Albanese Abandons Discrimination Election Promise To LGBTQI+ People

It appears that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has once again backed away from the proposed changes to religious discrimination legislation — and in turn, backed away from his election promise to reinforce discrimination protections for the LGBTQI+ community. 

The Australian published new comments from Prime Minister Albanese, which seem to imply that the legislation won’t be moving forward once again, because Labor cannot get bipartisan support from the opposition for the bill in its current state. 

“One of the things I’ve spoken about is the need for greater social cohesion and the last thing that Australia needs is any divisive debate relating to religion and people’s faith,” said Albanese at a press conference.

“The timing, I said, had to be that we would introduce legislation during the budget session if agreement could be reached.

“Agreement hasn’t been able to be reached because there’s been no suggestions from the Coalition of amendments of the legislation. So I don’t intend to engage in a partisan debate when it comes to religious discrimination, and I think that is unfortunate.”

Change desperately needed: LGBTQI+ discrimination in religious schools “endemic”

Changes to the discrimination legislation would mean that LGBTQI+ people accessing or working faith-based services — including schools — couldn’t be discriminated against based on their sexuality or gender identity.

So for example, legislative changes would protect teachers who work in religious schools, and ensure they cannot be fired based on the fact they’re a member of the LGBTQI+ community. 

A report released in March by Equality Australia highlighted that LGBTQI+ discrimination in faith-based services and schools in Australia is “endemic”.

Anger from all sides

There’s seems to be anger from all sides of the issue, with community groups expressing deep disappointment in how the the issue has been handled, and politicians across the aisle vocally expressing their frustration with the Albanese government.

“On Friday, the Prime Minister announced at a press conference that he was going to abandon religious discrimination reform after the Opposition vetoed their legislation,” said Australian Greens LGBTIQA+ spokesperson and Brisbane MP Stephen Bates.

“Sex discrimination reform on Friday. Makarrata Commission on Monday. How many election promises does Albanese plan on breaking this week?”

“If this government cares at all about LGBTIQA+ workers, they would move right now to remove section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act like the Law Reform Commission said to. 

“This Labor government has had the numbers to get this done for months and The Greens have offered time and again to work collaboratively to make this change. 

“The LGBTIQA+ community wants protections. Communities of faith want protections. The vast majority of the country wants this positive and progressive change,” said Bates.

On the other side of the issue, Wendy Francis from the Australian Christian Lobby said her supporters – who believe religious people are the ones actually facing discrimination issues, and that increasing protections for LGBTQI+ community means stripping away rights of religious peoples – were also disappointed, saying:

“The Australian Christian Lobby has joined other religious groups in expressing their disappointment over the Prime Minister’s announcement that he would not proceed with laws that would have gone just some way towards improving much needed protection for religious groups, including against discrimination.”

Warning to Albanese: Not supporting LGBT community means losing countless voters

Just.Equal Australia spokesperson and legendary LGBTQI+ activist Rodney Croome says polling Just.Equal has commissioned shows that Australians — particularly Labor voters — want LGBTQI+ students and teachers to be protected.

Polling shows that more than half of Australians do not think teachers and school staff should be able to be fired solely because they are a member of the LGBTQI+ community.

“Our research in the LGBTQA+ community has shown that a substantial number of LGBTQA+ people who voted Labor in 2019 voted Green in 2022 because of Labor’s poor record on LGBTQA+ equality,” Croome said.

“Together this research shows Labor will lose votes if it fails to fulfill its promise of protecting LGBTQA+ students and teachers from discrimination.

“It would be shameful to see social cohesion for LGBTQA+ people sacrificed to the current fear campaign from some religious leaders about non-existent threats to religious freedom,” Croome explained.

“The Government’s reticence is not about freedom for faith, it’s about pandering to prejudice.”