Australia’s first national LGBTQI+ legal advocacy and campaigning organisation Equality Australia is calling for Prime Minister Scott Morrison ensure LGBTQ discrimination will not be enshrined under the proposed Religious Discrimination Act.
A Fairfax-Ipsos survey released in October found that 74% of all eligible voters reject any laws that would allow schools to discriminate based on a student or teacher’s sexuality, relationship status or gender.
Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan, said protecting students from discrimination was a top priority for the Federal Government.
“We want to deal with the issue of students ... I expect that something will be done over the coming days on that,” Tehan told Sky News, but refused to confirm whether there would be legislation protecting gay teachers from discrimination.
“That's obviously something we want to look at as part of the broader Ruddock review,” Tehan said.
Equality Australia CEO, Anna Brown, said no student or teacher should be going back to school feeling scared they’ll be kicked out or excluded for being who they are.
“With the Morrison Government’s so-called ‘Religious Freedoms’ bill due to be released within weeks, our Prime Minister must ensure that no future legislation enshrines state sanctioned discrimination against students and teachers,” she said.
“Scott Morrison made a clear promise ahead of the Wentworth by-election last year to remove outdated laws allowing schools to discriminate against students.”
Brown criticised the “stalling, delay and attempts to introduce more discrimination”, which she said leaves LGBTQ students and teachers “heading back to school with an uncertain future”.
“We know Australians oppose discrimination against LGBTQ students and teachers in faith-based schools,” she said.
Brown said that instead of “creating more piecemeal laws”, the Morrison Government should consolidate and modernise the federal laws that provide protections on the basis of race, disability, sex, and age, into a single Equality Act that protects everyone’s rights.
“Discrimination has no place in our schools or in our classrooms. We will be doing our utmost to ensure that any attempts to legislate to protect religious freedom do not come at the expense of equality for LGBTQ people,” she said.