Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This should be a unifying moment for this nation as we discuss a bill to ensure that people are not discriminated against for their religious beliefs and practices. But it is not that moment. This bill, the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021, is not that bill. This has been an awful debate. So many in this parliament are really struggling with this, and our communities that we represent are as well. Every single member of this House would support the right of people to practise their religions without discrimination. That is not debatable. I am so proud that living in this country, Australia, we have such a diversity of religions and that we do have, to a great extent, religious freedom in this country. This is a debate that we could have worked on together as a community and as a nation.

From day one of this debate, Labor has reached out to this Prime Minister to work together on this, for this to be something that we could all be proud of. As our leader, the member for Grayndler, outlined in his speech earlier today, those offers to the Prime Minister have been rejected. They have not worked with us on this, and what we have ended up with is a bill that should not be supported. It should not be supported in this House, and Labor is moving some amendments to fix this bill so that we will not have some rights, and discrimination against some people, prioritised over protecting others from discrimination.

This should be a unifying moment, but this has been led by a Prime Minister who seeks to divide Australians, and it is absolutely shameful. It is absolutely shameful that in this debate the very things that make us who we are—our faith, our gender, our sexuality and even our culture—have been used to pit Australians against other Australians in a debate that is incredibly damaging, in a debate that people should not have had to endure again.

The people of Canberra do not want this bill. They have made that very clear, and I want to thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who have contacted me about this with their emails and their phone calls. Particularly in the last week or so, as it became clear that this was going to be rammed through this parliament in its dying days, but also over the last three years, I have talked a lot with my engaged, passionate and progressive community about. It is something that I have talked very much about with our shadow Attorney-General and others in this caucus as well. I know that people on the other side of the House have engaged with us as well, in spite of the Prime Minister's push to ram through something that does not solve the problems that such a bill should be looking to solve but, in fact, creates others.

I want to say to people in our LGBTIQ+ community: you should not have had to endure this debate yet again. To young trans Australians: you deserve so much better than this from your parliament. To anyone who feels upset by the debate that we have again been subjected to in this country: you deserve so much better from this parliament. To people of faith who want genuine laws to protect you from discrimination: you deserve better than this. All Australians deserve better than this.

In the dying days of this parliament, there are literally about seven days left of sitting before an election. We are not debating urgent legislation to address the crisis in aged care this government allowed to happen on their watch—more than 600 older Australians dying since Christmas. We're not debating that. We are not debating measures to help people who have lost their jobs or their businesses because of COVID. We are not debating the federal integrity commission this government promised over three years ago—another thing we want to work with them on but they don't actually want to do. We're not doing anything about poverty. We're not talking about implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart and giving First Nations Australians the voice to this parliament I so deeply hoped, along with so many people here, that this parliament would deliver. We're not debating those things. We are tearing ourselves apart over a bill that doesn't actually serve the needs of anyone who wants to be protected from discrimination in this country in a debate that has been so damaging for so many in our community. Again, to the people contacting me: I hear you and I see you and I will keep fighting against these things. I am so sorry that this is what we are doing here tonight.

We do not support the bill as it stands and will move amendments. These amendments do four key things, very important things, to improve this. They prohibit religious vilification, which the original bill doesn't do. The original bill does nothing to protect a Muslim woman being yelled at in the street or other examples like that, so it does make you question the real point of what the government is trying to do with this original bill. The amendments will prohibit discrimination against children on the grounds of sexuality and gender identity; they will make it clear that in-home aged-care service providers cannot discriminate on the basis of religion in the provision of aged-care services; and they make it clear that the statement of belief provision does not remove or diminish any existing protections against discrimination.

