Shorten dubs Gillard-era anti-gay laws ‘out of date’

Just hours after his deputy said Labor had “no plans” to change Gillard-era anti-gay laws, Bill Shorten contradicts Tanya Plibersek.

Tanya Plibersek says it would be “wrong”, “irresponsible” and “abhorrent” for a school to turn a child away because of their sexuality. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten has described laws introduced by the Gillard government which allow religious schools to reject gay students and teachers as “out of date”, vowing to work with Scott Morrison to “make sure no child is denied human dignity”.

The Opposition Leader’s comments contradict those of Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, who this morning said Labor had “no plans” to change the laws.

Leaked sections of Liberal Party elder Phillip Ruddock’s report on religious freedom indicate it proposes changes that would restrict the ability of religious schools to use existing laws, introduced by the Gillard government in 2013, to discriminate against teachers and students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed Liberal Party elder Mr Ruddock to chair a federal review into religious freedom following the same-sex marriage postal survey last year, amid concern from religious and conser­vative groups that the legalisation of same-sex marriage could infringe upon their ­religious freedoms.

The government is yet to respond or publish the report, despite receiving it in May.

“I don’t mind saying I have been a bit disappointed in the last 48 hours about the strange silence of our Prime Minister on the issue of whether or not we should extend laws to allow discrimination against kids who are gay,” Mr Shorten said.

“As soon as I heard about it, I said it’s a silly idea.”

Mr Shorten said Prime Minister Scott Morrison shouldn’t be blaming Labor for the Gillard-era law.

“What we would say to government is this: as any parent, there’s no case, there’s not rationale to discriminate against kids based on their sexuality,” he said.

“Those laws are out of date, if they were ever in date. I have been speaking with some of the religious educational administrators in this country.

“They don’t even use the existing laws, so if Mr Morrison wants to back up his statement, I will work with him to make sure that no child is denied human dignity.”

Fairfax Media this morning published all 20 leaked recommendations of the Ruddock review, having on Wednesday published only Recommendation Seven, which states that:

The Commonwealth should amend the Sex Discrimination Act to provide that religious schools may discriminate in relation to students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status provided that:

— The discrimination is founded in the precepts of the religion.

— The school has a publicly available policy outlining its position in relation to the matter.

— The school provides a copy of the policy in writing to prospective students and their parents at the time of enrolment and to existing students and their parents at any time the policy is updated.

— The school has regard to the best interests of the child as the primary consideration in its conduct.

Recommendation Seven appears to be an addendum to Recommendation Six, which states that:

Jurisdictions should abolish any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws that provide for discrimination by religious schools in employment on the basis of race, disability, pregnancy or intersex status. Further, jurisdictions should ensure that any exceptions for religious schools do not permit discrimination against an existing employee solely on the basis that the employee has entered into a marriage.

Labor to keep anti-gay laws

Ms Plibersek earlier said the opposition had no plans to abolish the Gillard-era exemptions, which allow religious schools to reject gay students and teachers.

However, Ms Plibersek said it would be “wrong”, “irresponsible” and “abhorrent” for a school to turn a child away because of their sexuality.

“It’s not Labor’s plan to reduce any of the existing exemptions, but any expansion of the right to discriminate is certainly something we’re not contemplating,” Ms Plibersek said when asked whether Labor would seek to abolish the exemptions it introduced.

“I think there’s a very easy way for Scott Morrison to deal with this debate, and that’s to release the report that’s been sitting on his desk for five months into religious freedoms.

“Now Labor absolutely believes that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of their religion.

“People absolutely have a right to practice their religion as long as it doesn’t in any way contravene Australian law, but the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of your religion is not the right to discriminate because of your religious views, and this debate is getting very messy very quickly because Scott Morrison refuses to release the report that he has, that’s been given to him by an expert panel of eminent Australians.

“Why doesn’t he want to release the report before the Wentworth by-election? What’s so bad in it? What’s the government contemplating that could be so controversial that they’re not prepared to talk about it before the Wentworth by-election?”

Ms Plibersek said it would be “wrong and irresponsible’ to turn a child away because of their sexuality.

“I think it’s absolutely, frankly abhorrent to send that message to a child that there’s something wrong with them,” she said.

“There have been exemptions in the past for the staff of schools, if schools are religious-based.

“I would really urge schools to reconsider whether they make use of provisions like that, and I’ve got to be honest with you: I think the vast majority of schools simply don’t.

“I think the vast majority of schools are grateful to their skilled teachers and really aren’t sending the bedroom police around to their place on the weekend to see who they’re living with.”

‘Strip anti-gay schools of funds’

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick earlier said he supported his crossbench colleague Derryn Hinch’s proposed motion calling for religious schools which discriminate against teachers or students on the ground of their sexuality to be stripped of government funding and charity status.

Senator Patrick said he and his Centre Alliance colleague Stirling Griff supported Senator Hinch’s proposed motion “in principle”.

“People must remember that a motion in the Senate is an expression of the Senate’s will, it’s not actually a law, but in principle yes,” Senator Patrick told ABC radio.

“We’re of the view that teachers’ appointments should be based on merit. Of course you can have a teacher that is involved in misconduct, and that may be a determinant in a dismissal, but that has no bearing on sexuality.”

Senator Patrick said he did not believe exemptions in current law granting schools the right to discriminate against students and teachers on the basis of sexuality should remain.

“I don’t believe so,” he said.

“The reality is it’s simply not proper to vet students on the basis of their sexuality.

“I mean some of these students wouldn’t even understand what their sexuality was in certain circumstances, and if they do, it’s unlikely they may want to come out, they may want to keep that private, and they’re absolutely entitled to do that, so it’s doesn’t seem to be even something that is enforceable, but we’ve moved on from suffrage through to no fault divorce through to gay marriage, all of those sorts of things.

“This is just one of these lingering old conservative principles and actually it’s time for that to go.”

Senator Patrick said the government should “absolutely” release the Ruddock report immediately.

“Indeed the last sitting of the Senate the Greens tried to move a motion to suspend standing orders in order to be able to get access to that document and the government refused,” he said.

“They refused on the grounds of cabinet in confidence. I actually think that that claim is fundamentally flawed, because that particular document was not prepared for cabinet, and indeed whilst the deliberations of cabinet are indeed confidential, a document that is referred to is not, and it should have been released to the Senate and it should have been made available to the public.”