Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Can I thank members for their contribution to this very important debate in this place, on the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021. Can I thank them for the spirit and the manner and the good faith in which they have participated in this debate in such a respectful way. Can I thank members for the way they have been attentive to this debate. And in the many discussions that have been had in relation to these matters, can I thank them for their preparedness to contemplate situations some may not be familiar with, and that some may well be very familiar with. Can I thank them for their understanding. Most of all, can I thank them for their commitment to those most important, and that is the children we are raising in this country, and their best interests and welfare.

When I introduced this bill, I spoke of the freedoms in this country which so many around the world have come here to access. In so many places, simply as a result of what they believe, they have had to leave their homeland. They've seen Australia as a place where they can live out their lives in accordance with their beliefs, faith and culture in what is the most successful multicultural nation on Earth. I don't believe that's a debatable position. I don't think it's an arguable position. I think it is an absolute position. I think it is one of Australia's greatest boasts that we are the most successful multicultural, multifaith nation on Earth. The intent of this bill, as many have remarked, has been to reinforce that belief that so many Australians have had about this country before they even came here, when the idea of Australia was something they believed in and they came here to access. They are so thankful and grateful, and they are incredible Australians. This bill is to affirm the belief and trust that they have put in this country, to ensure that their children and generations to come will be able to access the freedoms that they came here to appreciate.

This is a bill that I earnestly hoped would unite this place. It is a bill that I had hoped we could achieve a bipartisan approach to, and we will see whether that is the case. The amendments that we will bring forward tonight as a government have been endorsed by both parliamentary committees that have considered this bill, and by both sides of politics. This was a request that this bill would not be determined in this place until those committees had reported back. Indeed that is what has happened, and I thank those committees of this House who have laboured over the summer period to enable their reports to be before us now as we consider these bills. I note that those committees have come back with the recommendations they have made endorsing, on a bipartisan basis, that this bill should be endorsed.

These amendments will ensure that the bill will operate as intended and that it will align in its approach with that taken in other federal antidiscrimination laws. We seek to add faith and belief to the many attributes that are rightly protected by the laws of this country. It also includes amendments to make it clear that businesses can fulfil their legal responsibilities and duties to ensure their workplaces are safe and free from harassment. These amendments recognise the passage of the bills remain central to remedying the weaknesses in our existing antidiscrimination legislation and to protecting the fundamental right to freedom of religion, conscience and belief.

Rightly, there has been a strong focus on the protections that are provided to students, and I thank the members for their contributions on this matter. We understand that parents, in making choices about their children's education, are looking for the religious ethos of their school communities to be respected, consistent with the choices that they have made as families and as parents about the manner in which their children will be educated. This is quite a fundamental right of parents in this country. But, at the same time, as I remarked in my speech in the second reading debate, it is the first responsibility always to protect our children.

Navigating adolescence is extremely difficult. In my generation that was true, but I must confess that I think these days it's even harder. Navigating adolescence is even more difficult for children working out their sexual orientation or gender identity. The member for Goldstein said in his first speech:

It was not until I was 18 that I chose to confront that fear. It was a fear that took an energetic 12-year-old and hollowed his confidence to eventually doubt his legitimate place in the world.

To doubt one's place in the world: no-one wants that for any child in this country. No-one wants that for any Australian. I want us to walk with our children, to stand with them as they face life and have every opportunity that you would hope for them to have as a parent. And these questions we do not face alone, and we do not want our children to face them alone either. That is what we yearn for as parents, as do, I have no doubt, the teachers of children, the school councils and school communities that nurture those children.

Many have spoken tonight from communities of faith. That faith may be different, but this is shared in common: faith, as it best walks with others, understands human frailties. It's empathetic, it's compassionate, it is built on love and it calls us to walk a mile in others' shoes. And that's a challenge for all of us. You know that at the heart of all faith is love.

We have heard concerns raised about the welfare of students—in particular, gay and transgender students. The concerns raised about discrimination against students relate to existing laws that were brought into and passed in this place in 2013. At the time, the then Labor government instituted amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act that permitted discrimination against gay students. Tonight, my government is committed to changing that law to ensure that children are not expelled because of their sexual orientation as gay kids by making amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act. Times have changed. These amendments recognise this, and so we are taking that step tonight.

