A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender gives them a drink on the house, and then another. Next thing, they're demanding a free keg, hijacking the karaoke machine and abusing the bartender.

Substitute the bar for Federal Parliament, and there's Australia's brawl over religious freedom legislation distilled.

I know, the imam's religion forbids alcohol. It's a joke. Notwithstanding the terrorist attack at the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo five years ago, I'm confident that, overwhelmingly, followers of Islam can take a joke. But I've been troubled by recent events in France where a teenage lesbian has been targeted for lashing religion. The case is instructive; more on this later.

Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit:

As a salve for losing the fight against same-sex marriage, and in the wake of the Israel Folau controversy, the federal government offered the bruised religious lobby an anti-religious discrimination bill that entrenches their right to discriminate in the name of religion. That's the first drink on the house. Conservatives of faith revolted, insisting the religious protections didn't go far enough. The faithless complained the bill expanded the devout's right to discriminate and behave obnoxiously, but their voices were largely drowned out. Even I skimmed over their grievances. After all: it could have been worse. The bill could have been explicitly framed around a "positive" right of religious freedom.