Cancel culture on PM’s hit list

THE Prime Minister on Thursday said a religious discrimination Bill was “necessary” to protect people with faith from the “bots, bigots and bullies” of the “cancel culture”.

Scott Morrison personally introduced the Bill to the House of Representatives, saying people shouldn’t be “cancelled or persecuted or vilified” because of their beliefs.

Mr Morrison described the Bill as “sensible and balanced”. He said discrimination against people of faith was not a new thing, but that the rise of social media and “cancel culture” allowed room for increased risk of persecution.

“Many people from various religious traditions are concerned about the lack of religious protection against the prevalence of cancel culture in Australian life,” he said.

“It’s true, it’s there, it’s real. “The citizens of liberal democracies should never be fearful about what they believe, the lives they lead, or the God they follow if, indeed, they choose to follow one or acknowledge one at all.

“Australians shouldn’t have to worry about looking over their shoulder, fearful of offending an anonymous person on Twitter, cowardly sitting there, abusing and harassing them for their faith, or transgressing against political or social Zeitgeists.

“We have to veer away from the artificial, phony conflicts, boycotts, controversies and cancelling created by anonymous and cowardly bots, bigots and bullies”.

In his statement, Mr Morrison said the Bill “does not seek to set one group of Australians against another”. However, many moderate Liberal MPs have voiced their concerns about elements of the Bill, especially about what it could mean for gay students and teachers in religious schools amid fears the statement of belief clause could override antidiscrimination laws.

The government earlier in the week offered assurances that those students and teachers would be protected from expulsion and firing, and Mr Morrison said there was “nothing” in the Bill that allowed for “any form of discrimination against a student on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity … such discrimination has no place in our education system”.

But just hours earlier, the deputy Attorney-General, Senator Amanda Stoker, said religious institutions could have power to refuse employment to a gay person if it was against that institution’s public, recorded views.

Senator Stoker on Thursday morning said under the Bill, schools needed to have a “mission” that made their beliefs clear, and whether the school went so far as to stipulate that they would not hire a gay teacher “depends a great deal upon what that school is prepared to be upfront with the community about”.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has said the government is prepared to consider any recommendations made through the senate process.

She said, however, that she believed the Bill struck a good balance between religious discrimination and protecting human rights.

She has also rejected claims from equality advocates that the new laws could be used to overturn state bans on gay conversion practices.