9th Feb 2022, 3:27 AM – Representatives Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 - Consideration in Detail - Religious vilification

The majority voted in favour of disagreeing with amendments moved by Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus (Labor), which means the amendments failed.

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.'

What do the amendments do?

MP Isaacs explained that:

The amendments that Labor is moving now would introduce into this bill a provision to protect people from vilification on the grounds of their religious belief or practice. This is a very important provision that the government has deliberately left out of this bill, despite requests from a range of faith communities for such a provision to be included. Indeed, it's difficult to understand how the Prime Minister can insist on what he imagines is the desire of people of faith to be able to make discriminatory statements about other Australians in what would otherwise amount to a breach of state antidiscrimination laws while ignoring their clearly stated desire to be protected from vilification on the grounds of their faith.

Amendment text

(2) Clause 4, page 3, after line 30, insert:

Religious vilification is unlawful, with certain exceptions (see Part 4A).

(4) Clause 7, page 10 (line 8), omit “this Act”, substitute “Part 4”.

(10) Clause 9, page 12 (line 24), omit “this Act”, substitute “Part 4”.

(17) Clause 12, page 17 (line 15), omit “.”, substitute “; or”.

(18) Clause 12, page 17 (after line 15), after paragraph (2)(c), insert:

(d) that is unlawful under Part 4A (religious vilification).

(19) Clause 16, page 20 (line 12), omit “this Act”, substitute “Part 4”.

(21) Page 41 (after line 7), after Part 4, insert:

Part 4A — Religious vilification

48A Religious vilification unlawful

(1) It is unlawful for a person to engage in conduct, on the ground of the religious belief or activity of another person or group of persons, that:

(a) is not in private; and

(b) a reasonable person would consider would threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify the other person or group.

Note: Complaints can be made to the Australian Human Rights Commission about conduct that is unlawful under this Part (see the definition of unlawful discrimination in subsection 3(1) of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, and section 46P of that Act).

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an act is taken not to be done in private if it:

(a) causes words, sounds, images or writing to be communicated to the public; or

(b) is done in a public place; or

(c) is done in the sight or hearing of people who are in a public place.

(3) P ublic place includes any place to which the public have access as of right or by invitation, whether express or implied and whether or not a charge is made for admission to the place.

48B Exceptions

(1) A person does not contravene section 48A if the person establishes that the person engaged in the conduct reasonably and in good faith:

(a) in the performance, exhibition or distribution of an artistic work; or

(b) in the course of any statement, publication, discussion or debate made or held, or any other conduct engaged in:

(i) for any genuine academic, artistic, religious or scientific purpose; or

(ii) for any purpose that is in the public interest; or

(iii) in making or publishing a fair and accurate report of any event or matter of public interest.

(2) For the purposes of subparagraph (1)(b)(i), a religious purpose includes, but is not limited to, conveying or teaching a religion or proselytising.

(22) Clause 49, page 42 (line 6), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

(23) Clause 50, page 43 (line 10), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

(24) Clause 51, page 44 (line 11), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

(25) Clause 70, page 57 (line 27), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

(26) Clause 70, page 58 (line 6), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

(27) Clause 73, page 59 (line 32), after “Part 4”, insert “or 4A”.

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.