MEDIA RELEASE: Religious Freedom Review and Federal Government Response

MEDIA RELEASE: Religious Freedom Review and Federal Government Response

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Reli­gious Free­dom Review and Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment Response

16 December 2018


The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the peak rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, has cau­tious­ly wel­comed the release of the Reli­gious Free­dom Review hand­ed down by the Expert Pan­el chaired by the Hon Philip Rud­dock, and the Aus­tralian government’s response to it.

“Although we believe that reli­gious free­dom in Aus­tralia is not, and has nev­er been, under seri­ous threat, as both an eth­nic and a faith com­mu­ni­ty we sup­port the government’s announced inten­tion ‘to fur­ther pro­tect, and bet­ter pro­mote and bal­ance, the right to free­dom of reli­gion under Aus­tralian law and in the pub­lic sphere’”, said ECAJ co-CEO, Peter Wertheim. “Much will depend on the gov­ern­ments of the States and Ter­ri­to­ries act­ing in co-oper­a­tion with the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to achieve that goal”.

“There should be lit­tle con­tro­ver­sy about 15 of the Expert Panel’s 20 rec­om­men­da­tions which the gov­ern­ment has accept­ed either direct­ly or in prin­ci­ple. These would ensure, for exam­ple, that char­i­ties do not lose their sta­tus sim­ply for advo­cat­ing a tra­di­tion­al view of mar­riage; that the gov­ern­ment col­lects, analy­ses and pub­lish­es data about var­i­ous forms of infringe­ment on reli­gious free­dom; and that pub­lic edu­ca­tion pro­grams are devel­oped about human rights and reli­gion in Aus­tralia,” Wertheim said.

Accord­ing to Wertheim, the pro­posed intro­duc­tion of a new Reli­gious Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act will be more con­tentious. “It’s rel­a­tive­ly easy to state the broad prin­ci­ples” he said. “On the one hand the leg­is­la­tion will pro­hib­it dis­crim­i­na­tion on the basis of a person’s reli­gious belief or activ­i­ty, includ­ing on the basis that a per­son does not hold a reli­gious belief or par­tic­i­pate in a reli­gious activ­i­ty. On the oth­er hand there will be sim­i­lar exemp­tions to those in oth­er anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion leg­is­la­tion, which enable reli­gious insti­tu­tions to func­tion in accor­dance with their reli­gious beliefs and prin­ci­ples. In prac­tice, how­ev­er, some dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions may arise in which one or the oth­er prin­ci­ple will have to give way, and where no broad social con­sen­sus exists as to which prin­ci­ple ought to pre­vail. The dev­il will be in the detail and I expect that many parts of the Bill when it is intro­duced will attract pas­sion­ate debate”.

Wertheim said that if the leg­is­la­tion is passed, there is “good sense” to the government’s pro­pos­al for a stand-alone Reli­gious Free­dom Com­mis­sion­er in the Aus­tralian Human Rights Com­mis­sion to over­see reli­gious free­dom in Aus­tralia and han­dle reli­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion com­plaints.

Wertheim said it was under­stand­able that the Panel’s rec­om­men­da­tions for amend­ing the cur­rent exemp­tions to the Sex Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act might be referred to the Law Reform Com­mis­sion. “Leg­isla­tive changes have often had unin­tend­ed con­se­quences, and it is pru­dent to try to min­imise the scope for these to occur through the well-estab­lished process­es of the Com­mis­sion. This is anoth­er area where state­ments of abstract prin­ci­ple can seem more clear-cut than the way they would be applied in real life sit­u­a­tions”.

The gov­ern­ment has also referred to the Law Reform Com­mis­sion the Panel’s rec­om­men­da­tions that reli­gious schools no longer have the right to dis­crim­i­nate against stu­dents or employ­ees on the basis of their race, dis­abil­i­ty, preg­nan­cy or inter­sex sta­tus. “It’s hard to see how dis­crim­i­na­tion on these oth­er grounds can have any­thing to do with reli­gious free­dom”, Wertheim said. “I would have expect­ed the gov­ern­ment to accept the Panel’s two rec­om­men­da­tions about these mat­ters”.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim AM | co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au

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