Labor plan a threat to biblical teaching, say Catholics

The Catholic Church is leading the campaign against Bill Shorten’s push to remove protections for faith-based educators.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten during question time yesterday.

The Catholic Church is leading the campaign against Bill Shorten’s push to introduce a private member’s bill removing protections for faith-based educators, warning its ability to “teach Catholic beliefs is threatened” by the Labor plan.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus yesterday smashed the attempt to reach a ­consensus with the government on changes to the system of exemptions within the Sex Discrimination Act upholding religious freedoms for schools. Labor will instead try to introduce its own private member’s bill to remove an exemption allowing schools to discriminate against gay students.

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli yesterday made clear that “Catholic schools do not use these exemptions to expel students simply on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity”.

He warned removal of the exemption would throw into question the ability of Catholic schools to teach a biblical view of marriage because it could be deemed discriminatory against some LGBTI students.

“Schools want to maintain the capacity to teach a Christian understanding of sexual ethics and marriage according to our faith tradition. Our right to continue to teach Catholic beliefs is threatened by proposals to repeal existing faith-based exemptions for religious schools and institutions,” he said. “The provisions in section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act are necessary because some people may claim that our Catholic beliefs are unjustly discriminatory and we need to have the assurance that we can pursue our religious mission without legal risk.”

But Mr Dreyfus said removal of the ­exemptions would not affect the ability of faith-based educators to teach a traditional view of marriage. He also rejected arguments that a claim of direct discrimination could be made against schools that promoted a biblical view of marriage, despite evidence to the contrary presented to a Senate inquiry from faith-based educators.

The Labor bill will be framed around the recommendations of a Labor- and Greens-dominated Senate inquiry which released its report into the religious freedom issue in faith-based schools late on Monday night. To ensure success for the party’s private member’s bill, Mr Shorten must win an ­absolute majority of 76 votes to suspend standing orders to bring on a vote. The resignation from the Liberal Party of Julia Banks means there are seven votes on the crossbench which, when added to Labor’s 69, would give Mr Shorten the ability to put the bill to a vote.

Mark Spencer, executive officer of policy at Christian Schools Australia, said the recommendations from the Senate inquiry were out of step with other ­nations.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said Christian Schools Australia was concerned the removal of exemptions from the Sex Discrimination Act would “profoundly compromise” the ability of its schools to act in accordance with their beliefs.

“This is why when we negotiated with Labor to effect the complete removal of s38(3), we also promoted the insertion of a clarification to the long-existing section of the act that deals with the reasonableness of rules of general application such as school rules,” he said. “Despite saying they wanted to deal with this on a bipartisan basis, Labor thought about it for five weeks and then informed us they disagreed through the media.”