Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The government is absolutely committed to resolve in a fair and balanced way the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to remove discrimination against students before the end of the parliamentary sitting year. I would refer Senator Pratt to a statement that I made in the chamber on behalf of the Prime Minister before the Wentworth by-election. As the Prime Minister announced on Saturday, the government will be moving amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to ensure that no student of a non-state school can be expelled on the basis of sexuality.

As part of our consultations with the opposition, the Attorney-General is meeting today with the shadow Attorney-General to discuss our proposed draft amendments to give effect to that commitment. Subject to agreement between the government and the opposition in relation to our proposed amendments, we would be in a position to introduce those amendments as soon as possible during that sitting fortnight.

The shadow Attorney-General has been absolutely unprepared to pursue reasonable compromise—absolutely unprepared to pursue reasonable compromise! We want to ensure that we protect students by also making sure that religious schools are not exposed to the inappropriate risk of vexatious litigation by activists in this field. We want to ensure that religious schools can continue to apply reasonable rules and teach children consistent with the tenets of their faith. That is not unreasonable.

The government stands ready to deal with this this week. The government, in fact, is keen to deal with it this week. We have put forward some very reasonable amendments to ensure that we pursue this change in a way that is appropriately balanced. We call on the Labor Party and we call on everyone in the Senate to join in with the government to ensure—