Religious schools’ right to discriminate against gays ‘existing law’

Scott Morrison says it is “existing law” for religious schools to have the right to discriminate against gay students and teachers.

Philip Ruddock Ruddock has recommended that the right of schools to turn away gay students and teachers be enshrined in the Sex Discrimination Act.

Scott Morrison has downplayed fears that the government may bolster laws permitting religious schools to discriminate against gay students and teachers as a result of the Ruddock review of religious freedoms, saying it is existing law for schools to refuse employment or admission on the basis of religious tenets.

Then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull appointed Liberal Party elder Phillip 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.

According to leaked details from the report, which the government has had since May, Mr Ruddock has recommended that the right of schools to turn away gay students and teachers be enshrined in the Sex Discrimination Act.

“To some school communities, cultivating an environment and ethos which conforms to their religious beliefs is of paramount importance,” the review says, according to Fairfax Media.

“To the extent that this can be done in the context of appropriate safeguards for the rights and mental health of the child, the panel accepts their right to select, or preference, students who uphold the religious convictions of that school community.”

Mr Morrison said schools already could turn students away on the basis of their sexual orientation.

“They can. That is the existing law. That is the existing law,” the Prime Minister said.

“And so the report in today’s Sydney Morning Herald forgot to mention one critical factor, that the existing law enables schools to do exactly what was in that report.

“So that’s not a change. That’s actually backing in an existing law.”

Asked whether he believed it was fair for a gay student to be turned away, Mr Morrison said: “Well it’s the existing law and we’re not proposing to change that law to take away that existing arrangement that exists.”

Mr Morrison said the government would be considering and developing a balanced response to the Ruddock review.

“We will do that in our orderly process, taking it through cabinet. This has not been through cabinet at this point,” he said.

“It hasn’t been considered by cabinet, so we will take it through that orderly process, and we will come out with our response to the Ruddock review, but want to make it really clear that what was reported today is existing law.”

Asked when the government would make the report public, Mr Morrison said it would be released “in due course”.

“And it will be released with a response from the government once we’re in a position to advise our comprehensive response to that report and once we’ve carefully considered and respectfully considered all the measures and recommendations and proposals that have been put forward,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Ruddock’s panel included Jesuit priest Frank Brennan, former Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett and the head of the Human Rights Commission, Rosalind Croucher.

‘I don’t think it’s controversial’ to reject gay students: Hawke

Special Minister of State Alex Hawke said religious schools should be allowed to discriminate against gay students.

Asked whether religious schools should be able to reject students as well as teachers on the basis of their sexuality, Mr Hawke said: “Absolutely, absolutely. I don’t think it’s controversial.”

“I don’t think it’s controversial in Australia that people expect religious schools to teach the practice of their faith and their religion,” Mr Hawke told Sky News.

“That’s the point of a religious school, and in Australia you have a choice of schooling.

“You have the public system, you have the private and the independent system and you have religious and faith-based schools.

“I think people have enough common sense to practice their faith in their own schools, and if you are a parent and you’re sending your child to a religious school, you’re doing so because you would like instruction in that religion, and that’s perfectly appropriate.”

Asked whether someone who was gay and Christian should be prevented from attending a Christian school, Mr Hawke said it was up to the individual school.

“It’s an absolute misunderstanding of Christianity to say every Christian school in this country would turn away someone because they’re gay, and we’re mostly talking about the primary system and the very, very young people who are below the age of consent, so this is a manufactured issue that the left is raising to try and circumvent religious freedom,” he said.

“The issue is do we have adequate protection for people to practice their faith in this country, and this report will tell government that perhaps we need to strengthen our laws to protect ourselves from people like Tanya Plibersek, who want to tell people of faith what they can and can’t believe.”

Mr Hawke said he had not seen the Ruddock report.

“Absolutely not, and I don’t think that’s controversial,” he said.

“It’s been four months and this is a very complex area of rights and law.

“The government’s got every right to consider the report very carefully and think about that complex intersection of rights and law.”

Mr Hawke said the government had requested the report because it believed that millions of Australians of faith wanted the government to get the balance right between religious freedom and other rights.

“The left of politics and the left in society are mounting an assault on religion and people of faith,” Mr Hawke said.

“It’s been happening for a long time. Everyone of faith feels the pressure.”

Asked for an example, Mr Hawke cited comments from deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, who this morning said seeking to be able to discriminate against children was “pretty pathetic”.

“She seems to want to go through line by line of the Bible and tell us what she likes or doesn’t like and what people can believe and what they can’t believe,” Mr Hawke said.

