Philip Ruddock’s religious freedoms review — commissioned following the passage of marriage equality, and the attendant farrago about religious schools being defunded and compulsory Safe Schools — has been leaked to Fairfax, after months of confidential government consultation.
The leak reveals fairly little and that which it does confirms what we already knew: the review reportedly recommends preserving religious freedom by extending discrimination, and is entirely unaffected by marriage law. Here’s what we know so far:
What does the review call for?
It calls for the Sex Discrimination Act to be amended to allow religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or relationship status, essentially explicitly extending to students what is already in place for teachers.
What is the current law?
Currently, the Sex Discrimination Act provides shielding for religious institutions from claims of discrimination around firing or refusing to hire someone based on their sexual orientation, their gender identity or their marriage status.
These exemptions for religious institutions were in evidence last year, when relief teacher Craig Campbell was let go by South Coast Baptist College in Western Australia after revealing he was in a same-sex relationship. Campbell had no means of redress.
What about students?
As for students, it’s less clear cut — asked on ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday morning, acting Labor leader Tanya Plibersek confessed she didn’t know whether it was currently permitted to expel a child because of their sexuality. This may results from two factors: the state-by-state patchwork of anti-discrimination law, and the fact that discrimination legislation primarily deals with hiring.
New South Wales explicitly allows private schools to expel children for the sexuality. Elsewhere, it is often a grey area. Religious schools are frequently allowed to limit who they admit for reasons that would otherwise breach anti-discrimination laws, but the wording is usually vague, focusing on “religious sensibilities” and not explicitly mentioning sexuality.
The South Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2016 report on the matter expressed concerns that the “wording of the exemption [for religious bodies under SA discrimination law], appears broad enough to allow … a religious school to expel a homosexual student or to restrict that student’s participation in school activities”, which is fairly indicative of where most states fall.
There have been pushes to remove these ambiguities, both to make expelling students based on their sexuality explicitly legal or to make it explicitly illegal. Ruddock’s review firmly backs the former.
Adherents to middle eastern peasant myths or other such invisible nonsense, should be let no-where near the education system. That past Governments have funded organisations peopled with these lunatics comes down in no small part to a lack of proper funding for the public school system.
No public funding of private schools, no tax free status for religious nutcases and no excuse for bigots and racists hiding behind their ancestors fictional stories.
Get those LNP appointed ministers of religion out of public schools.
As long as these religious groups refuse to follow *our* laws-whether its in regards to reporting sex offenders or discriminating against people on the basis of sexuality or religion-then they shouldn’t get one red penny of tax-payers dollars. It really is that simple.
If they will not accept students, they should be defunded. In fact I think any school which discriminates should be defunded. You can have your god, but why the hell should Caesar pay for it? This absolutely stinks and Ruddock should be pilloried. Ruddock 1990 would not have agreed here. He has become a worthless old prick. Wonder if he still wears an Amnesty badge the bloody old humbug?
But ogo, Ruddock the Wrinkled has so much life left in him to continue to “serve” the citizens of oz. He’s also the Mayor of Hornsby, no doubt giving the ratepayers the benefit of his tireless ruddocking. He’s always been a humbug.
Disgusting attempt to exempt a cohort of bigots from living under the laws that govern the rest of us. Imagine a poor teenager just starting to understand his/her sexuality at a school they’ve attended for years, and being asked to leave rather than receiving support?
Exactly my thoughts xoanon.
Last week I watched Stan Grant interview Michael Kirby on this topic. It was good to be reminded that we have people who are articulate and willing to speak out on this topic. Pity so few of them are in government.
We live in a secular country whose laws separate church from state. I do not wish to have my taxes going to support church schools able to discriminate between students on grounds of sexual orientation. FULL STOP.