ANALYSIS

Of all the unresolved issues hampering Scott Morrison’s hopes for a cleanly cropped end to the political year, it’s the one voters arguably are least interested in causing him the most trouble.

And it’s an issue created by an attempt by a previous prime minister to quieten a minority group of Liberals upset they had been trounced in the gay marriage poll.

It’s not the issue of open encrypted messages to combat terrorism, and it’s not the demand for a federal anti-corruption watchdog — both of which have drawn considerable public attention.

What’s bothering the Prime Minister are moves to prevent the expulsion of gay children from religious schools because of their sexual orientation, something that, by all accounts, has never happened and probably never will.

Most voters would not consider this type of discrimination a good idea, and nor would most MPs, which is why Mr Morrison urged a conscience vote on the matter.

“I was hopeful we would be able to reach a resolution and deal with it in a bipartisan way which, as I said, I think would send the appropriate message: that we all agree that there should be no discrimination against children,” he told reporters.

Labor agrees, but is disagreeing with the way the government wants to prevent that discrimination.

Mr Morrison had determined to “give it one more go” and yesterday sent Opposition Leader Bill Shorten a three-point proposal.

This would produce “the complete removal of the ability to discriminate against students based on gender or sexual orientation or relationship status or pregnancy”, he told reporters.

Second, he offered to clarify that courts and the Human Rights Commission had to take into account a school’s religious nature when considering any “reasonable” school rules.

And third, clarify that nothing prevents a religious school teaching in accordance with its own religious beliefs.

Labor rejected the three-part offer citing contrary legal advice that the Morrison proposal could free up discrimination inside and outside the classroom.

And Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek went back to the source of Mr Morrison’s problems.

“I’m worried that this will go down the same route as the marriage equality debate. Someone will be suggesting a plebiscite next,” she told reporters.

“Labor doesn’t need a conscience vote because every member of the Labor Party agrees it’s wrong to discriminate against children.

“I don’t understand how anyone with a conscience thinks it’s OK to discriminate against children.”

The issue is a vestigial element of the contrived threat to religious freedoms raised by Liberals after an overwhelming majority of voters repelled their attempts to prevent marriage equality.

Then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull promised the minority an inquiry into religious freedom by former Liberal minister Philip Ruddock. We still haven’t seen Mr Ruddock’s full report, delivered to the government about six months ago.

And that is the origin of the leftover burden Mr Morrison has been carrying since his elevation in August.

“Several months ago I said that I wanted to deal with the issue of discrimination against children in schools and I do,” he said today.

“I’ve been seeking to do just that ever since I said that. In dealing with that issue, when I wrote to the Leader of the Opposition just over a month ago, I said I wanted to do it in a bipartisan way.

“I said I didn’t want this to become a political football, which meant we needed to work through some very sensitive issues.”

It’s a long way from full time in this political football game.