Labor senator Deborah O'Neill rummages around in her handbag. In among the mints, papers and sunglasses, she pulls out the two essential items that travel with her wherever she goes: a box of pink rosary beads and a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As a devout Catholic and a proud member of the Australian Labor Party, Senator O'Neill wants to emphasise that people have multiple identities. The rosary beads help her to be "still" in the midst of life's demands. The "little book" reminds her that everyone is equal.

Senator Deborah O'Neill always carries two items in her handbag: rosary beads and a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

But despite the easy co-existence of her rosary beads and the copy of the declaration, the NSW senator sees a worrying divide between religious and non-religious Australians.

As Parliament prepares to consider religious discrimination laws, she warns the country is in the grip of a "tribal fundamentalism", where "artificial divisions" are established between different groups. She told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this includes an "ascendancy of language around secularity" that is trying to silence the perspectives of people of faith.