As I said, the people of Canberra have spoken out against this bill, including our Chief Minister, who has called on the parliament to oppose this bill. In my electorate of Canberra, we are already protected by the ACT's nation-leading Human Rights Act. This Human Rights Act includes statutory protections for the right to freedom of religion. The act guarantees the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of choice, and the freedom to demonstrate that religion or belief in worship observance, practice and teaching. Significantly, the Human Rights Act finely balances these religious protections against the rights of all citizens, ensuring no impact on other human rights and freedoms. This is the balance lacking in this bill. Without Labor's amendments, the government's bill will undermine those rights and protections already enjoyed by my constituents in Canberra and all people in the ACT. It will undermine our human rights. This bill is a disgrace and, as it stands, should not be supported.

In its submission to the Senate inquiry into this bill, the ACT government welcomed further protections on the grounds of a person's religious belief but recommended several amendments, including to allow it to operate concurrently with state and territory based protections already enjoyed by Australians. These hard-won protections should not be taken away.

The other night my friend and colleague the member for Whitlam gave a very powerful speech, in which he shared the story of his 15-year-old gay nephew, who tragically took his own life, and also the story of his own transgender son and the challenges that he faces in our community. I want to thank him for that speech. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't yet read or watched that speech to do so. It really brings to light how important it is that we protect people, particularly young people, in these laws. But they also should be spared from the damage of these debates. We know that the LGBTI community have—shockingly, unacceptably—much higher rates of suicide than other Australians. LGBTIQ+ young people aged 16 to 17 are almost five times more likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetime compared to the general population. Transgender people aged 14 to 25 are 15 times more likely to have attempted suicide.

The member for Whitlam talked about his nephew and his son swimming against the tide. I think so many of us take for granted that we have not had to swim against the tide just to be who we are. I think we can underestimate the damage caused to people who have to constantly fight and constantly debate for their right to be who they are. It's so incredibly damaging to people.

Having a Prime Minister like this and a government like this, who want to weaponise these things and divide Australians, is part of the reason that this continues. So many people who are gay who are very dear to me have, at some point over the years, shared with me just how challenging it has been for them. They have had to endure absolutely tragic things that people should never have to endure, just for being who they are.

People's faith is part of who they are, and people of faith don't want this. One of the really key points of most religions—and the most important part, the overarching message, of my Christian faith—is: love thy neighbour. That's common to most religions. 'Love thy neighbour, who is made perfect exactly as they are.' I think that is the guiding principle we should be seeking here. As a nation, if we saw more of that and had respect for each other, we wouldn't be having these discussions.

With the time I've got left, I want to share the story of one Canberran, my constituent Hugo Walker, who I have talked to a lot about this bill. He has done a wonderful submission, which you can find online, and I urge you to read it. I'll just read a shorter version, which is a letter that he wrote to the Prime Minister. He says:

Dear Sir,

…   …   …

Like you, I am a Christian.

Like you, I greatly value the freedoms I have in Australia to go to church, read the Bible and share my faith.

Unlike you, I am gay. Unlike you, I am a survivor of the cruel and damaging process known as Gay Conversion Therapy. nlike you, I believe, as a Christian, that God welcomes me as I am. God does not require me to change my sexual orientation to be a Christian. Nor is God planning to cast me into some mythical Lake of Fire simply because I am gay.

I am very concerned that your government seems very keen to rush an ill-considered bill through parliament to 'protect' religious freedoms even though such freedoms are not under threat.

Further, I am concerned at the haste. Last year, your government referred such matters to the Australian Law Reform Commission. Why can't you at least wait for their report?

As a gay man who is also a Christian, I have, sadly, been treated with astonishing cruelty by some Christians. People with whom I had been friends for decades now shun me. I have been called a fraud, a pervert, an unrepentant sodomite and the spawn of Satan by people who are supposedly my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I would be happy to meet with you and the Attorney-General …

And it goes on.

The guts that it takes to share that story, the guts that it has taken Hugo just to be who he is, is something that so many of us can't understand. We need to realise the damage this does to people. We need to stop having these debates. We need to stop weaponising these deep things that make us who we are. We will look back on this debate and think, 'How antiquated.' It is time we grew up as a nation. Why do we care who people love, what they do, what they believe? Let's work together to bring people together for a more inclusive Australia where everyone is free from discrimination, not only some.

See this speech in context