Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is important, and, if the parliament can get it right, it's an opportunity to bring people together. Labor recognises that the freedom to have or adopt religion is absolute and cannot be limited. Labor believes all Australians have the right to live their lives free of discrimination. This is why Labor supports the extension of the federal antidiscrimination framework to ensure that Australians are not discriminated against because of their religious beliefs or activities. Moreover, as a person of faith and as a member of parliament, I believe in and support the right of all Australians to have and to manifest their religion and beliefs and the right of religious organisations to act in accordance with their doctrine, tenets, beliefs and teachings of faith. Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet who was raised in a Maronite Christian family, said: 'Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking. It connects us with a purpose that is higher than ourselves and, in doing so, anchors our conscience and actions in principles that existed before us and will endure after us.'

As parliament approaches matters of faith, religion, human rights and discrimination, great care must be exercised. I understand that some say this bill isn't necessary, including some people of faith who feel that religious freedoms are already well recognised and respected in Australia, but, to many people in the community I represent, this bill is important and is long overdue. I note that some people said the Sex Discrimination Bill wasn't necessary when it was introduced decades ago. Faith communities have waited years for this legislation and really have had to keep the faith that it actually would be introduced and passed, given the many delays and missed deadlines there have been under this government.

As many members of this place know well, the community of Western Sydney contains a rich tapestry of faith and cultures. My own electorate of Greenway is fortunate to be the home of—to mention but a few—St Clements Anglican Church in Lalor Park, the Gurdwara Sahib Sikh temple in Glenwood, the Shree Swaminarayan Hindu Temple in Blacktown, St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Toongabbie, the Riverstone Baptist Church and beyond. And there's St Bernadette's in Lalor Park, where I was baptised and received my reconciliation and my first Holy Communion, and it was where I buried my mother.

These are neighbouring and valued institutions and places of worship, like the Baitul Huda Mosque, the Ahmadiyya mosque in Marsden Park. As we see so often, these organisations give generously to our community and they expect nothing in return, like the organisation comprised primarily of Sikh members, the Harman Foundation, which provides care for women and children fleeing domestic violence. Or there are the Ahmadiyya mosque and St Clements Anglican Church, who use their places of worship as pop-up vaccination hubs, and who do not judge anyone who needs their help.

Faith is also an enduring tether to community. It's a guarantee of opportunities to reunite for those important milestones and religious celebrations. Indeed, the word 'communion' is, by definition, a reference to unity—an opportunity to break bread together. As Luke said:

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

I'm speaking about this only a few months after the first Holy Communion of my first daughter, Octavia. Friends and families gathered to witness her and our entire family's commitment to God. We ate and danced, and Octavia was assured by the love and support of everyone around her. I recall looking around the room filled with friends, close and distant relatives alike, grateful that we were out of lockdown and feeling so privileged to have this occasion to gather, made possible by our shared faith.

I also commend our faith based groups for their collaborative efforts, bonding over similarities and becoming closer because of this. For instance, the Reverend Dr Patrick McInerney hosted an Iftar dinner for the interfaith community of Western Sydney. More than 50 guests attended, including representatives from the Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh community members. In December, the Hindu Council of Australia and the Jewish Board of Deputies united to celebrate their respective festivals of light—Diwali and Hanukkah. These instances are a testament to our communities of faith and the importance of the religious expression within our community—one that is already strong and welcomed.

In late 2019, I took part in a gathering of some 500 people of faith at the Free2bme event in Blacktown, along with the former Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Nationals John Anderson. Mr Anderson and I spent two hours that evening engaging with people of faith. While there, I said that I believed the issue of religious discrimination and freedom is a bipartisan one that won't be decided along party lines. I encouraged people to contact their local members about their concerns and to sign a petition in order to help politicians take the matter seriously. The generosity and the respect shown that evening left an indelible impression on me. I'm so proud of the way in which my constituents and their faith based leaders have engaged in civil discussion about how to make our society a better and more inclusive place.

That is the spirit in which I have engaged, and in which I will continue to engage, in this important national conversation. I have participated in meetings on this issue and I have consulted widely, and I acknowledge that there are very different views in the electorate. This point was well made by Mike Tough from St Clements Anglican Church, who wrote to me about this diversity and also why people of faith want this bill. He said:

'I am committed to the idea of civilised pluralism. I understand there are people with very different views to mine and I support their right to express their views. But, as a religious person, I am finding that my views are becoming less and less welcome in the public square. Religious people have been sacked from their employment for expressing their religious beliefs or have had their employers pressured to sack them because of their religious affiliations. And concerted campaigns have been launched against religious organisations. In the past we haven't needed legislation to protect religious freedoms because religion was viewed positively in our society. But the growing hostility towards religious people is now making this legislation a necessity.'

As I outlined from the outset, Labor supports the extension of the federal antidiscrimination framework to ensure that Australians are not discriminated against because of their religious beliefs, just as Commonwealth law currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, disability, race, sex and gender identity. Australia is a party to seven core international human rights treaties. The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief is contained in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Such rights should be protected by law and, in accordance with article 18, subject only to such limitations as 'are necessary to protect public safety, order, health … or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others'.

