Senators won’t protect students from discrimination unless schools can keep rules that ‘are reasonable and represent their own religious views’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Liberal senators have refused to agree to the protection of LGBT students from discrimination unless the current legal exemptions are replaced by other protections for religious freedom.

Labor has claimed the move contradicts Scott Morrison’s promise to protect LGBT students.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has announced Labor will now introduce its own private member’s bill, after a split between the government and opposition was widened by the Coalition’s refusal to agree to a simple repeal of exemptions.

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In a Senate inquiry report on discrimination exemptions for religious schools, tabled on Monday evening, Labor and the Greens recommended that exemptions for religious schools in the federal Sex Discrimination Act be removed “to prohibit discrimination against students” on grounds including sexuality and gender identity.

The legal and constitutional affairs references committee also called for consideration of changes to prohibit discrimination against teachers and other staff.

But in a dissenting report, eight Coalition senators warned that “the existing exemptions for schools … should not be eroded unless adequate protections for religious freedom are afforded in their place”.

The Coalition senators called on the government to give “further consideration to legislation that would enshrine and protect the right of religious freedom that would make it clear that religious schools and religious universities are permitted to operate in accordance with the doctrines, tenets and beliefs of their particular faith”.

“To do any less would have the practical effect of depriving religious institutions of the ability to teach their beliefs and operate consistently with their ethos.”

The dissenting senators were Ian MacDonald, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Jane Hume, Eric Abetz, Amanda Stoker, Jonathon Duniam, Barry O’Sullivan and Slade Brockman.

Dreyfus told Sky News the Coalition senators “are now dissenting from the prime minister’s position”.

On 13 October Morrison said the government “does not support expulsion of students from religious non-state schools on the basis of their sexuality” and suggested legislation could ban the practice within a fortnight.

But when the attorney general, Christian Porter, presented Labor with proposed changes, negotiations broke down over concern the government wanted religious schools to retain special powers to regulate LGBT students’ behaviour.

The bill allowed religious schools to impose a condition that indirectly discriminated on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity where it is reasonable, including if it is imposed in “good faith in order to avoid injury to the religious sensibilities of adherents of that religion”.

On Tuesday Dreyfus told ABC News Breakfast the government was “dragging its heels” and had not provided a further draft after Labor’s objection.

In a statement Dreyfus said Labor would introduce a bill to repeal religious exemptions for discrimination against LGBT students, and accused Morrison of “failing to follow through on his commitment to protecting children against discrimination”.

Porter told Radio National the Coalition had negotiated in good faith with Labor and he became aware talks had broken down only when Dreyfus unilaterally announced the private member’s bill on Tuesday.

Porter reiterated the Coalition’s commitment to remove religious exemptions but defended what he called a “very modest provision” to allow schools to maintain rules that “are reasonable and represent their own religious views” – for example, to compel students to attend religious services.

Porter said that provision was “very important” for religious schools to conduct their affairs and suggested Labor would now push ahead without even “modest protection” of religious schools’ ethos.

The Greens called for all exemptions for religious educational institutions to be repealed from the Sex Discrimination Act, a move that would give teachers and staff the same protections of discrimination law.

Labor has stopped short of that position, instead expressing a principled opposition to discrimination against teachers and staff but accepting repeal of exemptions must be accompanied by changes to allow religious schools to preserve their “ethos” and prevent contradiction of church doctrines.

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The Greens LGBTI spokeswoman, Janet Rice, welcomed the recommendation to protect LGBT students but said parliament “must also act immediately to remove discrimination against teachers and other staff”.

On Monday a group of 46 religious schools wrote to Morrison to argue that “religious exemptions that permit discrimination have no place in our schools”.

“We urge parliament to act without delay to remove unnecessary and damaging exemptions currently provided in the Sex Discrimination Act,” it said. “The parliament can remove confusion by conveying in simple terms that faith-based schools do not need to discriminate in order to operate.”

The push – coordinated by Equal Voices – was supported mainly by liberal Anglican schools outside the conservative Sydney diocese.

In November a group of 34 Anglican schools in Sydney called for religious exemptions to be preserved until a positive protection of religious freedom was legislated, but principals of two schools backed away from the demand after widespread backlash.