Australian Christian Lobby takes aim at Labor and says Coalition may allow denial of goods and services to gay weddings

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Turnbull government has refused to rule out new exemptions to anti-discrimination law to allow religious objectors to refuse to provide goods and services to gay weddings.

The Australian Christian Lobby claims the Turnbull government is open to a new exemption.

The ACL has released a voting guide that takes aim at Labor’s promise to hold a parliamentary vote on same-sex marriage. It had distributed 67,000 copies of the guide to churches and supporters.

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The guide claims “there is no discrimination in Australian law against same-sex attracted people”.

In its response to the ACL questionnaire used to compile the voting guide, the Liberals ruled out suspending commonwealth anti-discrimination laws in the lead-up to the same-sex marriage plebiscite. State and territory laws were a matter for those governments, it said.

The managing director of the ACL, Lyle Shelton, told Guardian Australia it was “disappointing” the Coalition government “isn’t able” to suspend state discrimination law due to legal constraints.

But Shelton said his understanding was the Coalition had not ruled out allowing lay people who object to same-sex marriage to deny goods and services to gay weddings.

The Liberal party told the ACL it had “no plans to change the existing framework for religious freedom exemptions” under commonwealth laws. Shelton said this only pertained to creating a general religious freedom, not possible new exemptions for same-sex marriage.

“Bill Shorten has said that lay people will be forced, with the threat of fines, to provide services to weddings they don’t believe should be engaged in,” he said. “People should be free to live out your beliefs – not just if you’re a minister but also if you’re photographer or own a wedding reception venue.

“I don’t know what [the Turnbull government’s] policy is on that ... I don’t think the government has thought through the consequences of redefining marriage for other people’s freedoms.”

A spokeswoman for the attorney general, George Brandis, told Guardian Australia “the Turnbull government has no plans to remove religious exemptions from the Sex Discrimination Act”.

“Similar to the development of any policy commitment, the mechanics for the plebiscite and amendments to the Marriage Act, including appropriate protections for religious freedom, will be subject to the usual cabinet, party room and parliamentary processes after the election.”

Anti-discrimination law already prohibits denying goods and services to people based on their sex or sexuality. Labor opposes any extension of discrimination law exemptions to allow them to do so in the context of gay weddings.

The Greens propose abolishing religious exemptions to commonwealth discrimination laws entirely.

The guide said Labor’s proposed LGBTI anti-discrimination commissioner would be a “rainbow cop” that would “have nothing to do except pursue court cases against Australians who disagree with same-sex marriage and Safe Schools”.

The ACL noted Labor policy to reprint documents with new prefixes to remove or change gender markers or increase identification options. The document raised the question whether this would: “make public toilets unsafe for women and girls”.

The Greens’ LGBTI spokesman, Robert Simms, said the ACL’s statement about bathroom safety was deeply offensive and transphobic.

“We know [the ACL] wants to suspend anti-discrimination law because what they want to do is to run the mother of all hate campaigns,” he said.

Simms has previously moved a Senate motion condemning the ACL, which was not supported by the major parties.

“The idea the ACL could get its hands on public money to run the ‘No’ campaign would send a shiver down spine of Australians,” he said.

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“[The Australian Christian Lobby’s] positions here are another reminder why we shouldn’t see an unnecessary and divisive plebiscite, which would be a forum for hate speech.”

Simms said arguments about bakers and photographers serving gay weddings were a “red herring”.

“Hardline groups are throwing everything at this to try and muddy the waters and will use the plebiscite to say the sky will fall in and the world as we know it will end.”

The chief executive of Transgender Victoria, Sally Goldner, labelled the ACL’s arguments “ludicrous” because “there has never been a situation where women have been at risk due to laws allowing transgender people to use their bathrooms and there is no greater rate of sexual assault in gender-neutral toilets”.

Goldner said the ACL’s call to suspend discrimination law for the plebiscite showed its arrogance because it wanted “special privileges”.

At Labor’s launch on Sunday, Shorten warned the plebiscite would be “a taxpayer-funded platform for homophobia”.

On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he believed the plebiscite debate would be respectful and intelligent. “I have great faith in the decency and the fundamental common sense of Australians,” he said.

The senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong has said: “The dismissal by the Liberal party and the National party of this being a licence for hate speech demonstrates a complete lack of empathy.”