Pushing for balanced Religious Discrimination legislation

The Human Rights Law Centre has long advocated for comprehensive, fair and effective anti-discrimination laws across Australia. Australia needs stronger protections from discrimination for people of faith, but unfortunately, draft legislation released by the Morrison Government in 2019 contained a number of major flaws and failed to strike the right balance.

By prioritising the interests of doctors who conscientiously object to providing certain health services like abortion, the draft laws would threaten the ability of women and LGBTIQ people in particular to get the health care they need.

We engaged with the Government and in the media to highlight flaws in the proposed laws and ways to fix them. We also highlighted the fact that the Prime Minister has not delivered on his promise to address discrimination against LGBTIQ children in religious schools. It is outrageous that children can still be expelled from a school because of their sexuality or gender identity. We are continuing to work with partners to advocate for balanced religious discrimination legislation.