LGBTQ+ individuals, women, minority religion communities, and those with disabilities will all lead to deterioration of the redrafted Religious Discrimination Bill. Even when delivering publicly sponsored services, religious organizations will be free to discriminate against people of various faiths or no faith. When people participate in religious activity that violates local bylaws that we all have to respect, they will be protected. Why Australia religious Discrimination Bill 2021??
PM Scott Morrison to introduce new Australian bill 2021
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash is set to submit the Religious Discrimination Bill into parliament by the end of the year, reigniting the controversy over “religious freedom.”
Scott Morrison will personally propose the government’s long-promised bill providing stronger protection for religious Australians from discrimination laws in parliament.
The bill’s opponents argue that it prioritizes religious liberties over LGBTIQ+ persons, women, minority religion communities, and people with disabilities.
The dispute prompted then-Prime Official Malcolm Turnbull to appoint Philip Ruddock, a long-serving Howard administration minister, to lead a review of religious “freedom” in Australia.
The Religious Freedom Review Report was released in December 2018 by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is a vocal supporter of religious “freedoms.” It concluded that Australian legislation should better safeguard and encourage religious “freedom.”
Is Religious discrimination bill matters in Australia? religious freedom bill Australia explained
The Religious Discrimination Bill intends to prevent discrimination on the basis of religious belief or activity in public venues such as workplaces, schools, clubs, and healthcare settings, including if a person does not have any religious believe.
According to the 2016 census, 61 percent of Australians, or 14 million individuals, follow a religion or spiritual belief, down from 68 percent in 2011.
Christians account for more than 86 percent of religious Australians, with Muslims coming in second, followed by Buddhists and Hindus.
religious discrimination bill healthcare
Following protests from health professionals about the legislation’s consequences for abortion, contraception, and broader healthcare, the decision was made.
Doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists should be able to refuse treatment to patients on religious grounds and make religious statements that could be considered discriminatory, according to the original draft.
There were fears that this would disproportionately affect young women in tiny communities with only one drugstore or doctor, forcing them to seek treatment elsewhere.
Sections of the bill “appears to reduce patient safeguards and derogate patients’ rights to access healthcare, while also undermining the rights of some doctors by enabling employers to discriminate against them based on religious belief,” according to the Australian Medical Association, which submitted a submission on the second draft of the bill in 2020.
private Organizations have no right to treat their employees according to their religions and caste.
Any company with a revenue of at least $50 million must pay more attention to its employees’ religious beliefs, and limitations barring people from making religious remarks in their personal capacity will be impossible to impose unless it is an essential requirement of the organization.
“If a large business imposes a condition relating to the standards of dress, appearance or behavior of their employees, and that condition would restrict or prevent an employee from making statements of belief in their private capacity, the business is required to prove that compliance with the condition is necessary to avoid unjustifiable financial hardship to the business,” the bill says.
What do opponents of the bill say?
Rodney Croome, a campaigner for LGBTIQ+ rights and a representative for Just. Equal Australia, claims that the law does not provide universal rights, but rather special legal rights to a specific group.
“It’s meant to prevent discrimination on the grounds of religion, which everyone would support if that’s actually what it was about. But what it does is allow discrimination in the name of religion,” he told SBS News.
“The bill says this is about freedom for faith, but it’s not, it’s really about privilege for prejudice.”
What is Mr Croome says for Australia’s LGBTIQ+ community?
For decades, the LGBTIQ+ community and our allies have worked tirelessly to make Australia a more inclusive and equitable nation. It is fundamentally unjust that the federal government wants to take those things away, which is exactly what this bill would do: it will make workplaces less inclusive, make healthcare more difficult to obtain, and overrule or weaken some of the laws that we have worked so hard to establish.
“This Religious Discrimination Bill says we will roll back all the things you thought you had, all of the protections, all of the inclusion. We will not allow you to live in hope of being treated equally. That’s what the Religious Discrimination Bill says to us.”
