Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not support this amendment, which would remove clause 12 from the Religious Discrimination Bill. The government is of the view that simply communicating one's genuinely held religious beliefs in good faith is not and has never been discrimination. The purpose of this provision is to clarify that people should not be subjected to complaints of discrimination on that basis.

The statement of belief, in and of itself, under clause 12, will not constitute discrimination, and that means that a person cannot be found to have discriminated against a person under any antidiscrimination law for merely expressing, discussing, and debating their genuinely held religious beliefs in good faith—for example, merely stating a biblical view of marriage or an atheist view on prayer. This bill only applies to statements and not to conduct, or a course of conduct. It does not protect statements that are malicious or that a reasonable person would consider would threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify a person or group, and I suggest that's the response to a number of the factual circumstances that the member mentioned in his contribution.

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