Weekend Wrap for 2 June 2024

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is drafting new hate speech laws that will impose criminal penalties for serious instances of vilification based on a person’s race, sexuality, gender, disability or religion. Labor’s hate speech bill, which is still being finalised, will enhance the federal protections that exist for minority groups in Australia and stems from the government’s view that existing laws have not been enforced and are not effective. The new hate speech bill would strengthen existing laws while creating new offences carrying criminal rather than civil penalties, and is likely to cover deliberate acts that intend to incite violence or cause harm. (26 May 2024)
Read more at The Age

Labor’s hopes of passing two key bills with opposition support have taken a hit with a breakdown in negotiations on religious discrimination and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, labelling its hate speech proposal a “trap”. Dutton addressed the Coalition party room on Tuesday for the first time since the government revealed it intends to create a new criminal offence to protect all attributes – including sex, sexuality, gender, race and religion – from vilification. Labor is still seeking opposition support for religious discrimination laws, which remove religious exemptions to sex discrimination laws and add an anti-vilification protection for religion. On Tuesday the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, met with his shadow counterpart, Michaelia Cash, to seek the opposition’s response to the bill, which it has seen but has not been released publicly. Accounts of the meeting are disputed, with both sides accusing the other of aggressive behaviour including raised voices, which both deny. (28 May 2024)
Read more at The Guardian

Equality Australia has called on the Federal Government to secure support in parliament for reforms that will protect staff and students in religious schools. “Every day the government delays is another day more harm is being done because religious schools are allowed to discriminate against staff and students who are gay, trans, pregnant, divorced or unmarried,” said CEO Anna Brown. “If the government fails to pass laws this term of government, they will have broken their election promise to our community and betrayed all the vulnerable students and teachers around Australia who will continue to lose their jobs or hide who they are,” she said. (30 May 2024)
Read more at CityHub

A parliamentary inquiry has called for Australia to adopt its first ever federal Human Rights Act, with MPs arguing it could provide safeguards against public policy disasters like the robodebt scheme. On Thursday the chair of the human rights committee, the Labor MP Josh Burns, tabled a report calling for new laws, including making it “unlawful” for a public authority to ignore human rights. The opposition immediately rejected the call, arguing the proposed act would put “excessive restrictions” on the freedoms of religion and expression, while putting too much weight on the right to non-discrimination. (30 May 2024)
Read more at The Guardian

Two of Australia’s most senior Catholic leaders have put forward a detailed proposal to the Albanese government to address significant concerns about its draft religious discrimination laws, warning that as the legislation stands faith groups “would go a long way backwards”. The three-pronged proposal, obtained by The Australian, was sent to the government and opposition earlier this month before major party negotiations on the draft laws broke down. Signed by Archbishop of Melbourne Peter A Comensoli, Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher and National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins, the proposal allows for the removal of section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act but says it should be replaced by more precise protections for religious schools and corporations. (31 May 2024)
Read more at The Australian

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, has warned the church will be forced to consider closing religious schools if the government strips them of the ability to preference the employment of teachers supportive of Christian teachings. Archbishop Fisher, one of the nation’s most senior Catholic leaders, declared more radical ­actions could be needed in ­response to the infringement of religious liberties, and raised the prospect of withdrawing educational services as happened in the landmark 1962 Goulburn school strike. He told The Weekend Australian on Friday the closure of Catholic schools should be considered “if we were told we were not allowed to take religion into account in who we employ, or in the ethos of our schools, which is quite a push at the moment”. (31 May 2024)
Read more at The Australian