Anthony Albanese has been accused of breaking an election promise and letting Australians of faith and students at religious schools down, after he confirmed he would not proceed with religious discrimination laws. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli said in the absence of any new protections the Prime Minister’s decision should mean that existing protections remained, while Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Rateb Jneid urged all political parties to intensify their efforts to find common ground and advance “necessary” reforms. Likened to a case of “take-out-the-trash-Friday”, Mr. Albanese was spruiking the government’s pay rise for early childhood educators at a press conference in Perth at the end of last week when a journalist said they believed the Prime Minister had an update on religious discrimination laws. Mr. Albanese said the government had provided draft legislation to the Coalition “months ago” to see if bipartisan support was possible, but without any agreement he wouldn’t proceed.
“One of the things I’ve spoken about is the need for greater social cohesion. And the last thing that Australia needs is any divisive debate relating to religion and people’s faith,” Mr. Albanese said. “I respect people’s faith, and I think that they should be able to engage free of discrimination … The timing, I said, had to be that we would introduce legislation during the budget session if agreement could be reached. “Agreement hasn’t been able to be reached because there’s been no suggestions from the Coalition of amendments of the legislation. So, I don’t intend to engage in a partisan debate when it comes to religious discrimination, and I think that that is unfortunate.” Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash has refused to give the government line-by-line feedback on the draft reforms and instead urged Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to consider “very clear” proposals from religious leaders and redraft the legislation accordingly. “This has been one of the most bizarre processes I have seen in my time in parliament. The Prime Minister kept this legislation secret from his own caucus. I was prohibited from sharing it, and many faith groups haven’t seen it,” Senator Cash said.
“It is disappointing that the Prime Minister has let Australians of faith down. It is little wonder the Prime Minister withheld the legislation from his own caucus given the shocking potential impact on faith-based schools and the level of alarm expressed by faith leaders” Cash continued. Greens justice spokesman David Shoebridge said his party was willing to work with the government to ensure no student was discriminated against at a religious school on the basis of their sexuality. “It would be an incredible betrayal of a key election promise if what Anthony Albanese is now saying is because Peter Dutton won’t sit down and agree religious discrimination laws that he will kill that entire reform,” Senator Shoebridge said. “That is a betrayal of those students who deserve to be protected when they go to school.” “Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told media that his time frame for achieving bipartisan agreement on religious discrimination legislation had now passed,” Archbishop Comensoli said. “It is regrettable such important legislation is not proceeding. However, I trust the Prime Minister will be true to his word that protections for people of faith will not go backwards under his leadership. In the absence of any new protections, today’s announcement should also mean that existing protections remain in place.”
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
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