Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek says she sees a “real problem” with how the government’s proposed religious discrimination law overrides state legislation as she flags the need for further negotiation before the party backs the changes.

The senior leftwinger said while the Labor party’s MPs were “absolutely supporters of religious freedoms”, the inclusion of a specific clause that overrides Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act would be difficult for the opposition to support.

“I think that that would be a real problem with this legislation,” Plibersek told ABC’s Insiders program.

“I think that it’s something that [attorney general] Christian Porter promised that he wouldn’t do – interfere with state laws, and I’m sure that the overriding of state laws in this instance is probably driven by Eric Abetz and some of the extreme right because they’ve got problems with the Tasmanian laws.

“That is something that I think we would find very difficult to support, but we have to go through our proper processes on this.”

In the legislation released by the Coalition last week, the explanatory note claimed the override of Tasmanian law was necessary “given its broad scope and demonstrated ability to affect freedom of religious expression”.

Coalition conservatives, including Abetz, have cited the case of Archbishop Julian Porteous – who had a discrimination complaint against him for anti same-sex marriage leaflets arguing that “messing with marriage is messing with kids” – as evidence of the need to override state laws.

Plibersek also raised concern about the clauses aimed at addressing the circumstances of Israel Folau, saying there was still some doubt over how the process would work.

Under the provisions outlined by Porter, big businesses would have to prove “unjustifiable financial hardship” to put in place a restriction on someone that curbed their freedom of religious expression.

“The provisions that affect the business community, the businesses are already saying: how is this going to work for us? We have to prove economic loss. What’s the process?,” Plibersek said.

“I think that there are obviously issues with this.”

Plibersek’s criticism comes after the Victorian state Labor government and Tasmanian opposition both criticised the bill as an encroachment on the states.

“We have fought hard to provide a shield that protects against discrimination for not only LGBTIQ people, but women, those with a disability, and minority multicultural and multifaith groups,” Victoria’s minister for equality, Martin Foley, said.

“In Victoria, equality is a non-negotiable, and we will fiercely defend the rights our LGBTIQ Victorians have fought so hard for.”

Tasmania’s shadow attorney general, Ella Haddad, called on the Hodgman Liberal government to stand up to the federal Coalition, saying the state law had operated successfully for more than 20 years.

“It protects people’s freedom of religious expression while also ensuring people are protected from hate speech,” Haddad said.

“On first reading, it appears the federal change will increase the likelihood of hate speech.

“Labor calls on Will Hodgman to tell his colleagues in Canberra that humiliation and hate speech are not welcome in Tasmania and should not be welcome anywhere in Australia.”

Plibersek also commented on revelations this week about a $100,000 donation made to the party’s New South Wales branch from Chinese developer Huang Xiangmo.



Plibersek said the case highlighted the need for spending caps on political campaigning and a new federal anti-corruption commission “with teeth”.

“While ever there is an arms race on raising funds to do more political advertising, more direct voter contact, you’re going to have this pressure to raise money,” Plibersek said.

“And while you’ve got people like Clive Palmer able to put in $60m, $70m or $80m or whatever it was in the end, to profoundly influence the outcome of elections, we’ve got a problem with our democracy.”

Plibersek said the revelations about the NSW branch were “disappointing in the extreme”, but the problem was emerging “right across our political culture”.

“We need to, yes, make changes in the Labor party to encourage transparency and accountability, but also to look at our settings for all political parties so that people can have faith in our democracy itself.”