The attorney general, Christian Porter, is expected to release the government’s long-awaited religious discrimination bill at an event at the Great Synagogue in Sydney on Thursday.

Religious leaders have been invited to the event for what is expected to kickstart a period of public consultation on the Coalition’s proposed bill, which Porter has indicated he wants passed through the parliament by the end of the year.

The chief minister of the great synagogue, Rabbi Benjamin Elton, said he was “honoured and delighted” to be hosting Porter, saying religious discrimination was an important issue for the Jewish community, as it was for other religious groups.

“The Great Synagogue has always played a role as being an interface between the Jewish community and the greater community and I am very proud to be continuing that tradition,” he said. “It is now time for all communities, for people of faith and for people not of faith to get involved and to view the exposure draft, comment on it, and make it a really significant public conversation so that we get to a final result that the whole community is happy with.”

The release of the bill comes as the government resists calls from religious groups for a positive religious “freedom” bill, which would go further than a typical anti-discrimination act and enshrine positive rights of religious practice. Porter has rejected such a move but the idea is being pushed by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Liberal conservative Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

Religious groups had also been pushing for the bill to include explicit protections for organisations, a move that is being opposed by LBTQI groups.

Porter has indicated the bill will follow the “very standard architecture” of other anti discrimination laws which will define religious belief as a protected attribute in the same way federal law prohibits racial and sexual discrimination.

Labor’s shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the government had not allowed proper scrutiny of the bill and it was “long past time the government came clean with just what it has planned here”.

“The Liberals have been arguing about religious discrimination for more than two years but appear to want to give the rest of the country just weeks to debate it,” Dreyfus told Guardian Australia.

“All Australians have a right to take part in this debate, not just the Liberal party. The whole community should be given the chance to properly scrutinise what’s being proposed and not have this rushed through parliament because of the government’s internal divisions.”

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has indicated he wants Labor’s support for the proposed changes, saying he does not want the issue of religion to divide the community.

After cabinet signed off on the proposed draft legislation last week, Morrison said he wanted to consult with “all Australians” about the draft legislation.

“I’m sure this will be a very informative and consultative process and enable us get to the next phase,” he said. “This is an issue that I think should be bringing Australians together, not one that does the opposite.”

Elton said that many religious groups saw the discrimination act as a good first step but wanted more changes to be made following a review by the Australian Law Reform Commission into the framework of religious exemptions that exist within other anti discrimination laws.

“It doesn’t solve every problem, but it is a step in the right direction.”

Next week, the ALRC will release a discussion paper on its proposals, which will deal with exemptions that may permit religious schools to discriminate in relation to staff and students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or relationship status provided that certain conditions are met.

The government tasked the ALRC to consider legislative reforms that would limit or remove religious exemptions to prohibitions on discrimination, while also guaranteeing “the right of religious institutions to conduct their affairs in a way consistent with their religious ethos”.

The recommendations arose out of a review into religious discrimination undertaken by former Liberal MP Phillip Ruddock commissioned by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the parliament agreed to legalise same-sex marriage.