11 February 2022 - Australian government shelves religious discrimination bill
Why the government shelved its religious discrimination bill
(ABC News, 11/02/2022)
Days after pleading with his MPs to follow his lead to an election victory, the Prime Minister has suffered a series of parliamentary defeats that culminated in his government indefinitely shelving its religious freedom legislation. There were hours of emotional and bitter debate in which five moderate Coalition MPs voted in favour of amendments opposed by the government. In the end the government had to withdraw the bill from debate to avoid defeat.
Everything You Need To Know About The Controversial Religious Discrimination Bill
Jess Pullar (Marie Claire, 10/02/2022)
In early February 2022, a legislative reform to prevent religious schools from discriminating against or expelling students for being gay or gender diverse was introduced to government.
The amendment has been riddled with controversy and backlash due to what the current legislation stipulates—while this week, amendments were made to protect gay students from this bill, it left trans students out in the cold.
Trans people have some of the highest rates of self-harm and suicide in the world, and a bill to discriminate against some of the most vulnerable people in Australia—trans children—prompted five government backbenchers cross the floor in support of proposed amendments.
Morrison’s religious discrimination package couldn’t fly on a wing and a prayer
Michelle Grattan (The Conversation, 10/02/2022)
Scott Morrison made three foolish and arrogant assumptions this week when he embarked on trying to push his controversial religious discrimination legislation through parliament.
As a result, he failed in the mission and emerged from Wednesday’s all-night sitting with his authority diminished. With time almost out before the election, this legislation, which he claimed was “very important”, has reached a dead end.
First, Morrison thought he could tactically outplay Anthony Albanese, wedging Labor on an electorally sensitive issue. This smacked of hubris – it is safer to think your opponent just might be smarter than you are.
Australia’s Religious Discrimination Bill Could Make Life Hell for People With Disability
Julie Fenwick (Vice, 10/11/2022)
“If you came to church, you would be healed”, is just one of many fraught statements Mary Henley Collopy has heard while living with a significant physical disability over the last 60 years. To her, these statements, syphoned through what she refers to as a “pity lens”, give truth to a belief that others didn’t see her as “whole”, that she needed saving and that her physical disability needed to be “repaired to somehow fit the norm”. They were unsolicited and oftentimes, degrading.
So when Collopy first heard about the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, introduced by the Morrison government last December, she was “gobsmacked.”