Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Freedom of belief is not an optional extra in our society. Let me say that again: freedom of belief or freedom of religion is not an optional extra. It is a core part of who we are, what we believe and the way our society functions.

We've seen the Albanese Labor government table the Australian Law Reform Commission report into religious educational institution and discrimination laws. Unsurprisingly, this report has sparked an enormous degree of concern from faith based educational institutions. They have warned that the report's recommendations would severely limit the ability of faith based educational institutions to operate and teach according to their faith. That is why these institutions exist in the first place. Parents choose to send their children to these institutions because they do operate within the beliefs and the faiths of those families that are involved.

Perhaps most egregiously, the way the government has approached this issue is clouded in secrecy, where you have seen nondisclosure agreements being required of individuals to see the draft legislation. Nondisclosure agreements from a government so their approach to these laws is hidden under a cloak of secrecy.

I say again, freedom of belief is not an optional extra. In fact, it's written into our Constitution—our foundational document. I'm going to read it because the Constitution probably isn't quoted enough in this place. Section 116 of the Constitution says:

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

It is very clear what that foundational document of our society says. Yes, it says we shouldn't require people to hold a certain faith to take positions within government or public service, but we should also not do anything to prohibit the free exercise of any religion.

Religion and faith cannot be taken as something locked inside a person's house when they enter the front door for a private space only. People express their faith through, for example, where they decide to send their children for their education. In doing so, they make decisions based on their values, their beliefs and the understanding that those institutions would have the right to communicate that understanding, that belief, that faith.

Sadly, it seems that this government is seeking to undermine that core principle, which is not just of our Constitution and inherent in a fair and free society but actually inherent, in principle, in the entire Enlightenment movement that gave us Western democracy in the first place. It's one of the few freedoms that are actually explicitly mentioned in our Constitution. That is how important it is. So I say to all those out there who choose to send their children to a faith based institution that you have our support to ensure that those institutions can continue to operate within the precepts of their faith.

This government is seeking to impose through some clever marketing phrases a destructive regime upon this country, and it's hidden under the lovely phrase 'nature positive'. Could you get a more Orwellian phrase than 'nature positive'? But, having just a quick look at some of the initial statements that have come out of the government in terms of material and the way the department is seeking to implement nature positive, we see that it is just a marketing phrase. In actual fact, this approach to the law will be negative. It will be negative for employment. It will be negative for business going forward. It will be negative for development.

Look at what we've found out about these laws so far, and then take them back a few years. If these laws had existed 40 years ago in Western Australia, we would have no mining industry. If they had existed 50 years ago in Western Australia, we would have no gas industry. If they had existed 80 years ago in Western Australia, we would have no commercial fishing industry and probably no recreational fishing industry. If they had existed 100 years ago in Western Australia, we would have no agricultural sector. I say to everyone in my home state of Western Australia: just think about that for a few moments. Think about that when you hear this Orwellian phrase—'nature positive'. Think about what it actually means.

The cat was belled with one of the first documents that came out under the banner of this nature positive, with a bureaucrat recommending a policy of 40-kilometre-an-hour speed limits on major highways in the Pilbara. The fact that that even got anywhere close to being included in a policy document is an indictment both on the Labor government and on the bureaucracy. It shows that they have no clue about Western Australia. They have no clue about the vast distances involved in the north of WA and, in particular, the iron ore industry, as well as other extractive industries. They have no clue about a sensible balance between the responsible preservation of the natural environment, which is important, and the need to continue to have economic growth to fuel the living standard that we enjoy in Australia and also to be able to generate the next round of activity and development and progress, technological process, that will drive our society forward.

'Nature positive' is a phrase that means almost nothing. Or, even more dangerously, it means whatever the government and the bureaucracy want it to mean in terms of closing down industry. It smacks of authoritarian overreach and ideological zealotry. It's a philosophy that seeks to constrain, control and limit those very industries that have been the source of Western Australia's success for the past 100 years.

I say again: if there had been nature-positive laws 100 years ago, we would have no agricultural industry in Western Australia. If there had been nature-positive laws 80 years ago, we would have no commercial fishing industry and no recreational fishing. If there had been nature-positive laws 40 years ago, we would have no mining industry and no gas industry. These are not laws Western Australia can afford.