen the bill, we understand from our discussions with the government that some of the measures present in earlier exposure drafts have been removed, such as the protections against employer codes of conduct that restrict religious speech outside the workplace, and the conscience protection for healthcare professionals.

“We would have preferred that these protections had been retained in some form.”

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash briefed Coalition MPs on the religious discrimination legislation at the weekend and began negotiations with Labor last Friday ahead of putting the bill into parliament.

The government, which will provide the bill to Coalition MPs on Tuesday, was expecting pushback from moderate Liberal MPs concerned about wider impacts of the religious discrimination bill.

To placate concerns, Senator Cash has removed contentious elements of draft legislation including the “Folau clause”, which would have given individuals in large companies and organisations legal protection from termination as a result of expressing their religious belief.

The bill, which was promised by Scott Morrison at the 2019 election, would not allow for conscientious objections if Australians sought access to medical treatment.

It would allow hospitals, schools and aged-care homes run by religious groups to prioritise the hiring of people from their faith and include a statement of faith subclause overriding state age, sex and disability discrimin­ation laws.

While senior government figures expect moderate Liberals to raise concerns about aspects of the legislation, they believe pressure will shift to Anthony Albanese to decide whether Labor backs religious protections.

Swings in Labor-held western Sydney seats at the 2019 federal election were linked to the indifference of Bill Shorten and local MPs on delivering religious protections following the same-sex marriage plebiscite.

Religious leaders said based on their briefings, the government’s bill would allow faith-based organisations to “act in accordance with their doctrines, tenets and beliefs without this being disallowed as religious discrimination”.

“As recognised by the Ruddock review, protections against religious discrimination at a federal level are long overdue. We welcome this bill because it will protect people of faith from discrimination on the basis of their religious beliefs,” they said.

The statement, signed by faith leaders including Anglican Bishop of South Sydney Michael Stead, Archbishop of Melbourne and Australian Catholic Bishops Conference spokesman Peter Comensoli, Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief executive Peter Wertheim and Australian National Imams Council spokesman Bilal Rauf, urged bipartisan support for a religious discrimin­ation act. “With the more controversial measures reportedly having been removed from the bill, there appears no sensible reason for it to generate a deeply polarising debate over religion. If reports about key provisions of the bill are correct, it will deserve bipartisan support.”

Faith groups expect any new religious discrimination laws, similar to existing human rights legislation, would be “subject to periodic review”.

“We will monitor the effect of any legislation that may be enacted, and will readily co-operate with the government in any review process to optimise the benefits of the legislation for all Australians.”

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who represents the Sydney seat of Wentworth, said he was “keen to see the detail of the bill to ensure it provides protection against discrimination but is not a vehicle for discrimination”.

Goldstein MP Tim Wilson said there were “always, in anti-discrimination laws, tricky, grey areas about how to get the balance right to respect the rights and freedoms of everyone”.