Last updated 10:30am
An Australian Government-ordered inquiry into religious freedom in the country has recommended that the Federal Government amend the Racial Discrimination Act or create a new Religious Discrimination Act to make it illegal to discriminate against a person on the basis of their religious belief of lack thereof, according to a report in Fairfax Media.
The inquiry’s final report, the contents of which the media organisation says it has seen, was commissioned in the wake of last year’s same-sex marriage vote and handed to the Federal Government some four months ago but has not been publicly released.
Fairfax Media reports that while the panel – which was chaired by former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock – does not recommend a dedicated Religious Freedom Act, it does call for the amendment of the federal Racial Discrimination Act or the creation of a new religious discrimination act as well as for the amendment of the federal Sex Discrimination Act to allow religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status – something it says some but not all states already allow.
Fairfax quote the report as saying that there is a “wide variety of religious schools in Australia and…to some school communities, cultivating an environment and ethos which conforms to their religious beliefs is of paramount importance. To the extent that this can be done in the context of appropriate safeguards for the rights and mental health of the child, the panel accepts their right to select, or preference, students who uphold the religious convictions of that school community.”
The report also says faith-based schools should have some discretion to discriminate in the hiring of teachers on the basis of religious belief, sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status, according to Fairfax.
The Fairfax report said the panel dismissed the notion that religious freedom in Australia is in “imminent perill”. It did not accept businesses should be able to refuse services on religious grounds and that civil celebrants should not be entitled to refuse to conduct same-sex weddings if they became celebrants after it was legalised, the report said.
Speaking Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government would be considering the report and developing a “balanced response”.
“And we’ll do that in our orderly process taking it through cabinet – this has not been through cabinet at this point…” he said, adding that the report would be released “in due course”. “And it will be released with a response from the government once we’re in a position to actually advise of our comprehensive reponse to that report once we’ve carefully considered and respectfully considered all the measures and recommendations and proposals that have been put forward.”
Asked about whether religious schools should be able to turn away students based on their sexual orientation, he said they already could.
“That’s the existing law and so the report in today’s Sydney Morning Herald forgot to mention one critical factor – that the existing law enables schools to do exactly what was in that report. So that’s not a change, that’s backing in an existing law…We’re not proposing to change that law, to take away that existing arrangement…”
The review panel handed its report to then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in May after receiving more than 15,000 submissions.
