On the Morrison Government's proposed new religious rights bill.

This week in Australia, one matter has dominated our national political discussion and its news coverage. The Morrison Government has tried to legislate an extension to the Religious Discrimination Bill, which, as its name clearly suggests, protects Australian citizens from discrimination based on their religious or spiritual beliefs. Morrison, an active member of the Hillsong Church, has actively and publicly championed this extension of the Bill, and I sincerely agree all citizens are entitled to think whatever they choose to.

However, the issue I take with this amendment to the Bill, and indeed what has made it so topical and contentious, is the freedom it will grant religious Australians to discriminate against other groups, namely, of course, the LGBTQ community. Australia legalising same-sex marriage in 2017 sparked, perhaps unsurprisingly, a backlash from right-wing politicians and religious groups who, as Morrison then stated, were now finding themselves in the minority.

Well, if that's true, maybe now they have a chance to become able to empathise with groups including the LGBTQ community who have been marginalised, albeit for entirely different reasons, for centuries. Whether they will all be willing to do that is, of course, another question altogether and, I suppose, their own choice. But, at least in theory, now Australians of faith are coming to understand how most religious people have historically made those other groups feel.

The Morrison Government on Wednesday struck a deal with several more moderate members of its Liberal Party, agreeing to make changes to other legislation in order to protect openly gay school students from discrimination in education, in return for said MPs supporting the Bill. This will apparently mean removing Section 38.3 of the separate Sex Discrimination Act, which enables religious schools to discriminate against students and staff on the grounds of sexuality, gender identity, marital status and pregnancy. Meanwhile, however, the Religious Discrimination Bill, if passed, will also extend to discrimination in employment.

Numerous legal experts and rival politicians have publicly criticised the Bill, with University of Sydney law professor Simon Rice claiming it is "bizarrely complicated" as it is "trying to dress up freedom as discrimination." Victorian MP and Reason Party founder and leader Fiona Patten says it will licence bigotry. Monash University law associate lecturer Liam Elphick said, "It's a drastic overreach from the federal government and something we've not seen in the last 40 years of discrimination laws in this country. There have been plenty of examples in recent years of religious schools in Australia excluding gay teachers. This bill only makes it easier for them to do that," while Tasmanian lawyer and former anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks argued, "Discrimination law is about enhancing social cohesion by asking us to think about things before we say them or do them. This is the opposite of that."

As our Federal Parliament has now concluded sitting for 2021, the Religious Discrimination Bill is in limbo. Personally, come 2022, I hope it is not passed.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/01/religious-discrimination-bill-moderate-liberal-mps-strike-deal-after-protection-for-gay-students-promised

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/what-s-the-proposed-religious-discrimination-law-about-20211129-p59d6q.html