The Religious Discrimination Bill isn’t (just) about Christians

It is no accident that Attorney General Christian Porter launched the exposure drafts of the Religious Discrimination Bill in the Great Synagogue in Sydney. As Chief Justice Latham explained in Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses v Commonwealth, “he religion of the majority of the people can look after itself.” Whereas laws such as those proposed in the Religious Discrimination Bill exposure draft are, as I’ve written previously, “required to protect the religion of minorities, and, in particular, unpopular minorities.” In its report, the Ruddock Religious Freedom Review recommended the federal government amend the existing Racial Discrimination Act 1975 or enact a new Religious Discrimination Act “to render it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of a person’s ‘religious beliefs or activity’.” The government has decided to take the second of these two options. Section 41 of the Religious Discrimination Bill exposure draft provides that a “statement of belief” does not constitute discrimination. While the focus thus far has been on specific clauses designed to “fix” specific problems, if the debate about the Religious Discrimination Bill exposure draft is to progress it must shift to the real issue — religious discrimination itself. In passing a Religious Discrimination Act, the federal government can send a powerful message both to Australia’s minority faith communities and persecuted religious groups around the world: your human rights matter; in Australia, discrimination on the basis of religious belief and activity will not be tolerated.