Labor also supports the right of a religious school to give preference in employment, with a view to ensuring that the school is able to reasonably conduct itself consistently with its religious ethos. Therefore the question before the parliament is not whether Labor or Liberal members support the religious discrimination bills in principle, because certainly what we have seen through the committee process is that the majority do. The question is whether these bills, which the government has rushed into the parliament on the eve of an election, achieve their stated objective of protecting people of faith from discrimination while at the same time not diminishing the rights and freedoms of others.

I am disappointed with how the Prime Minister has conducted the process for developing this legislation. Leadership is about bringing people together, but that is not what the government's process has been designed to do. It has been rushed, it has been tricky and it has, regrettably, not been intended to foster consensus. In December 2018 the Prime Minister announced that the government would enact a religious freedom commissioner before the 2019 election. That didn't happen. The Prime Minister promised in 2018 that the government would, within a fortnight, legislate to ensure that children were protected from discrimination at school. This didn't happen. The Prime Minister then stated that his government would work with the opposition, the crossbench and key stakeholders in a spirit of bipartisanship to introduce a bill that enjoyed cross-party support. This didn't happen. Having broken each of these promises, the Prime Minister waited until the last minute before an election to introduce the draft legislation. The Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister and offered a meeting, in good faith, to work through the issues at stake. It's my understanding that the Prime Minister didn't even respond to that offer. As late as the day before yesterday—the day the Prime Minister demanded that the laws be debated by this parliament—the Attorney-General was still frantically drafting amendments to fix some of the problems identified in this bill after it was tabled in November last year. Broken promises, rushed processes—the epitome of unprofessionalism. The people of Australia deserve better. Religious institutions and the many Australians of faith deserve better. That's why Labor engaged and consulted broadly with the community and engaged with the committee process.

That brings me to the content of the bill. When considering complex questions, it's important to have guiding principles, and we've been guided by three: as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights makes clear, religious organisations and people of faith have the right to act in accordance with the doctrines, beliefs or teachings of their traditions of faith; support for the extension of the Commonwealth's antidiscrimination framework to ensure Australians are not discriminated against because of their religious beliefs or activities; and, consistent with the international covenant, ensuring any extension of the Commonwealth's antidiscrimination framework does not remove protections that already exist in the law to protect Australians from other forms of discrimination. Labor has sought to work through the bill carefully in the limited time available, with those principles in mind.

The core of the Religious Discrimination Bill is actually non-contentious. It prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or activity in different areas of public life, including in the context of employment, education, access to premises and the provision of goods, services and facilities. This is a good start. However, the bill introduced by the Prime Minister does not prohibit the vilification of people on the basis of religious belief, religious dress or religious activity. The bill will not protect a Muslim woman who is abused in the street or a Hindu man who is vilified for his religious beliefs. Labor has raised this issue with the government, but the government has refused to consider an antivilification provision. A range of religious groups, for nearly two years, have argued that the bill should include this. If the Prime Minister means what he said in his own second reading speech—that people should not be vilified because of their beliefs—then it's important to ask: why doesn't the government's Religious Discrimination Bill prohibit the vilification of people because of their beliefs?

Why doesn't it?

But it is not just inaction on anti-vilification under this government. Since 2019, as part of my role as shadow minister for communications, I have repeatedly asked the minister for communications what he is doing to address hate speech online, and he's dodged answering the question, time and time again. My questions were in reference to the terrorist atrocity committed by an Australian citizen in Christchurch and the serious warnings about the rise of extremism and online hate speech in Australia. I asked the minister if he would ensure that Australians, including Australians of Muslim faith, are kept safe online by amending Australia's e-safety laws or by driving the adoption of an EU-style code of conduct for countering illegal hate speech online. As the Online Hate Prevention Institute has stated:

These is a significant gap of coverage in this area. Attributes such as race, religion … and others are used to target segments of the community. In the most serious cases, online hate against these groups involves incitement not only to hate but also to violence.

It also stated:

… a takedown power covering incitement to hate, against both individuals and groups, is urgently needed.

But, even on these deeply disturbing issues of online hate speech and vilification and the need to protect people of faith, Labor sees an opportunity to bring people together to progress a bill which enhances protections for people of faith without trading off the protection of others. In this spirit, Labor will seek to improve this bill and the related bills through amendments and, if unsuccessful, we will pursue this in government.

The amendments would seek to improve this bill and related bills in four key areas: to prohibit religious vilification, to remove discrimination against all children, to ensure in-home aged-care service providers cannot discriminate on the basis of religion and, finally, to make clearer that clause 12 does not diminish any existing protections against discrimination. And let me say clearly for the record: every person and every child in Australia deserves dignity and respect, and every Australian should have the opportunity to live their best life without being discriminated against.

Australia prides itself on being a successful multicultural nation. It's incumbent on our government and members of this parliament to work to get this bill right. The motto of the Catholic school I attended, Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta, is Sub Tuum Praesidium, which means 'under your protection' and acknowledges the universal love and care of God. While Australia has a secular democracy and government, it is our duty as members to do that: to protect all Australians. And it is my privilege to have the opportunity with these bills, and with Labor's proposed amendments, to better protect my constituents of Greenway. It should not be beyond our capacity as elected representatives to improve and pass these bills in a way that builds consensus rather than division.

I urge the Prime Minister to stop seeking to divide the community and to stop playing politics. The reality is that Australia is a wonderful and diverse place, a country of both tolerance and a positive embrace of our differences. This bill should live up to those ideals, and it's important that we get it right.

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