“It’s a constant pressure from the left of society today on people of faith.

“It’s important we define religious freedom in Australia in 2018 so people can continue to practice their faith the way they want to.”

Asked why the law needed to change, given Christian schools are already allowed to refuse employment on the basis or religious tenets, Mr Hawke said: “Well it might be needed, because under the last Labor government we saw Julia Gillard and people like Tanya Plibersek get an actual Marxist to write the Safe Schools program and implement it in the public school system.”

The Safe Schools program was rolled out under the Abbott government.

“Now as a parent, and a parent of three young boys myself, it makes me want to send my kids to religious based schools because I don’t want to see the public system mandate these sorts of things which are written by actual Marxists in a Labor government,” Mr Hawke said.

“Labor is deserting people of faith in Australia. They were a former Catholic working class-based party. They’ve abandoned their Catholic and working class roots.

“They’re now the party of elites and of trendy people in the inner cities who really have a contempt for people of faith in this country.

“I think most Australians are very sensible about the practice of their faith. We don’t have a litigious society like the US, we don’t have these problems arise.

“People quietly practice their faith in their churches, in their communities, in their homes without much controversy in Australia, but the left feels constant pressure to create these problems.”

‘If you’re not planning anything nasty, release the report’: Shorten

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he couldn’t believe Mr Morrison had not ruled out creating new laws to discriminate against children.

“This whole Ruddock review has been cloaked in secrecy,” Mr Shorten said.

“The government invited the public to make submissions. That’s happened.

“The government received a report in May. The experts have written the report.

“It’s now been five months and Mr Morrison is keeping a secret report under lock and key until after the Wentworth by-election.

“Labor is challenging Mr Morrison: if you’re not planning anything nasty, reveal the report before the Wentworth by-election. If you’re not going to do anything nasty, then be upfront with the Australian people.

“If Mr Morrison won’t release this secret report before the Wentworth by-election, he is telling the voters in Wentworth that he doesn’t trust them.

“It’s an expert report. What could be in that report which is so bad that it has to remain hidden?”

Mr Shorten said he was concerned about discrimination against students on the basis of their sexuality.

“As for the specific discussion today, that they are contemplating new laws to discriminate against kids on the basis of sexuality, no way!” he said.

“The fact of the matter is that every child is entitled to human dignity. We shouldn’t even be having this debate.

“The same goes (for teachers).

“There should be no extension of discriminatory rights against people in this country.

“Mr Morrison said recently that he wants everyone to love each other. It is not very loving to hide a report from the Australian voter and to propose new discriminations against parts of the Australian population.”

Report ‘hasn’t been seen by most cabinet ministers’

Families and Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher repeatedly avoided saying whether he believed religious schools should be able to turn away gay students and teachers.

“You’re asking about reports this morning about the religious freedom report, which was prepared by the eminent Australian Philip Ruddock and a committee that he led,” Mr Fletcher told Sky News.

“I make the point that is a report to government. It’s not a report of government.”

Asked again whether or not it was a “good idea” to discriminate against gay students and teachers, Mr Fletcher said: “Can I just make this point in terms of process?”

“The report has been received by government. That’s been known for some time,” Mr Fletcher said.

“It has not been seen by most cabinet ministers including me. I’ve not seen the report. It hasn’t been considered by cabinet.

“What we’ll do is we’ll go through a careful, thorough, respectful process of considering recommendations in this report.”

Mr Fletcher said he would not get into commenting on the contents of a report he hasn’t seen.

“What I will say is we’ll go through a careful, thorough, respectful process to properly give respect to issues of religious freedom and balance up all of the other considerations,” he said.

“Can I just make the point, which was perhaps not made clear in some of the media stories this morning, I’ll just make the point that under the law as it stands, educational institutions established for religious purposes can already legally employ staff and contract workers having regard to the sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy, where it’s done in good faith in order to avoid injury to the religious sensibilities of adherents of that religion or creed.

“So that is the law as it stands, and it’s important to understand that as we consider the question of any recommendations being made in this report.”

‘Seeking to be able to discriminate against children is pretty pathetic’

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said she wasn’t sure why part of the report had been “selectively leaked”.

“The government’s had the report for five months and we haven’t seen it,” she told ABC radio.

“It’s hard to comment as I say on a report that I haven’t seen, but I do think my position is we shouldn’t be looking to increase discrimination in our community, and particularly discrimination against children.

“Honestly, who thinks it’s a great idea for adults to be telling kids, rejecting them, telling them that there’s something wrong with them?”

Asked what Labor would do in response to the Ruddock review, Ms Plibersek said she would not comment on a report she had not seen.

