Australian religious discrimination bill to stop ‘cancel culture’

Monday, November 29th, 2021

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that religious Australians should not be “cancelled, persecuted or vilified” because of their beliefs.

Instead, Morrison insisted, people of faith must be defended from those who seek to marginalise and silence them.

After tabling the government’s religious discrimination bill in parliament on Thursday, Morrison said faith groups and individuals should be shielded from the “prevalence of cancel culture in Australian life”.

“It’s true, it’s there, it’s real,” Mr Morrison said.

“Australians shouldn’t have to worry about looking over their shoulder, fearful of offending an anonymous person on Twitter, cowardly sitting there abusing and harassing them for their faith, or transgressing against political or social zeitgeists.

“We have to veer away from the artificial, phoney conflicts, boycotts, controversies and cancelling created by anonymous and cowardly bots, bigots and bullies.”

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said Labor would “carefully review the bill” and speak with religious bodies, civil society and community organisations, LGBTIQ groups and legal experts.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has welcomed the introduction of the Religious Discrimination Bill. They say it will provide basic human rights protections for Australians of all faiths to express their beliefs.

Archbishop Peter A Comensoli, chair of the Bishops Commission for Life, Family and Public Engagement, has commended the bill. He said it offers “a positive expression of religious freedom” that will be “an important progression towards parity with other anti-discrimination laws in Australia.”

“All Australian citizens, regardless of their religious belief or activity, should be able to participate fully in our society. They must be entitled to the equal and effective protection of the law. They should not be discriminated against based on their religious belief or activities in public life.”

Trade unions on Thursday opposed the religious discrimination bill, with the ACTU warning the new laws would “undermine the mental health and safety of Australian workers.”

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said the proposed religious protections would hand “exemptions to religious employers to discriminate against workers on religious grounds.”