9th Feb 2022, 1:12 AM – Representatives Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Impact on Tasmania

The majority voted against a motion to disagree with an amendment to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" - parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill. Because this motion passed, the second reading motion will remain unchanged.

The amendment was introduced by Clark MP Andrew Wilkie (Independent). There was one rebellion, with Bass MP Bridget Archer (Liberal) crossing the floor to vote 'No' against the rest of her party, who voted 'Yes.'

Note that the electorates of Clark and Bass are both in Tasmania and that MP Wilkie's amendment was Tasmania-specific.

Amendment text

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the House declines to give the bill a second reading and notes that:

(1) this bill will have a greater negative impact on Tasmania than any other state or territory because our anti-discrimination legislation is currently the best in the country; and

(2) the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 has the full support of the Tasmanian Parliament and been strongly endorsed by the Liberal Premier the Hon Peter Gutwein MP"

What does the bill do?

According to the bill homepage, the bill was introduced with the Religious Discrimination (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021 and Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 in order to:

• prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s religious belief or activity in a range of areas of public life, including in relation to employment, education, access to premises and the provision of goods, services and accommodation;
• establish general and specific exceptions from the prohibition of religious discrimination;
• provide that certain statements of belief do not constitute discrimination for the purposes of certain specified Commonwealth, state or territory anti-discrimination laws;
• create offences in relation to victimisation and discriminatory advertisements;
• establish the office of the Religious Discrimination Commissioner;
• confer certain functions on the Australian Human Rights Commission; and
• provide for miscellaneous matters including delegation of powers or functions, protection from civil actions and a review of the operation of the Act.

SBS News has provided a good summary of the more controversial parts of the bill, including an explanation for each rebellion that occurred during the long debate. According to this summary, the key areas for concern were:

• the parts of the bill that allowed religious schools to discriminate on the basis of sexuality and gender identity;
• the "statement of belief" that seems to protect people expressing religious beliefs even if they're offensive and therefore seem to override existing anti-discrimination protections; and
• the fact that the bill does not outlaw vilification of people of faith.