Mr Morrison maintains his lead over Opposition Leader Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister, by 48 per cent to 35 per cent. A special Fairfax-Ipsos survey finds that 74 per cent of voters oppose laws to allow religious schools to select students and teachers based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status. The laws are opposed by 62 per cent of Coalition supporters, 81 per cent of Labor voters, 92 per cent of Greens voters and 51 per cent of respondents who back Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. Loading Only 30 per cent of Coalition supporters back the right of religious schools to discriminate against gay students and teachers, as Mr Morrison prepares to take his plan to a party room meeting on Tuesday.

Support for the right to select students and teachers on the basis of their sexual orientation is only 15 per cent among Labor voters and 7 per cent among Greens voters, while it is 45 per cent among One Nation supporters. Christian school leaders told Fairfax Media they did not turn away gay students and believed they had been unfairly targeted in the ferocious debate of the past week, but they also said they needed to be free to run their schools according to their deeply held convictions. Mr Morrison moved on the weekend to change the Sex Discrimination Act to scale back the exemption for religious schools after Fairfax Media last week revealed the findings of a government review of religious freedom that had been kept confidential since May. If discrimination is bad for children at what age does it become good for adults? The Archdeacon of Albury, Peter MacLeod-Miller The Prime Minister said the government would change the law to make sure schools could not expel gay students but made no commitment on the same law regarding teachers, saying “broader questions” could be debated later.

“Over the next fortnight we’ve just got to ensure that we get the thing done and no one plays politics with it, we just fix it,” he said on Sunday. The treatment of gay teachers is now the subject of intense debate as Mr Shorten calls for a “conversation” on whether Parliament should go further than the government’s plan to protect students. “There should be no discrimination against kids because every child is entitled to human dignity,” Mr Shorten said on Sunday. “And I think it’s probably time to have a conversation about what other exemptions to discrimination we provide against teachers in our schools system.”

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said the question was “absolutely something that we need to talk with schools about” because what teachers do in their private life should not be the concern of the school. Section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act gives religious schools an exemption from the law in dealing with staff members or contract workers as long as the discrimination is in accordance with the tenets of the religion. The review of religious freedom led by former attorney-general Philip Ruddock did not recommend the removal of this section but said the law should be amended to add new conditions that a school had a publicly-available policy outlining its position and provided this to workers. Australian Association of Christian Schools executive officer Annette Pereira said her members did not know of any Christian schools expelling students on the basis of their sexual orientation. “We have been disappointed with the way religious schools have been unfairly characterised over the past week,” she said.

“We have no desire to be allowed to expel students because of their sexual orientation.” Ms Pereira said the law needed to ensure schools were able to act according to their beliefs regarding sexuality and relationships. “When it comes to teachers, it is important that schools are able to employ staff who uphold and support the school’s beliefs and convictions,” she said. Loading But the Archdeacon of Albury, Peter MacLeod-Miller, said the disclosure of the Ruddock review had been a "blessing in disguise" because most Australians would be "horrified" that teachers within religious schools are vulnerable to prejudice.

"Their current vulnerability produces fear and forces adult employees into hiding which is the most appalling modelling for the students in their care and makes a nonsense of the extra $52 million youth mental health funding just announced," he said. "Faith-based discrimination makes refugees out of people within our own families, society and even faith communities. "If discrimination is bad for children at what age does it become good for adults?" One church representative told Fairfax Media that a political party would not expect to be sued for discrimination if it rejected a worker who did not support its beliefs. He argued a religious school should be able to exercise a similar judgement with teachers.