During the course of this debate, the issue of transgender children and teachers has also been raised. There will be a time and place to address that as well, and that is why the government has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to consider properly and in full consultation all the potential consequences of those changes—in particular, for children but also for all of those seeking to support them—to ensure that practices and processes are the best they can be, to consider other matters in relation to the Sex Discrimination Act and to make recommendations on amendments, including the specific example of transgender students in schools and teachers.

The Australian Law Reform Commission will undertake this analysis to ensure we protect Australians from discrimination as well as allow religious bodies to continue to maintain their religious ethos. That will be done not over a period of 12 months from the passing of this bill but over six months from the passing of the bill. That would be our instruction to the Law Reform Commission. In addition to that, the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission, under our government's policies, will be tabled in this parliament at the time of their presentation. That will ensure, and that will set the clock, on another debate to then take place about how we can best address these challenging, important issues about how we create a community of care that is best for our children.

Legal reforms on these questions will not, on their own, address this issue. Understanding, education, support, care and love in a school community, which is made up of families, teachers, school councils and school boards, who must wrestle with the issues of how to best provide support to children and their families in those situations—that is essential, and that is not in place at this time. But it would need to be, regardless of whatever recommendations come forward from the Law Reform Commission, because that is what will most help children, that is what will most help parents, that is what will most help those who sit on school boards and teachers and others involved in the care of children. To support that, the government will put in place a select committee of this House that we will recommend be chaired by the member for Higgins, supported by the member for Reid, who both have great clinical experience in addressing these issues.

Earlier today I spoke to Professor Pat McGorry about these issues and sought his counsel on these matters, and he confirmed that this is a very challenging issue and that there are so many who come to headspace, seeking the mental health support and counselling they need to work through these issues. I'll be tasking and seeking the support of headspace and clinical professionals in this area to be available to work with the member for Higgins. And I commend her and the member for Reid and the many other colleagues on this side of the House—the member for Wentworth, the member for Moncrieff, the member for Brisbane, the member for Leichhardt and so many others—who have been so outspoken. And I've already spoken about the member for Goldstein.

I will be seeking the support of organisations like headspace and so many who have experience, and working with religious school boards and non-religious school boards and the public sector to ensure we can get the best possible systems and best practice for how our school communities can best support children. That is the best way. No-one in this place wants to see a child in a situation of isolation or despair. Our government will support that with programs and other measures, and the funding needed, for Independent, Catholic and other religious schools to ensure that our children can get the best opportunities. We will be working with state governments to ensure these same practices are available in public schools as well. That time will come, and the work must be done.

But to engage in some simple change of law on those issues this evening and to pretend that that somehow addresses the very real, deep, complex and substantial challenges that are faced by children, families and communities in this situation would be to trivialise it. Let me be very clear: there is a message coming from this place tonight with the bill and the position taken by the government that we reach out with nothing other than love, care, compassion and support for every child, regardless of their sexual orientation or their gender identity, as I indeed set out in my second reading speech when I introduced this bill.

The Law Reform Commission, as I have said, will carefully consider changes to the Sex Discrimination Act on these matters. But, as one colleague has reminded me, those changes should follow the substantial policy discussion and the information, resources and tools that are necessary to deal with this issue. It should not occur in advance, but it should follow, it should support, it should reinforce and it should affirm the strong direction that is being taken.

This bill strengthens the sum of freedoms enjoyed by Australians. It seeks to protect Australians from those who seek to marginalise, coerce or silence people of faith or those with none. It recognises that our Australian family is bigger and broader than we can imagine. Even in the history of my own party, there was a time when it was unimaginable for Catholics, Jews and, indeed, Pentecostals to be in positions of leadership. But here we are: our party has got bigger, our country has got bigger, we've got bigger. But we need to become bigger still, and I believe tonight is another step in that important journey for our nation.

Our nation must be as open, safe and inviting for a Yazidi in a country town as it is for an atheist who might live in our inner-city suburbs. We must be as accepting in our laws of a Baha'i or a Buddhist or a Mormon, Hindu or Sikh as we are for a Christian, Muslim, agnostic or Jew.

We're expanding freedoms for all, and this bill fulfils the commitment that we took to the Australian people at the last election. It does not go beyond it, but it meets it, and I believe it is another important step in the great multicultural journey of this nation. I commend the bill to the House.

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