The plan to protect LGBT+ discrimination in religious schools

Already and this this is the daily os.

This is the daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome to the Daily Odds. It is Monday, the twenty fifth of March.

I'm billy, i'm zara.

An independent legal body has advised the federal government on how to legally protect LGBT plus staff and students are religious schools. The government asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to review federal anti discrimination laws in light of a year's long debate about religious freedoms. We'll tell you everything you need to know in today's deep dive, But for Sarah, what's making headlines.

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Okay, so Billy, religious discrimination is back in the news and it's.

Quite a complex topic.

Can you just take us back to where the conversation around this legislation first began.

Yeah, it's really really complicated, and so first I just want to set out the two main issues that we are addressing that will shape this entire conversation. So the first is the fact that there is not an explicit federal law banning religious discrimination in Australia.

There are laws that target sex discrimination, racial discrimination, but not one specifically about religious discrimination exactly.

So that's the first issue. The second is around the idea of religious exemptions. So should discrimination be allowed if it is due to religious reasons?

Can you give me an example?

Ye?

Yees? So an example is like, should religious schools be able to not employ a teacher on the basis of their sexuality?

So if it's a religious school that doesn't believe in same sex marriage, for example, exactly, then they can choose not to hire a teacher or discriminate against a teacher on that basis.

Yes, And that's a really big part of this conversation is should that legally be allowed?

Okay?

And you can't really talk about one of those issues without talking about the.

Other because it's a byproduct exactly.

Yeah.

But to go back to your question of where this all started, we need to go back to twenty seventeen when same sex marriage was legalized in Australia. Now, long story, short. After same sex marriage was legalized, a review was promised to conservative religious groups who weren't happy about this legislation passing. And the review promised to look into whether Australian law adequately protects the right to freedom of religion in Australia.

Okay.

Now, honestly, I think if we go into exactly what that review said and what it recommended, we would be here all day. And I want to get into the more recent developments of this story, but I will just focus on how the coalition government responded to that review.

Okay, So we're talking about the coalition. I believe at that point it was led by Scott Morrison.

Is that right?

Yes, Scott Morrison had just got in.

Yeah, okay, So how did the Morrison government rect spun to the review?

At the time, so he promised a Religious Discrimination Act, okay, and so he tried to pass this legislation actually a number of times, and it basically would have made it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of their religious belief.

So that was focusing on the first point you spoke about, that there was no federal law that specifically was about discrimination on the basis of religion.

Yes, but where the controversy arose was on how it impacted that second point. Yeah, So it was really controversial at the time basically because critics said that whilst the bill indeed would have protected religious people from discrimination, it also would have consequently led to more discrimination against LGBT plus people.

Okay.

So just to give you an idea, one MP who was actually from the same party as Morrison said that this legislation that he was trying to introduce would have left a transgender child open to lead being bullied, excluded, or even expelled because of their gender identity. Now, as you can imagine, the politics around the time were, like I said, really controversial, and ultimately it failed to pass despite multiple attempts.

I remember that time so clearly. I think it was the only time in my memory that a number of Liberal MPs crossed the floor, so they physically moved across the floor to sit with the opposition, to vote against their own party because they said it was a bunch of moderate MPs, most of whom lost their seats. Actually, they said that they couldn't in good conscience vote for this bill. And it was extraordinary. It was so contentious, it was all over the news. But then they kind of just went away.

Yeah.

Well it failed right before the twenty twenty two election when Morrison was ousted as the Prime Minister, and so that left it to the Labor government to pick up this mess and lead the path forward on this really complicated debate.

Okay, So Anthony Albernezi then had to deal with this piece of legislation that had failed before, but there was obviously an appetite from some for it to pass.

What was Labour's position on the bill?

So Labour said that they supported protecting religious people from discrimination, but not if it came at the expense of other people's right not to be discriminated against. Now, when they got into government, they looked for advice. They said, we're not exactly the experts on this, we need advice on what to do now, and so they turned to the

And so, I mean, I feel like we've gone down memory lane a bit, We've gone back to twenty seventeen. But my understanding is that that brings us up to the present to now. So last week the Commission finally delivered its recommendations to the government.

What were the recommendations? What did they say?

Yeah, it was hundreds of pages long. So obviously I'm not going to go through all of the recommendations, but a really significant one is the recommendation for the government to remove something called Section thirty eight in the Sex Discrimination.

Act, which is obviously not a religious discrimination Act. So we're talking about existing legislation that's already about discrimination and there's an exemption there.

Yeah, there's an exemption, and it's really important to understand this. So currently in the Sex Discrimination Act, there is an exemption which allows religious schools to discriminate against someone based on their sex, their sexual orientation, gender identity, or their marital or relationship status.

And what would that mean Scrapping it?

So, scrapping it entirely would mean that religious schools cannot dismiss staff or expel students based on, you know, if they're gay, or if they're transgender, or other similar facts. And so this report said that getting rid of that exemption would substantially narrow instances where religious schools can discriminate against people.

Okay, so there we're talking about.

Sorry to keep going back to the first two groups you set out, but that's the second group. But what about the first group? We spoke about the fact that there was a discussion around protecting the right of religion too.

And so in that regard, it recommended keeping the right of religious schools to preference hiring someone of the same religion over a candidate who does not follow the school's faith. Okay, So that would allow religious schools to require adherence to their faith as part of their vetting process for jobs, as part of a school's broader effort to build a

Okay, so that was all advice that was given to the government in the form of a report of many pages. How did the government respond to this advice.

Basically, they've just said that they are considering these recommendations and that they'll look at it before they give a more concrete way forward. But what was a really interesting development in the government's response to this was that Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi said that he will not pass a law on religious discrimination unless the Opposition supports it, and

But I mean that's fascinating because the opposition or the Coalition themselves couldn't agree as a party, they had their own members crossing the floor. Labor would be the same in terms of you know, lots of different views and emotions and all the rest. I can hardly see bipartisanship happening in this sort of context.

Clearly Albanezi possibly thinks that that could happen.

Have we had any indication from the opposition.

Yeah, well, TDA journalist Harry Sekulich spoke to the opposition. He spoke to the Shadow Attorney General, Mikaylia Cash, who told him that the coalition notes that representatives of Christian schools, the Catholic Church, Islamic schools and a number of other faith groups have expressed serious concerns with this report and its recommendations. And she also added that she encourages the

Okay, interesting, still a bit to work through there. What about the community more broadly, this is legislation that would affect many, many people.

What have we heard from the community.

Yeah, so, Michaleya Cash, she just mentioned Christian schools one example of a group of schools that weren't happy, and she's right. Christian Schools Australia said the recommendations amount to quote a direct attack on faith and freedom of belief in Australia. And they also said that Christian education would

It'll be really interesting to see what happens from here. I mean, it tore the last government apart and it seems like there are still many unresolved issues that need attention, a lot of work cut out for the government and especially if they're seeking bipartisan support there.

Thanks so much for.

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