Australians who regularly practise their religion are in a minority. Those who follow traditional religious practices on matters like sexual ethics, marriage, sanctity of human life, prayer and fasting or religious dress are an unpopular minority in some quarters. Like other minorities, they experience discrimination, but they don’t have the same legal protection. All federal,
ICS believes that the Second Exposure Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB2) is a considerable improvement on the First Exposure Draft. We welcome the fact that a number of our concerns that were raised in our submission on the First Exposure Draft have been addressed. However, a number of those concerns remain unaddressed and
PDF version available here. Executive summary ICS believes that the Religious Discrimination Bill (RD Bill) has much to commend it. However, there are a number of amendments and improvements that should be made in order to bolster the protection of freedom of religion and to meet Australia’s obligations under Article 18 of the International Covenant on
Revised 24 July 2019 PDF version here. This paper raises and makes recommendations concerning some key policy and drafting issues for a Religious Discrimination Act (RDA). It is recognised that an RDA is only the first step in implementing the government’s election commitments in relation to the Ruddock report and its response to broader concerns about
A PDF version of this paper is available here. On 13 December 2018 the Prime Minister released the government’s response to the Ruddock review – see here. His media release said[1]: “Our response to the Religious Freedom Review includes: establishing religion as a protected attribute in a new Religious Discrimination Act, rendering discrimination on this
Mark Sneddon took part in a conversation at St John’s Cathedral Parramatta on Religious Freedom with John Anderson AO and John Steenhoff in April 2019. In this excerpt Mark discusses Religious Freedom provisions in Anti-Discrimination Law and the campaign to remove them including the Greens and ALP Senate Bills in November 2018 – February 2019
The Labor Party’s proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, currently before the Senate, will severely limit the freedom of religious schools and religious adult education institutions which train chaplains, missionaries and in Australia. Summary Contrary to the recommendations of the Ruddock Panel on Religious Freedom, the ALP (Senator Wong) has introduced a Bill into the Senate to amend
Pre-empting the release of the Ruddock Panel Report on Religious Freedom, the Greens recently introduced a Bill to the Senate. It seeks to amend the Sex Discrimination Act and risks the freedom of religious Australians. The leaked recommendations of the Ruddock Report would continue the current exemptions in the Sex Discrimination Act that allow religious
This is a submission prepared for the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. An inquiry was established to consider: Legislative exemptions that allow faith-based educational institutions to discriminate against students, teachers and staff, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and other attributes covered by the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, with particular reference
The protection of freedom of religion and belief is one key feature of a truly tolerant society. As the examples at the end of this article show, in recent times, increased hostility to religion among some cultural elites has led to some key aspects of freedom of religion and belief and related rights being
