Federal Labor hasn’t released draft laws on the two issues, but has handed it to the opposition on a confidential basis.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has warned he wouldn’t press ahead with the laws if the opposition wasn’t on board, saying he wanted to avoid a divisive debate.
“I do not want to see a rancorous debate without achieving an outcome,” he told a caucus meeting today.
One Labor MP raised concerns about what the way forward was to protect LGBTQI+ children at school.
Albanese responded that there was a potential to work with the Greens if the opposition didn’t support the laws, but that he didn’t have the minor party’s support on the religious discrimination aspect.
“We are concerned about all the forms of discrimination, if the Greens are willing to support the rights of people to practice their faith, then that would be a way forward, but we don’t currently have that,” he said.
Albanese gave examples of discrimination he didn’t want to see, including a woman in Bankstown having a hijab removed, a child at a Jewish school being harassed or a student being discriminated against because of who they are.
The Greens and crossbench have offered to work with the Government on the legislation and criticised it for trying to do a deal with the opposition behind closed doors.
A report released by Equality Australia on Monday said LGBTQI discrimination is “endemic” in religious schools and organisations across the country.
It found almost 1 in 10 of Australia’s largest faith-based service providers publicly discriminate against LGBTQI people, while almost 4 in 10 are silent in their positions on LGBTQI inclusion.
There have been equal parts support and criticism of the report.
The Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended scrapping laws that allow religious schools to discriminate against staff and students on the basis of their faith.
LQBTQI+ advocates have called for the discrimination carve outs for religious schools to be scrapped but faith groups argued their community and values should be protected and people had an option as to what schools they choose.
The opposition has remained silent on a final position, but has called for the Government to bring on the bill so it can be debated in public.
But coalition members have expressed in-principle support for religious schools being able to preference and hire people in line with their faith.
Religious schools should be allowed to hire workers who reflect their faith but shouldn’t then be able to sack staff based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said.
AAP
