Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always interesting to follow the contributions of the member for Melbourne, but I'll agree with him on this point: we should treat people with love, dignity and respect. But too often today I think that becomes a one-way street, and certain political views or religious views are to be removed from the public square, but other, approved views are acceptable. It's part of the reason that I think it's important that we're debating the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 today and that this bill be passed. People's religious views form an integral part of their culture.

I represent an electorate in a city—the city of Logan—that has people from 200-plus different cultural backgrounds, and I'm pleased to say that, by and large, the people from those different cultural and, by extension, religious backgrounds get on extraordinarily well. I think it's one of the great traits of this country that we have a multicultural society that respects people's religion and cultural values, and in many regards we now celebrate the food and culture of those different backgrounds and we enjoy that experience ourselves. In looking across the spectrum of public debate today, I came across a quote from the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from several years ago. He said:

There must be some set of principles that we can appeal to, and be held accountable to, if our common humanity is to survive our religious differences. Religious freedom is about our common humanity, and we must fight for it if we are not to lose it. This, I believe, is the issue of our time.

I think that is a great summary and illustration of the importance of this bill and why we're debating it.

Many mount the argument about organised religion, and there are arguments about what people believe or do not believe. This bill covers those who take part in organised religion, but, equally, it protects people who are of no religious faith as well. But what's important and common for all of us in that space is that we all have a belief system. We all have a belief system that underpins our values and our view of the world, and that should be protected. We protect other rights, through the Sex Discrimination Act and various other acts. Equally, I believe we should be protecting the right of people to hold religious views—or to not hold those views—and to articulate those views in a considered, thoughtful manner.

Despite some of the comments that others have made about the ability for people to say hateful, hurtful things as a result of this bill passing, that is not the case. If that were the case, I wouldn't support this bill, because I don't believe that is appropriate. It certainly would not assist our nation going forward if people had open slather to say hurtful, hateful things to other people on the basis of their religion or their sex or any other attribute. But, in my experience across my electorate, I don't see that that's the case. There might be the odd person who does. That person should be held to account for expressing views that seek to ridicule or demean others who might have a different view on life or a different set of beliefs. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, we need to work together to focus on our common humanity and see how we can make our society a better place for everybody to live in.

A point a number of people have made in this debate is around the actions of our schools. I was particularly disappointed by the decision that Citipointe made. They made that decision for whatever reasons they decided to make it. But, over the 11 or so years that I have been the member for Forde, I have never encountered that sentiment in the Christian schools and independent schools in my electorate. I have never had a representation from a parent that their child or children have been treated in such a manner at a school. And that is not only in the private school sector but also in the state school sector. Both have done an extraordinary job of looking after our children and supporting them, wherever they are at.

I would say the same applies to the many faith based organisations across my electorate, who each and every day go out and do an extraordinary job in our community, helping people from all walks of life. I've seen firsthand the work they do. They don't ask people what religious background they come from. They don't ask people if they have a particular lifestyle. They seek to help those people where they're at. There are those in this debate who wish to demean or cast aspersions or negative reflections on the work that these groups do, and who say that, because of this bill, those groups are now going to do something different from what they currently do. I find that extremely disappointing. In my experience of talking to and working with those groups, that is very, very far from being the case. They want to help those people where they are at, in whatever situation they are in.

As I've said, this bill will implement three recommendations from the Religious Freedom Review. It's important to remember that this is not something that we have come to in just the last five minutes, as others have tried to argue. To get to this point, this has been worked on for the last three years, with hearings, discussions and reviews. It has been an enormous piece of work, and I think this legislation will go a long way to addressing a number of the issues raised by various bodies. It implements recommendations 3, 15 and 19 of the Religious Freedom Review. Importantly, it broadly follows existing federal antidiscrimination law structure and would operate alongside those existing antidiscrimination laws.

The bill provides specific and general exemptions to the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or activity. Others in this debate have outlined a variety of circumstances where that has occurred and why these bills are important. This bill will also provide that certain conduct by religious bodies would not constitute discrimination. Under the bill, 'religious bodies' are defined to include religious schools, religious charities or other religious bodies that are not primarily or solely engaged in commercial activities. Clause 7 of the bill provides that it is not unlawful for certain religious bodies to engage, in good faith, in conduct that a person of the same religion as the religious bodies would reasonably consider to be in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of that religion. Importantly, with any of these things, there is always a responsibility on the individual who has the capacity to make a comment to consider the impact of that comment on others. This has not become an open-ended opportunity for people to say things to deliberately denigrate or hurt or inflict pain on others. I would caution those who seek to, or think that they can, take advantage of that; it's not what the intention of this bill is.

As I've touched on, the faith community across my electorate has spoken to me at length about this. As with anything, there's a variety of opinions. I've had people write to me in support and I've had people write to me in opposition to this bill. I take all those comments and all that feedback into account. But, on the balance of what I see in this bill and the importance of this bill in providing protection for people of religious faith—not just of Christian faith but of all religious faiths, and, equally, those who hold no faith—I'm very pleased to stand in this House to speak on this bill and to be part of a government that seeks to introduce these very important protections. Importantly also, as part of this bill we will establish a religious discrimination commissioner in the Australian Human Rights Commission. The Australian Law Reform Commission will also be tasked with some further work in review.

It's essential that we have legislation against all forms of discrimination. We have that in many other areas. That's why it's so important that this bill pass, to protect religious freedoms. The combined bills will work together to improve the confidence of those in Australia who have faith, or have no faith. Equally, they'll work together with other legislative mechanisms we already have in place. I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context