Anger over law change

FEDERAL laws designed to enhance religious freedom undermine essential protections under Tasmanian law, activists say.

The Religious Discrimination Bill contains specific provisions to override the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act. Equality Tasmania spokesman Rodney Croome said the Federal Government was “directly interfering to weaken a Tasmanian human rights law that protects vulnerable people”.

FEDERAL laws designed to enhance religious freedom contain specific provisions to override the Tasmanian AntiDiscrimination Act.

The Religious Discrimination Bill is intended to protect against discrimination on the basis of religious belief or activity — but local activists say the changes undermine essential protections under Tasmanian law.

Under the new legislation, a person cannot be found to have discriminated against a person under any anti-discrimination law for expressing their genuinely held religious beliefs in good faith.

The long promised laws were unveiled by AttorneyGeneral Christian Porter in a speech at The Great Synagogue in Sydney yesterday.

“While there will always be competing views on issues such as this, the Government considers the draft Bill presented today strikes the right balance in the interests of all Australians,” he said.

But some faith-based groups boycotted the speech after claiming they were blindsided by the release of the draft legislation.

The Bill specifically provides that a statement of belief cannot constitute discrimination under subsection 17(1) of the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act, which protects from conduct that “offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules”.

Equality Tasmania spokesman Rodney Croome said the Federal Government had promised not to interfere with state law.

“Canberra is directly interfering to weaken a Tasmanian human rights law that protects vulnerable people,” he said.

“A significant proportion of complaints under this section are from people with disability, so Canberra is directly weakening protections for them, as well as for women, LGBTI people and anyone else who falls foul of traditional religious doctrines.

“Our offensive language laws have helped foster a more inclusive island society and we will do everything in our power to keep them intact.”

He said a similar attempt to weaken Tasmania’s offensive language law was rejected by the State Parliament in 2017, and in 2018 the State Supreme Court found such laws did not breach the right to religious freedom.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor condemned the proposed laws.

“The culture warriors in Canberra are leading the charge to weaken protections for marginalised Tasmanians,” she said. “Attorney-General Christian Porter clearly lied when he stated the new ‘religious freedom’ laws would not undermine state laws.

“The Religious Discrimination Bill released by Porter today specifically mentions and weakens Tasmania’s nation-leading anti-discrimination laws.”