PM faces repeat rebellion
LIBERALS who crossed the floor to block Scott Morrison’s religious discrimination laws will not rule out a repeat rebellion if he does not protect gay students at the same time.
The Prime Minister said there was “no evidence” gay students were expelled from schools for their sexuality, despite five of his MPs voting against the government earlier this year over insufficient protections for LGBTQ students and teachers alongside the proposed Religious Discrimination Act.
Mr Morrison said faithbased schools and leaders had told him students were not at risk of expulsion over their sexuality.
“There is no evidence of that,” he said. “None. The point is, it doesn’t happen.”
Mr Morrison on Sunday declared his priority remained ensuring Australians were not discriminated against due to their faith, or lack of faith, with any changes to the Sexual Discrimination Act to protect LGBTQ students only to occur “sequentially” after the RDA.
Following his comments, Wentworth MP Dave Sharma, Higgins MP Katie Allen and Bass MP Bridget Archer, who all crossed the floor to seek protections for trans students, confirmed their positions were unchanged.
Dr Allen said the protections under the SDA were “non-negotiable”.
Last week NSW senator Andrew Bragg also called for the two issues to be dealt with concurrently, if not in the same legislative package.
Christian Schools Australia director of public policy Mark Spencer backed Mr Morrison’s claim there was “no evidence” students were being expelled from faith-based schools “simply because they are gay”.
Equality Australia chief Anna Brown said the government seemed to only want to protect LGBTQ students “after successfully winding back protections for our communities through its Religious Discrimination Bill”.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said there was “evidence of religious discrimination” and he supported an
RDA with protections for LGBTQ people. “If people don’t think that young people are discriminated against and vilified because of their sexuality, then that does not reflect reality,” Mr Albanese said.
In recognition of Mother’s Day, the Opposition Leader announced an $11m Labor commitment to upgrade facilities for playgroups, as well as help expand “intergenerational playgroups”.
Meanwhile Mr Morrison toured an IVF facility in Melbourne to promote the Coalition’s $53m commitment to slash the cost of reproductive services, pregnancy planning and post natal care, which Labor has matched.