Penny Wright (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take note of the answer provided by the Minister representing the Attorney-General in relation to the government's abandonment of their commitment to reform anti-discrimination laws which was officially announced today.

The government has suggested that this is merely a deferral of their commitment, but the reality is, as we know, that if the foreshadowed reform of these anti-discrimination laws was not to be introduced this week, so that it could be debated in the next session, then, effectively, it is off for all comers. We know that unless that was going to occur before the election we would not know what happen after that.

Unfortunately, with this abandonment the government is betraying the hopes and the faith of many Australians who have been waiting for a very long time to see simpler, fairer equality laws. Significant numbers of people have been working in relation to this matter for many years. There has been extensive consultation. There have been reports in relation to the law reform, and, of course, we have also recently seen a comprehensive and thorough inquiry process by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, of which I am a member. So I had the benefit of actually hearing the numerous submissions made by Australians across the country who have been very keen to see fairer, simpler equality laws brought in, consistent with the government's pre-election commitment.

We know that what will happen with this walking away from this election commitment is that there will be many people who will now be unprotected who were going to have protections enhanced. Victims of family and domestic, for instance, currently can be discriminated against without sanction, for instance, in the real estate market, where they can be denied accommodation by real estate agents if the agents are concerned that a person applying for accommodation may be subject to domestic violence. They have no recourse at the moment. People with family responsibilities—carers and parents—can be discriminated against in most situations without any recourse.

These were reforms that were foreshadowed in the draft exposure bill. They were recommendations of the committee inquiring into the bill that will now be abandoned. We also know that there are many people in Australia who can still be discriminated against by religious organisations, religious bodies and schools. Those people were not necessarily going to be protected by the changes to the law, although that is what the Greens were certainly calling for.

We do know that the exposure draft of the bill did suggest that at the very least people who were needing aged-care be protected from the existing religious exceptions in current antidiscrimination law. The government had put that in the exposure draft. The committee had certainly recommended that that be upheld, but that in fact is now not going to occur.

The government has indicated that it will take some limited but important reform steps in relation to the Sex Discrimination Act to include sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. We very much welcome those. They are long overdue. Unfortunately, being so restricted, there are still many Australians who will be left short.

The other aspect we do need to be aware of, even in relation to that law reform, is that the religious exceptions will remain and indeed will extend to people who have those protected attributes as well. So where religious bodies and organisations are allowed to lawfully discriminate currently on the basis of protected attributes they will continue to be allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. Of course, they are a significant body of the Australians who are discriminated against by those powerful institutions in society. Today the news does not offer them any hope that that will change, because the religious exceptions will remain on foot.

The Attorney-General has said timing and complexity are issues. Why did the government leave this election commitment until the last minute? Labor has clearly lost the political will to protect human rights. This is a great shame. It is a shame that Labor apparently does not have the courage of its convictions to see these reforms through, to take on the debate, to make the case and to make sure that Australians are adequately protected, as it had undertaken to do before the election.

Question agreed to.