Every Australian deserves protection from discrimination, no matter who they are, what they believe, or whom they love.
No belief (religious or not) should overwhelm the right of a person to live, study, work, and access healthcare with dignity. It’s important that people of faith are protected from discrimination, but parts of the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill are not like other pieces of anti-discrimination legislation. No one should have a licence to discriminate against others, whether they claim to be motivated by their religion or not. The draft law overrides long standing federal and state anti-discrimination laws and privileges religious views over the rights and interests of other Australians. Our organisations are made up of their best assets, people. We want to ensure that staff feel safe in their workplaces, regardless of their faith, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Our laws must reflect our values as Australians—of fairness and equal opportunity for all. But a law that winds back hard-fought protections for LGBTIQ+ people, women, people with disability, and others is not the way.
The proposed Religious Discrimination Bill threatens safe and inclusive workplaces, schools and services, and privilege individual religious beliefs over the rights of patients.
We support fair and equal discrimination laws that unite, rather than divide, the community.
Organisations that have signed on:
