By Parker McKenzie
Three local members of Parliament voted to pass the Religious Discrimination Bill through the Lower House, although the bill was shelved by the Federal Government before it could be debated in the Senate.
Federal Parliament debated the Religious Discrimination Bill until past 4am on Thursday 10 February, which resulted in the bill being passed by the House of Representatives with amendments to other legislation to protect transgender and queer students.
The bill prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person’s religious belief or activity in relation to employment, education and services.
Independents, the Labor Party and five Liberal MPs successfully passed an amendment to the Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 to extend protections against discrimination to include gender identity, not just sexuality.
The amendment – which was identical to the amendment proposed by Labor – was moved by Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie and passed by 65 to 59 votes in the Lower House.
Despite several Liberal MPs crossing the floor and voting with the Labor opposition to pass the amendment, three local Liberal MPs –Jason Wood from La Trobe, Tony Smith from Casey, and Alan Tudge from Aston – voted against it.
Mr Wood said the bills aim is to prevent discrimination.
“The Prime Minister had an excellent speech on the bill that is very much about protecting kids. No one wants to see them discriminated against because they’re gay or transgender and safeguards put in the bill ensured that wouldn’t happen,” Mr Wood said.
“There were people from the wider community who were concerned about that, including from my electorate, so we had some members cross the floor.”
A controversial element of the bill – which was narrowly passed in the House of Representatives and was set to be subject to amendments in the Senate – is a clause which protects religious statements of faith from constituting discrimination.
Co-convener of the Victorian Pride Lobby Nevna Spirovska said the religious discrimination bill remains deeply flawed despite the amendments.
“It hands a positive right to people of faith to discriminate against others and overrides all state and territory discrimination laws,” she said.
“LGBTIQA+ people should not face discrimination because of who they are.”
Mr Tudge and Mr Smith were also contacted for comment.
Mr Wood said the bill ensures Australia’s wide variety of faiths – including Christians, Muslims and Hindus – are protected.
“It’s not in any way targeting young people,” he said.
“The reforms in place regarding the transgendered in particular, one of the amendments was to go to the Law Reform Commission to look at it from a legal perspective, to make sure there are safeguards in place for those students and young people. That was going to report back to parliament in six months.”
The Senate resolved against debating the Religious Discrimination Bill on 10 February. With only two moresitting days of parliament, the bill looks unlikely to pass into law before the federal election, which will take place on or before 21 May.
Ms Spiravska said the Victorian Pride Lobby opposes any attempt to weaken Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act and the Federal Government should instead deliver laws which protect people equally.
“The Victorian Pride Lobby welcomes amendments to the bill passed overnight which ensure better protections for for LGBTIQA+ students and religious schools,” she said.
“However, the proposed law would still override hard-fought Victorian protections for LGBTIQA+ teachers and staff at religious schools.”
