The Catholic Church along with other Christian, Jewish and Islamic groups have called for “bipartisan support” of the religious discrimination bill, with the legislation to be distributed to the Coalition joint party room meeting today.
With the most controversial elements removed from the legislation, 25 religious and faith groups have signed a statement backing periodic reviews of religious discrimination laws and a bipartisan approach to rubberstamping new protections that will be debated in parliament this week.
Christian, Jewish and Islamic leaders said while they would have preferred stronger measures in the government’s religious discrimination bill, they would support “substantive protections for people of faith against faith-based discrimination”.
The bill was promised by Scott Morrison at the 2019 election but has proven a source of concern about the shape of the final draft.
“Although we have not seen the Bill, we understand from our discussions with the Government that some of the measures present in earlier exposure drafts have been removed, such as the protections against employer codes of conduct that restrict religious speech outside the workplace, and the conscience protection for healthcare professionals,” religious leaders said, including Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli who is chair of the Bishops’ Commission for Life, Family and Public Engagement.
“We would have preferred that these protections had been retained in some form.”
The government has removed contentious elements of draft legislation including the “Folau clause”, which would have given individuals in large companies and organisations legal protection from termination as a result of expressing their religious belief.
The draft bill would allow hospitals, schools and aged-care homes run by religious groups to prioritise the hiring of people from their faith and include a statement of faith subclause overriding state age, sex and disability discrimination laws.
Faith groups expect any new religious discrimination laws, similar to existing human rights legislation, would be “subject to periodic review”.
“We will monitor the effect of any legislation that may be enacted, and will readily co-operate with the government in any review process to optimise the benefits of the legislation for all Australians,” the statement from religious leaders said.
Opposition leader, Anthony Albanese says he will adopt a bipartisan approach to the new religious discrimination laws, declaring his support freedoms for faith-based organisations and individuals.
“Do I support religious freedom? Absolutely,” Mr Albanese has said.
