Exclusive: ‘No one should be coerced to use their creative talents,’ no campaign’s Coalition for Marriage says

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The no campaign in the marriage law postal survey has pushed for broad exemptions to discrimination law to allow service providers to refuse any weddings that send “a message with which they disagree”.

Marriage equality advocates have warned that such a stance would allow service providers to discriminate against couples on any basis.

On Friday Guardian Australia asked the Coalition for Marriage if it supported the right of private service providers such as bakers, florists and photographers to reject weddings on the basis of religious beliefs.

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Questions gave numerous examples, including the marriage of couples of: mixed faith, mixed race, who had engaged in sex before marriage, used contraception or been divorced.

A Coalition for Marriage spokeswoman, Monica Doumit, responded that the group “believes that no one should be coerced to use their creative talents to endorse a message with which they disagree”.

She said: “For example, we support the right of the many advertising agencies and meeting venues who have denied us service during this campaign to do so.”

The Equality Campaign executive director, Tiernan Brady, said the comments showed the no campaign was engaged in “a blatant attempt to unravel existing anti-discrimination laws which serve everyone in Australia well, not just LGBTI people”.



“It would appear the no side are suggesting anybody in Australia can refuse service for anyone else on any grounds they wish,” he said. “The Australian people won’t stand for that – they don’t want to go back in time in such a fashion.”

Brady said allowing discrimination on the basis of any private belief was “the ultimate slippery slope”.

The Australian Christian Lobby has called for private service providers to be able to refuse gay weddings but Doumit’s comments are the broadest expression so far in the postal survey campaign of how far a religious exemption to discrimination law could extend.

On Tuesday Labor endorsed the cross-party bill produced by the Liberal senator Dean Smith after a Senate committee inquiry, in effect ruling out any further religious freedoms beyond the ability of religious ministers, celebrants and organisations to refuse to conduct weddings.

The debate about exemptions to anti-discrimination law comes before a sitting week that will be the last before parliament resumes on 13 November and the result of the marriage law postal survey is announced on 15 November.

It would be self-defeating to repeal discrimination and replace it with discrimination Andrew Bragg, Liberals and Nationals for Yes

There are some concerns in the government that the week could provide an opportunity for a boilover on marriage, as conservatives are working on their own marriage bill and John Howard has warned there will not be enough time to protect religious freedom after the result.

But Liberal sources have played down the possibility, with supporters of same-sex marriage noting that senators are busy with estimates hearings and are not all present in the party room, and one conservative suggesting that a bill would not be released until after the result for fear of appearing defeatist.

The national director of Liberals and Nationals for Yes, Andrew Bragg, said if a yes vote was recorded in the survey a private member’s bill would go ahead, as Malcolm Turnbull has said.



He said a bill would be guided by three principles: “Firstly, existing discrimination in the Marriage Act should be eliminated; secondly, a strong protection for religious freedom should be provided; and thirdly, we should not reintroduce commercial discrimination in Australia.”

“It would be self-defeating to repeal discrimination and replace it with discrimination,” Bragg said.

A Liberal supporter of same-sex marriage told Guardian Australia: “At a time when the public regard for politicians is at an all-time low, the Australian community will not tolerate some politicians playing politics with a yes vote on marriage.

“It will be a brave conservative Liberal politician who seeks to delay or use parliamentary tricks to undermine a yes vote.

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“If there is a yes vote, Australians will expect the parliament to act expeditiously on giving effect to same-sex marriage and providing sensible and fair protections about religious views in regards to marriage.”

At the National Press Club in September the ACL executive director, Lyle Shelton, was asked how exemptions to discrimination law could be drafted so that they did not result in “extreme” cases of religious people discriminating against inter-race couples.

Shelton dismissed the question as a “hypothetical” because “I don’t think anyone is suggesting that there should be racial discrimination – I certainly wouldn’t be”.

He suggested laws to allow lawful refusal of gay weddings could be limited to “allowing people to continue to believe the same thing about marriage”.

He warned that if such an exemption to discrimination law were not granted, people would not be able to “live out publicly” their religious beliefs in the way they conducted their business.

In September 2016 the then Liberal senator Cory Bernardi said businesses should be allowed to discriminate against patrons “for any or no reason”, including but not limited to the right to refuse gay weddings.