When questioned about progress on religious discrimination legislation at a media conference on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his timeframe for achieving bipartisan agreement on the proposed legislation had now passed. His response seemed to confirm widespread speculation that the government had abandoned attempts to pass the bill during this term of parliament.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s comments on Friday, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli said it was regrettable that ‘such important legislation’ was not proceeding.
‘However, I trust that the Prime Minister will be true to his word that protections for people of faith will not go backwards under his leadership. In the absence of any new protections, today’s announcement should also mean that existing protections remain in place.’
On Friday, the Prime Minister said, ‘We provided legislation to the Coalition a long time ago now … on the basis that we wanted to see if we could get some bipartisan support,’ explaining that the government had intended to introduce legislation during the May federal budget sittings ‘if agreement could be reached’.
Claiming that that the Coalition had failed to suggest any amendments, he implied this was the reason that bipartisan support had not been reached and the legislation had been abandoned.
‘One of the things I’ve spoken about is the need for greater social cohesion,’ he said. ‘And the last thing that Australia needs is any divisive debate relating to religion and people’s faith. I respect people’s faith, and I think that they should be able to engage free of discrimination … I don’t intend to engage in a partisan debate when it comes to religious discrimination.’
I trust that the Prime Minister will be true to his word that protections for people of faith will not go backwards under his leadership.
Coalition Legal Affairs Spokeswoman Michaelia Cash wrote to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in mid-July, responding to his call at the National Press Club for the opposition to produce a line-by-line response to the legislation.
Claiming that ‘the ball is entirely in the government’s court’, she said the government should redraft the legislation in response to the ‘line-by-line feedback’ that it had already received from faith groups and ‘put forward options that would not only protect faith-based schooling, but also address concerns around the drafting of existing provisions on the Commonwealth statute book.
‘The Coalition does not intend to bypass or undercut that clear stakeholder feedback, which was provided on a bipartisan basis,’ she wrote.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has been engaged in discussions about the draft bills over many months, providing both the government and opposition with detailed suggestions to address its concerns and ensure the proposed legislation would not take protections for people of faith backwards.
