Crash or crash through: Morrison politicises religious discrimination debate

Coalition conservatives make a bid to control legislation on LGBTI students, then PM opts to stir the pot for Labor

Just before 6pm on Tuesday night, a group of Coalition senators insisted on a meeting with the government Senate leader, Mathias Cormann, and the attorney general, Christian Porter, to thrash out the government’s position on religious freedom.

The group of nine conservatives made their views clear. They wanted their amendments to a Labor bill currently in the chamber to be put as government amendments, otherwise they would vote the bill down.

Over the course of that meeting, according to sources present, an alternative bill was suddenly referenced – one that had been drafted by the prime minister, Scott Morrison.

There had been two meetings of the government party room this week – the final sitting week of 2018 – and the Morrison bill was not presented or referenced at either meeting, which would have facilitated a broadranging conversation inside the government.

Given religious freedom is an eggshells issue inside the Coalition, some of the group was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a prime ministerial bill, but formed the impression it was a back-pocket option.

Roll forward to Wednesday morning. The prime minister appeared in his courtyard with an offer. He was prepared to present his bill – the one that some Senate conservatives had only just been alerted to – and allow a conscience vote on it, a development that has left internal critics frustrated about the prime ministerial improvisation.

The internal frustrations are predominantly about process. Conservatives want the position articulated in the Morrison bill to be a formal government position, not an optional position. An optional position would give Liberal moderates an opportunity to vote against it in the event they chose to do so.

There has also been intense frustration that Morrison has not yet provided a formal response to the Ruddock review, that inquiry that triggered the whole discussion. One furious conservative told Guardian Australia on Wednesday Morrison’s “captain’s call” would only make things worse.

The trigger for Morrison’s offer was a decision earlier in the morning by the Senate leadership to park Labor’s bill.

The Senate agreed to delay consideration of the Labor proposal to repeal religious exemptions to discrimination law to protect LGBT students because the debate had reached a stalemate.

Earlier in the morning, the Centre Alliance flagged support for a government amendment that would legalise both indirect and direct discrimination against students based on gender and sexuality through a schools’ “teaching activities” – something Labor declined to support.

Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, told the chamber the legal advice was clear. “This amendment would destroy the intent of the bill, to remove discrimination against LGBT students,” she said.

“Worse still, the advice is it would worsen discrimination against LGBT students, allowing positive discrimination by staff. Even allowing teachers to refuse to teach LGBT students.”

Very shortly after the Senate leadership acknowledged the impasse and agreed to shelve the debate, Morrison elected for crash-or-crash through.

He said he would return to negotiations with Labor to try and settle the issue. In the event common ground could not be reached, Morrison said the issue could be determined by a conscience vote.

Morrison quite clearly saw opportunity to stir the pot on the Labor side. He told reporters some Labor MPs may want to support the government’s amendment, which states the Sex Discrimination Act does not render unlawful teaching activity done “in good faith in accordance with the doctrines” of the school’s religion.

Senior figures in the Catholic church were also active over the course of Wednesday morning, contacting Labor parliamentarians urging them to support the government amendment.

Bill Shorten responded to Morrison’s throwing down the gauntlet by saying thanks but no thanks.

Labor didn’t need a conscience vote on the issue, Shorten told reporters, because “no one with a conscience supports discrimination”.

Shorten accused Morrison of “weaponising” the dispute. He advised the prime minister to look for the outcome rather than “look for the angle”.

“I am not prepared to give up on removing discrimination against kids and respecting religion in our society, but what we don’t have today is a solution,” the Labor leader said.

“So the question is – when you don’t have a solution, do you just engage in a train wreck? Or do you draw breath?”

Shorten said the options before the parliament were clear – a “big fight to divide the country”, or parliament could “do what we’re paid to do – which is we sit down and we keep working through the issue”.

Contributors

Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Scott Morrison will change the law to ban religious schools expelling gay students
Greens call on Coalition and Labor to back bill to abolish exemptions allowing religious schools to fire gay teachers

Paul Karp

12, Oct, 2018 @7:00 PM

Article image
Coalition’s religious discrimination bill passes after marathon all-night sitting
Controversial legislation passes lower house despite Liberal moderates defecting to help add more extensive protections for LGBTQ+ students

Paul Karp

09, Feb, 2022 @7:21 PM

Article image
Liberals split over Labor bid to end religious schools' ability to sack gay teachers
Josh Frydenberg backs Shorten’s plan to end right to discriminate while PM refuses to commit

Paul Karp

15, Oct, 2018 @8:45 AM

Article image
Liberal Dave Sharma rejects giving religious schools right to expel gay students
The Coalition has struggled to contain the fallout of a leak from the Ruddock religious freedom review

Paul Karp

10, Oct, 2018 @5:02 AM

Article image
Christian lobby groups push major parties to support unamended religious discrimination bill
FamilyVoice says Labor not to blame for ‘Morrison’s failure’ to pass bill as Albanese pledges to extend school chaplaincy program with secular pastoral care

Paul Karp

12, Apr, 2022 @5:30 PM

Article image
Morrison eyes law to protect religion as Greens call for exemption rollback
PM backs new law proposed by Ruddock review allowing religion to be protected in same way as gender and race

Paul Karp

11, Oct, 2018 @4:42 AM

Article image
Senators warn against expanding religious schools' rights to expel gay students
Key crossbenchers say greater rights to fire gay teachers and expel gay students would be ‘retrograde’ and ‘inappropriate’

Paul Karp

10, Oct, 2018 @7:00 PM

Article image
Ruddock religious freedom review: what is it and what do we know so far?
As leaked recommendations fuel controversy, we look at existing law and likely changes

Paul Karp

12, Oct, 2018 @12:26 AM

Article image
Religious discrimination bill will not protect trans students from expulsion, Simon Birmingham confirms
Senate leader says the issue of discrimination on the basis of gender identity would be examined, but not included now

Paul Karp

07, Feb, 2022 @10:02 PM

Article image
Religious discrimination laws in limbo – as it happened
This blog is now closed

Elias Visontay (now) and Tory Shepherd (earlier)

10, Feb, 2022 @7:39 AM