“I’ve given you the general proposition that we do not want to see an increase of discrimination in our community, and my personal opinion that seeking to be able to discriminate against children is pretty pathetic,” Ms Plibersek said.

Asked whether she was reassured that the review had dismissed the notion that religious freedom in Australia is “in imminent peril”, Ms Plibersek said Labor believed it was very important to give people protection to practice their religion freely.

“What they shouldn’t be given is the opportunity to use their religion to discriminate against others, and that’s what we’ll be looking for in this report, a balance that gives people strong protection to practice their religion, but not, the idea that we suddenly, because of someone’s religious views, allow them to discriminate against others, that to me is not a sound proposition,” she said.

‘A direct assault on LGBTI people’

Gay rights activist Rodney Croome has described leaked recommendations from the Coalition government’s Ruddock review of religious freedom as “a vindictive attempt to punish LGBTI people for achieving marriage equality”.

Mr Croome described the Ruddock review as a “direct assault on LGBTI people”, arguing the federal government would be on a collision course with Tasmania and other states with conflicting anti-discrimination legislation and launching a petition to protest against the recommendations.

“The Ruddock inquiry recommendations are a direct and shameful assault on the dignity and equality of LGBTI people and we will oppose their implementation tooth and nail,” Mr Croome said.

“Schools should be places of learning, not breeding grounds of prejudice.

“Any school that receives public money should abide by the same rules as the rest of society, including the same rules about fair-treatment and discrimination.

“We will lobby Liberal moderates, Labor and the Senate crossbench to oppose any attempt to legislate this abhorrent and retrograde recommendation.

“We call on all LGBTI, human rights and social justice organisations to join us.”

Mr Croome said Tasmanian religious schools had operated well for 20 years without being allowed to discriminate against LGBTI people.

The Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act does not allow discrimination by faith-based organisations on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Given there is no problem in Tasmania, the only reason I can see for the proposed federal law is to entrench fear, prejudice and hate,” he said.

“This looks and feels like a vindictive attempt to punish LGBTI people for achieving marriage equality.

The Victorian government recently tried to remove an exemption allowing such discrimination from its anti-discrimination laws.

There are also campaigns to remove such exemptions in WA and the NT.

Australians ‘didn’t vote for more discrimination’

NSW independent MP and LGBTI advocate Alex Greenwich said Australians had voted for equality and fairness in last year’s postal survey, not “targeted discrimination of LGBTI students and teachers”.

“That’s the risk here, that it says that after Australia said yes to equality for the LGBTI community, the government goes to target discrimination, essentially to legislate bullying in our schools against the LGBTI community,” Mr Greenwich told Sky News.

“Now the government could try to adopt it, I would strongly urge them not to, but this isn’t going to get through the Senate.”

Schools that discriminate shouldn’t get a cent from taxpayers: Greens

Greens education spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi said the Ruddock review’s recommendation to “expand and entrench the right to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ students and teachers” was “absolutely outrageous”.

“Schools that discriminate against LGBTIQ+students and teachers don’t deserve a cent of public money,” Senator Faruqi said.

“It is absolutely outrageous that we should change the law to allow religious schools across the country the right to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ children and teachers.

“We should be removing exemptions for religious schools from anti-discrimination laws, not expanding them.

“No school should have any right to discriminate against anyone, including the LGBTIQ+ community, let alone with public money.

“All schools should be places of learning, safety and acceptance. No student or teacher should be made to feel lesser because of religious bigotry.”

Greens LGBTIQ spokeswoman Janet Rice said her party supported the right of people to practice religion, but that should not come at the expense of the human rights of LGBTIQ people.

“Our laws should protect LGBTIQ+ people from discrimination, not enshrine the right to discriminate against them,” Senator Rice said.

“Scott Morrison’s recent anti-LGBTIQ+ comments have ignited fear in our community that the government is planning to wind back the laws which protect LGBTIQ+ people from discrimination.

“Scott Morrison must immediately release the review for the public and commit to ensuring LGBTIQ+ people will not face further discrimination.”

Greens justice spokesman Nick McKim said Mr Ruddock had recommended overriding state and territory anti-discrimination laws to allow religious schools to discriminate against gay, lesbian and transgender students.

“This is bad enough, but it is clear that Prime Minister Morrison intends to go much further than the recommendations in Mr Ruddock’s report,” Senator McKim said.

“Australians should brace themselves for a toxic debate and a full frontal assault on the protections enshrined in state and territory anti-discrimination laws.

“The Greens will fight this all the way.”