Weekend Wrap for 20 February 2022

Michelle Grattan: Morrison draws on Bible story to explain refusal to compromise on religious discrimination package. (13 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Conversation

Jacqueline Maley: It is difficult to know how to begin a column on politics after a week when national debate ended at the high-water mark of our Attorney-General – the first law officer of a government with pretensions to seriousness – discussing which toilets schoolchildren should be able to use. (13 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald

Graeme Watson: It’s time for Labor to stop playing political football with LGBTIQA+ people. (13 Feb 2022)
Read more at Out in Perth

Stan Grant: Does Australia have a God problem? This past week's debate about religious freedom has tested the limits of tolerance, freedom, respect, and rights. Many MPs were motivated by deeply held convictions, but the tone of debate wasn't helped by a heavy dose of political opportunism and partisanship across the aisles of parliament. (13 Feb 2022)
Read more at ABC News

Kerryn Phelps: Religious Discrimination Bill a ham-fisted display of bigotry. Yet again, the LGBTQI community, particularly transgender children and adults, have been made to suffer for the bigotry of a small number of individuals and organisations hell-bent on making their lives even more difficult. (14 Feb 2022)
Read more at Independent Australia

Philip Freier: There were no winners from the accelerating train wreck of the federal government’s attempt to pass a religious discrimination bill last week, except perhaps gay and transgender children who won support from the House of Representatives for extra protection in an amendment to sexual discrimination legislation. (14 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald

Michelle Grattan: Trent Zimmerman is one of the five Liberal moderates who crossed the floor to vote to amend the religious discrimination package to protect trans children. Asked whether he regrets his decision to vote against the government Zimmerman says he was “standing up on a couple of points of principle for me – and first and foremost was seeking to support amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, which would have protected trans kids, but also broadened the limitation of the discrimination that’s allowable for children more generally.” (15 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Conversation

Tania Ferfolja and Jacqueline Ullman: Debates about how schools acknowledge gender and sexuality diversity have been ongoing in Australia. It’s often claimed parents oppose the inclusion of gender and sexuality diversity content in the teaching of their children. But our research shows four out of five parents support such content being included in the relationships and sexual health curriculum. (15 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Conversation

Jack Waterford: The Prime Minister’s abject defeat spotlighted the decline of his moral authority and standing in his party. The courage and tactics of Anthony Albanese over the religious bigotry bill were clearly superior to those of Scott Morrison. If there was any doubt about that it was dissipated by the government’s decision to abandon the bill rather than to chance its arm over numbers in the Senate, and the fury of the fundamentalist lobbies when they announced they would rather not have their freedom of religion legislated for in the form that Labor, Independents and a number of religious moderates wanted. (16 Feb 2022)
Read more at Pearls and Irritations

Michael Galvin: After his Religious Discrimination Bill was defeated, Scott Morrison has taken a path of self-pity and finger-pointing. (16 Feb 2022)
Read more at Independent Australia

Michael Kenny (Editor): Has our PM let down people of faith? As the Coalition prepares to fight for a fourth term, it’s clear some in its own ranks have forgotten who their genuine opposition is in the parliament. (17 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Catholic Leader

Robyn Whitaker: Over the past week, Australians have heard Scott Morrison make several explicit references to his faith. Given Morrison has placed his faith front and centre of his public persona, it is helpful to try to understand how he perceives his faith and how it might intersect with his job as prime minister. For me, Morrison’s recent comments about faith and prayer reveal a pattern of human passivity, dependence on divine intervention, and potential abnegation of power. (18 Feb 2022)
Read more at The Conversation

Paul Collins: The Religious Discrimination Bill debate got taken-over by religious extremists with the mainstream wedged in the middle. I won’t rehash the arguments surrounding the Bill, but rather examine the protagonists and show how those of us in the sensible middle were thoroughly wedged. (18 Feb 2022)
Read more at Pearls and Irritations