Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not support Labor's amendment to amendment (8) within the government's set of amendments. The drafting that the government has proposed is quite specific in making reference to a range of Commonwealth, state and territory acts, and the Labor amendment would remove that specific drafting. The effect of that would be to water down the impact and operation of clause 12. As recognised by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report, clause 12 'strongly promotes not only the right to freedom of religion, but also the related right to freedom of expression'. An ongoing challenge in antidiscrimination law is ensuring that the right to equality and non-discrimination is appropriately balanced against other sometimes conflicting rights, such as the right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Clause 12 has been developed to balance the rights of freedom of religion and freedom of expression with other rights and is subject to the limitations set out in the bill.

The bill includes explicit protections to ensure that the statement of a moderately expressed religious belief in good faith is not discrimination under any Australian antidiscrimination law, nor does it contravene subsection 17(1) of the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 on that basis. The effect of the amendment that Labor is putting here would be to undermine that element of the drafting of the bill, and therefore the government will not be accepting it.

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