Tasmanians ‘seem satisfied’ with existing law and ‘don’t really want this changed’, key crossbench senator says

Jacqui Lambie has said she sees no case for the Coalition’s religious discrimination bill as Tasmanians already enjoy religious freedom and don’t want their discrimination laws changed.

The key crossbench senator indicated her opposition to the draft bill on Monday, rejecting a contention of the attorney general, Christian Porter, that the bill does not override Tasmania’s laws.

While Labor is yet to determine its position, Lambie’s opposition creates difficulty for the Morrison government, which would need One Nation and Centre Alliance to pass the bill if the opposition rejected it.

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Tasmania already has laws prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religious beliefs, affiliation or activity – which are not currently protected under federal law.

Tasmanian law also prohibits statements that “offend, insult or humiliate” based on protected grounds including gender, race, age, sexual orientation, disability and relationship status, a provision that would not apply to religious speech if the Coalition’s draft bill is passed.

Lambie said that she knows “the religious freedoms [laws] we have in Tasmania, as they are now, they are working pretty well”.

“And I don’t have a lot of people around Tasmania talking to me about religious freedom,” she told ABC TV.

“They have more important things to talk about like homelessness, not enough jobs, public hospitals completely out of control, so it is not something that is feeding back from the electorate through to me.”

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Lambie said she would “have a look” at the bill but Tasmanians “seem to be satisfied” with the existing law and “don’t really want this changed”.

Asked if she is concerned the bill overrides Tasmanian law, Lambie replied: “I think that will upset Tasmanians more than the law itself, to be honest. They seem to be satisfied, nobody wants to talk about it.”

Asked if she saw a case for the federal bill, she replied: “Not at this point in time. Unless there is a real pickup, and a lot more Tasmanians are speaking to me about it, I guess at this point in time [my position] will stay as is.”

Labor frontbenchers Michelle Rowland and Joel Fitzgibbon have publicly called for the opposition to consider supporting the bill, while Chris Bowen is also understood to be working behind the scenes for that outcome.

However, education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek and Senate leader Penny Wong have voiced concerns – citing the fact that the bill overrides state anti-discrimination laws.

Despite claiming in July the government did not intend to displace state discrimination law, Porter’s draft bill explicitly overrides the “offend, insult or humiliate” provision of Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act.

Provided an expression of religious speech is made in good faith, is not malicious and would not “harass, vilify or incite hatred or violence”, then it will not constitute unlawful discrimination under federal or state law.

LGBT activists and discrimination experts have warned that statements of “religious belief” could license offensive views about women, racial minorities and disabled people, while the Law Council has noted the bill also changes the standard in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act which, similarly, prohibits speech which offends, insults or humiliates people based on race.

Equality Tasmania spokesman Rodney Croome praised Lambie for questioning the need for the federal law, arguing the bill would “take away legal protections for vulnerable Tasmanians as well as the right of all Tasmanians to make our own human rights laws”.

“The people who will suffer most from the proposed federal override of our state discrimination protections are Tasmanians vulnerable to hate and discrimination, including people with disability, single parents, unmarried partners, ethnic minorities and LGBTI people,” he said.