Rights group Just.Equal have called on minor parties and independent candidates who are successful at the Saturday’s federal election to continue to push for legal protections for LGBTIQA+ students and teachers in religious schools.
They say the Albanese government has abandoned protecting LGBTQA+ teachers and students in faith schools from discrimination under Commonwealth law. The long running issue was taken off the agenda when the Coalition refused to give bipartisan support to proposed reforms.
Spokesperson for national LGBTQA+ advocacy group Just.Equal Australia, Brian Greig, said this means the reform is dead if Labor wins Government, unless the Greens, Teals and other cross-benchers are in a position to force Labor’s hand.
“It’s a cop-out for Federal Labor to say it requires bi-partisan support on an issue the Coalition totally opposes.”
“Labor’s decision means that LGBTQA+ staff and students in faith schools can be subject to unfair treatment contrary to its own promise and to its LGBTQA+ mental health strategies.”
“Mr Albanese is trying to push blame for his Party’s internal divisions over this issue on to the Liberal Party.” Greig said.
Liberal leader Peter Dutton has made it clear to religious lobby groups and in his response to LGBTQA+ election surveys, that he supports faith schools having special exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQA+ students and staff.
Shadow Attorney General, Michaela Cash, has gone further, claiming that faith schools should have a ‘positive right’ to discriminate in employment, which would mean a Commonwealth over-ride of existing state and territory laws that prohibit this discrimination.
The Albanese Government went to the last election promising legislation and directed the Australian Law Reform Commission to investigate and offer recommendations.
The resulting ALRC report advocated an end to discrimination, however Labor failed to act despite having the numbers in Parliament to pass the necessary legislation. Details of the proposed legislation have never been released and those who have seen it as part of a consultation process have reportedly been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.
“Mr Albanese refused offers of help from the crossbench to pass the Bill, including Teals, Greens and Independents,” Greig said.
“Federal reform promised by Labor, now abandoned, would have protected teachers and students in three states that have either delayed or ignored reform. It might also have made up for weaknesses in some state laws, given there is no national benchmark.”
“In the next term of Government hope for an end to discrimination in faith-based schools will lie with those Greens, Teals and other cross-bench members elected this Saturday.
“We call on Green, Teal and independent candidates to make it crystal clear they will not only support an end to exemptions allowing discrimination but will push for this overdue reform from day one.”
Just.Equal say Labor’s decision to dump this commitment leaves LGBTQA+ teachers and students in three states at the mercy of their respective state governments and with no national leadership.
They also note that last year the Minns Labor Government in NSW failed to reform that state’s law allowing discrimination by faith-based schools, arguing that it would prefer to wait for the anticipated report from its Law Reform Commission before considering legislation.
An Equal Opportunity Report currently before the Cook Labor Government in WA has prompted it to pledge reform this term. While South Australian Labor Premier, Peter Malinauskas, has made no pledge.
Discrimination against LGBTQA+ students and teachers in faith-schools is unlawful, to varying degrees, in Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and Northern Territory. It has not been outlawed in New South Wales, South Australia or Western Australia.
Fixing discrimination laws is a long running political saga
The issue of religious based schools being able to discriminate against LGBTIQA+ staff and students was first highlighted by the Ruddock Review .
Religious discrimination has been an issue high on the agenda for successive Australian governments, both Labor and Liberal, but action on legislation has been stalled for many years.
Concerns over religious organisations having exemptions to discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people based on religious beliefs have been raised by advocates, allies and politicians alike, amplified in the wake of the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite.
Following the postal vote, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull commissioned a religious freedom inquiry, led by former Attorney General Philip Ruddock. Among the findings of the Ruddock Review, released in 2018, was the issue that LGBTQIA+ young people and teachers are particuarly vulnerable to discrimination in religious schools.
In June 2022, Attorney General Mark Butler confirmed Australians would see religious discrimination legislation during Labor’s first term. But by March 2024 the PM was threating to shelve the bill without bipartistan support for change.
At the Equality Australia Rainbow Votes Forum earlier this month Labor MP Kate Thwaites defended the government’s lack of progress on the issue, saying they were protecting LGBTIQA+ communities by proceeding carefully.
Thwaites said the government had done substantial work on this issue, despite no legislation reaching the parliament.
“This is something that Labor has tried to work on in this term of Parliament, and as we’ve done that work, there are two things that we have decided are really important, and the first of those is that we do not want an incredibly divisive, hateful debate.” she said.
Thwaites said the second issue one of bipartisanship, saying that without the support of the Coalition there was no option to bring the legislation forward.
“We didn’t want to go through all of that and then have a future government, Liberal government, just unwind it. Now. We were in the situation where the Liberal Party would not engage with us on these laws, so we could not find a way forward on them. And that is really hard.”
