KIM LANDERS: Religion and politics are set to mix in Canberra with the re-elected Government signalling it's getting on with its pledge to protect religious freedom.

But what form that protection should take, and how it effects other minority groups, is the subject of hot debate in the Coalition.

Here's political reporter Tom Iggulden in Canberra.

TOM IGGULDEN: Three options present themselves as the Government searches for a way to make good on its promise to protect religious freedom.

Last year's Ruddock review suggested amending existing anti-discrimination laws to exempt religious organisations, but at Australia's various temples of worship, that's not popular.

[Bishop] Michael Stead is the Anglican Church's [religious] freedom spokesman.

MICHAEL STEAD: It's easily misunderstood as religious institutions wanting a right to discriminate, which, of course, is not what we want at all.

TOM IGGULDEN: Which brings us to the second option: introducing a new law, called something like the Religious Freedom Act.

That's the option the Government went for before the election. It's sent the plan off to the Law Reform Commission to see how it might work alongside those existing anti-discrimination laws. A response won't come until September.

Until then, some in the Coalition are pushing for a third option.

Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz.

ERIC ABETZ: I see religious freedom more as a subset of the personal freedom of freedom of speech.

TOM IGGULDEN: Controversy over Wallabies star and proud Christian, Israel Folau's comments about gay people going to hell and Rugby Australia's subsequent sacking of him, are behind the push.

ERIC ABETZ: That sort of activity by Rugby Australia potentially has consequences beyond people's right to freedom of religion.

TOM IGGULDEN: But there's another issue in play too: who gets to teach at religious schools, which often oppose gay relationships.

MICHAEL STEAD: We wouldn't want to be forced to employ teachers who don't share the ethos of our school.

TOM IGGULDEN: Michael Stead says a religious freedom act would allow such schools to refuse to employ anyone who was pro-same-sex-marriage — for example, whether they were gay or not.

MICHAEL STEAD: It would be the same thing with, I don't know, Greenpeace being forced to employ a climate change denier. You'd say, no, that's not a good fit with the ideology of the organisation.

TOM IGGULDEN: Eric Abetz also wants schools to have the right to refuse to hire someone.

ERIC ABETZ: They should be entitled to have those views, those principles, that ethos expressed by those people whom they employ. Now…

TOM IGGULDEN: But just to stop you there, isn't that much the same as Rugby Australia insisting that Israel Folau not express his personal views about gay people?

ERIC ABETZ: No, it would be like a religious institution saying that we want you to play rugby but not Australian Rules.

TOM IGGULDEN: And he'll continue his crusade to tie religious freedom to freedom of speech.

ERIC ABETZ: That is what I am seeking to promote amongst my colleagues and we'll see where it lands.

TOM IGGULDEN: But don't you get into some kind of a muddled territory there if you guarantee people the right to free speech through your idea, then a gay teacher could say well, I'm just expressing my right to free speech in the school environment?

ERIC ABETZ: That is where potentially a hybrid view of that which I'm expressing, and the Ruddock review expressed, that might be the appropriate course of action.

KIM LANDERS: Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz ending Tom Iggulden's report.