Mathias Cormann has said the Coalition is “absolutely united” in its plan to amend discrimination laws to ensure that students at religious schools cannot be expelled on the basis of their sexuality, as the government struggles to deal with leaked segments of its religious freedoms report before the Wentworth byelection.

After an excerpt of the report was leaked to Fairfax Media last week, Scott Morrison was forced to address loopholes in discrimination laws, which potentially allow for the expulsion of school students based on their sexuality on religious grounds.

The debate, two weeks out from the byelection which could cost the Coalition its parliamentary majority, ended with Morrison promising to make amendments, after Labor offered bipartisan support to close the loophole.

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Speaking to the ABC’s Insiders program, Cormann said the party was united on the issue, despite his cabinet colleague, Alex Hawke, telling Sky News earlier in the week religious schools should “absolutely” have the right to discriminate against LGBTI students.

“This is obviously something that the prime minister didn’t announce unilaterally, something that he discussed with his leadership team, and with his cabinet and it’s something that all of us in the leadership team and in the cabinet have endorsed,” Cormann said, adding: “You know, this whole issue in relation to religious freedoms is an important issue. It is clearly a sensitive issue. It’s an issue on which good Australians can have a diversity of genuinely and sincerely held views.

“It’s very important that we carefully consider the report that’s been put together by the expert panel under the leadership of Philip Ruddock.

“We will do that and, in due course, we’ll make judgments that are appropriately balanced and appropriately calibrated. But, I mean, this is just government 101 – carefully consider the issues in front of you and make the best possible judgments about the way forward.”

It is so far not clear whether the federal law will override state laws which allow religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of their sexual orientation.

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The Greens want the parliament to go further and repeal all religious exemptions, which would also see LGBTI teachers at religious schools protected from discrimination.

On Sunday Tanya Plibersek told Sky that Labor was still deciding its position on whether teachers should also be protected, after previously having said the party had “no plans” to change the law.

“I do not support discrimination, I think discrimination on the basis of sexuality is wrong,” she said, adding it was about finding a “balance”. “But I also understand that you are talking about organisations that have a particular ethos and they want to reflect that ethos in the way they conduct the work of the organisation.”

At a press conference held after Plibersek’s interview, Shorten took the issue a step further, and said he welcomed a wider discussion on whether or not religious schools should be able to discriminate against teachers “who may be gay or not in standard relationships”.

“I think it’s probably time to have a conversation about what other exemptions we provide to teachers in school systems,” he said.

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“Let’s have that conversation. It would be well informed by this review into religious freedom. So I think the first step to the conversation you are raising is for Scott Morrison to come clean, trust the Australian people, put the review out there so we can all work on this together. This should not be a political football.”

As the Wentworth byelection race heats up, both Labor and the Greens have stepped up pressure on Morrison to release the report – which was commissioned by Malcolm Turnbull after the marriage equality plebiscite.

A Senate push led by the Greens and Labor to force the government to table the report was rejected twice on the grounds that it is being considered by cabinet.

The electorate of Wentworth had one of the highest yes votes in the nation on the question of whether marriage equality should be passed, with more than 80% in favour of amending Australia’s marriage act to allow same-sex unions.