Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

For the sake of the interjections: the position of the Greens is very clear that the religious discrimination bill should be referred to a Senate committee and that the reporting date should be at a time that gives the community ample opportunity to engage with it. As we know, since we discussed this at this time last week, the Attorney-General made the decision to send it off to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, where submissions have to be in by 21 December—right in the lead-up to Christmas, less than three weeks away—and there are three hearings, one of which is on 21 December and the other two of which are on 13 and 14 January. There is not the time for the community to be able to engage with a bill of this consequence. It is totally disrespectful, right across the board, no matter which community member you are talking about. Whether it's those who want to see this bill to continue or those like us who feel that this is very bad legislation, regardless, it is important legislation and there should be ample opportunity for the community to be able to engage with it. We know from the commentary about this bill over the last weeks there is a lot of contradiction as to what this bill does. We have the government saying that it's not going to increase discrimination against people with disabilities, against women, against LGBTQIA+ people and then we have very eminent legal experts who say, yes, it will, and it is the most extreme overreach of the government to be overriding state and territory antidiscrimination provisions. It is a very significant piece of legislation. Our reading of it, which we want to have discussed in a proper, appropriate committee process, is that it will have the ability to increase discrimination, particularly through its overriding of state and territory antidiscrimination legislation.

So what we're asking for is for the Senate to do its job the way that it should be, to have proper processes with proper time lines so that people get the opportunity to contribute to our work and then end up with legislation that everyone is clear about what it does. We can then decide where we stand—for or against. I ask the government once again: this is what the Senate should be doing—we should be having a referral to the Senate committee and it should be a referral that gives people time to contribute. It is a small thing and it is what the community would be expecting.

Whether it's people of faith, whether it's people with disabilities, whether it's women, or whether it's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer people in Australia, there is going to be a huge amount of interest in this bill. When I spoke to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights secretariat yesterday, they were overwhelmed with the thought of how they were going to cope with the number of submissions in the short time frame that had been given to them. It is proper process for a bill like this to go to a Senate committee to be properly considered so we can make sure that we are actually introducing legislation that is going to be decreasing discrimination rather than increasing discrimination.

I also now want to move my amendment as an amendment to the government's amendment that has been distributed in respect of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021, the Religious Discrimination (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2021 and the Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill.

I move as amendment to Gov2:

That the bills be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 4 February 2022.

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