This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Liberal MP Tim Wilson has lent support for a call to protect religious people from discrimination but warned legal changes must not cause unintended consequences such as “marginalisation” of other groups.

Social affairs minister Dan Tehan sparked the debate with a speech on 22 June, which was also published in the Australian newspaper on Saturday, in which he said discrimination on the basis of religion should be prohibited.

The minister also said state-based sex discrimination acts that limit religious freedom should be “no more restrictive than required,” raising concern among marriage equality advocates about any moves to erode anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people.

Marriage equality campaign seeks abolition of religious rights to discriminate Read more

The speech was the first major intervention by a Turnbull government minister into the religious freedom debate since the Ruddock review reported to the government in mid May. The attorney general Christian Porter is still working on the Coalition’s response to the review, which has not yet been made public.

Tehan’s call for religious people to be protected from discrimination replicates changes proposed by the Labor government in 2012, which already exist in many state laws, and were supported by the Equality Campaign and the Human Rights Law Centre during the Ruddock review.

Wilson, the former Australian Human Rights Commission freedom commissioner and one of the Liberal MPs who co-signed the successful Dean Smith marriage equality bill, told Guardian Australia the lack of a Religious Discrimination Act is “the obvious gap in our anti-discrimination architecture but should be legislated carefully”.

The Ruddock review is “a macro policy review that would still require detailed drafting and parliamentary review for specific legislation,” he said.

Wilson said religious freedom included the “unlimited freedom of conscience” but the ability to manifest belief is “tempered by law to respect the rights and freedoms of others”.

“Religious freedom does not take supremacy over the rights and freedoms of others,” he said.

“Religious freedom is an important universal principle. It can’t be selectively provided for some religions, but not for others, which is why legislation or amendments have to go through a full parliamentary review to ensure they don’t license people imposing religion or the marginalisation of others.”

One of the central issues in the Ruddock religious freedom review was the extent to which expanding the circumstances religious people could manifest their beliefs would override the right to non-discrimination of LGBT people.

In public debate before marriage equality was legalised, Coalition conservatives including Tehan and the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, warned against amendments with unintended consequences, such as creating religious enclaves shielded by law or opening a back door to sharia law.

On Monday the Liberal senator James Paterson told Radio National that religious people should be able to “live out [their] values in the world”.

Paterson said that a complaint against the Catholic archbishop of Hobart, Julian Porteous over an anti-same-sex marriage flyer, which was made under Tasmanian discrimination law and later withdrawn, showed that “expressing a view on marriage is now legally risky”.

Religious freedom review: Margaret Court claims anti-gay marriage voices silenced Read more

Federal law should clarify that expressing opposition to same-sex marriage based on religious belief is allowable, he said.

Paterson said a “well-crafted” law would not result in unintended consequences such as legalising aspects of sharia law because religious freedom “doesn’t allow you to do anything that is otherwise unlawful”.

Tehan also proposed that federal law should override state-based discrimination law so limits on religious freedom were “no more restrictive than required”. This angered marriage equality advocates who believe religious exemptions to discrimination law should be repealed and who oppose attempts to entrench or extend them.

Just Equal spokesman Brian Greig said the movement for “religious freedom [is] just a smokescreen for LGBTI discrimination”.

“When marriage equality was achieved in the USA, evangelical Christians sought to undermine it with a new religious freedom movement aimed at passing laws to allow people of faith to refuse service to same-sex couples,” he said.

“Now conservative Christian lobbyists want to import this culture war into Australia with proposals to allow anyone with a prejudice against LGBTI people to be able to refuse us services, including any business or school with a faith link.”