Religious freedom will be at the top of the Australian Government’s agenda in the 46th Parliament, Attorney-General Christian Porter has told The West Australian newspaper.
Speaking ahead of being sworn in as part of the new government on Wednesday, Porter said one of the first acts of the re-elected government would be putting a religious freedom bill before parliament.
“There was enormous concern in religious Australia,” he said in reference to what Labor would do in government to religious freedoms. “From schools to churches to groups any way involved in organised religion. They were concerned and we saw it become a key issue during the election.”
The amendment of existing laws or establishment of a new religious discrimination act to ensure it was unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s religious belief or activity was one of the recommendations of the Ruddock review into religious freedom which reported to the then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year.
Porter, who is also taking up the portfolio of Industrial Relations Minister, has also said he would not discount the idea of holding a national jobs summit between business, unions and government.
Parliament is expected to resume sitting in July. Government ministers – including Ken Wyatt, Australia’s first Indigenous cabinet minister, as Minister for Indigenous Affairs – were sworn in at a ceremony held at Government House in Canberra on Wednesday morning.
