Coalition Reaffirms Support For Religious Schools To Discriminate Against 17c起草社区IA+ People
Image: Shadow Minister for Education Julian Leeser. Credit NSW Liberals
The Coalition has unveiled their private schooling policy, reaffirming its support for religious schools retaining the ability to make employment and enrolment decisions based on faith, including exemptions that 17c起草社区IA+ advocates say permit discrimination against queer students and staff.
Opposition education spokesperson Julian Leeser addressed the issue during a speech to Christian Schools Australia on Monday night, defending the rights of faith-based schools to employ staff who align with religious doctrine and criticising proposals to remove existing legal protections.
Under current federal law, some religious schools are exempt from parts of the Sex Discrimination Act, allowing them to make decisions based on sexuality, gender identity, marital status or religious belief. 17c起草社区IA+ organisations have long campaigned for those exemptions to be removed, arguing they allow discrimination against queer teachers and students.
In a , Anna Brown, CEO of Equality Australia said that outdated exemptions to state, territory and Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws allow for 17c起草社区IA+ students, teachers or staff to be lawfully fired, expelled or otherwise treated unfairly by religious educational institutions.
鈥淚nstead of focussing on introducing new forms of discrimination to appease the conservative Christian lobby, the government should abandon the deeply flawed Religious Discrimination Bill and wind back outdated exemptions to existing anti-discrimination laws to reflect 21st century community attitudes.鈥�
Leeser said that the Coalition would continue backing 鈥減arental choice, institutional autonomy, freedom of religion鈥�.
鈥淯nlike Labor we will never indulge the fantasies of the Law Reform Commission who wanted to attack your very identity as Christian schools.”
鈥淲e believe in parental choice, institutional autonomy, freedom of religion, and that schools with a faith mission should be able to remain genuinely faithful to that mission.鈥�
鈥淩eligious freedom is about allowing schools not just to teach but to model the doctrines of their faith, without the threat of litigation. Religious schools want to educate, not litigate.鈥�
Religious Discrimination Bill and Sex Discrimination Act exemptions
The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended in 2024 that exemptions allowing discrimination against 17c起草社区IA+ staff and students be removed from the Sex Discrimination Act, while still allowing religious schools to preference employees who support the institution鈥檚 faith ethos.
The Albanese government had previously pledged to reform the laws but shelved proposed legislation after failing to secure bipartisan support from the Coalition.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in 2025 that Labor would not reintroduce a Religious Discrimination Bill without 鈥渂road support鈥�, following years of public debate over the issue.
The debate over religious discrimination laws intensified after the 2018 release of the Ruddock Review into religious freedom, which revealed that religious schools could legally expel 17c起草社区IA+ students under federal law. The disclosure prompted widespread backlash from 17c起草社区IA+ advocacy organisations, education groups and equality campaigners, leading both major parties to promise reforms.
Religious organisations and conservative groups have argued exemptions are necessary to preserve the religious character of faith-based schools, while 17c起草社区IA+ groups have maintained that anti-discrimination protections should apply equally to all students and staff regardless of sexuality or gender identity.
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Peter Sutton is a prat.
First up, Julian Lesser and all of his Extremist, Ultra-Right-wing, neo-fascists in the once-great, Centrist Liberal Party of Australia should stop using Liberal Party funds at election time, resign from the Liberal party and join their preferred Extremist, would-be Australian Dictator, Pauline Hanson and her One Nation neo-nazi group. After all they Do give their Preferences to them and lost the Federal seat of Farrer recently as a direct result, they were also responsible for the crushing defeat they received at the recent SA State Election.
The three Abrahamic-Mosaic Western religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam were all founded by men, Control Freaks the lot of them. Somehow they all managed to convince the peasantry that there is some other-worldly being they call by various names such as GOD, YAWEH, ALLAH. The very bed-rock of their Control mechanism are a set of rules they call “The Ten Commandments” which they claim, with absolutely no proof, were ductated to Moses by this other being. Two of them, Judaism and Islam, have broken Nine of the Ten Rules with Christianity breaking All Ten!
They all frequently break Number Two: Thou shalt Not Kill. Just look at what today’s self-righteous bastards are doing in the Middle East as you read this.
They all Lie, want each other’s property – check it out for yourselves and you will find they regularly break those rules. The Christians around 432AD held a little vote at a place called Nicea, which they call “The First Ecumenical Council” at this meeting the Vote they put to their members was “Should Jesus Chrits be declared Divine?” To declare someone to be Divine is to declare them to be a GOD. They voted in favour. So they committed the Greatest Blasphemy possible. When it was pointed out to them they used weasel words to justify what they had done.
Christianity, gleefully joined by the other two, broke Jesus’ Cammandment to his Disciples” Give up all your Worldly Goods and Follow me.” Today bith the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches are amongst the Richest Organisations on Earth but it is never enough for them, they always want more and more money. Why else do you think they all have their greedy fingers deep into Australia’s and other countries Aged Care? It’s al; and only about making more money.
If we don’t want to be discriminated against because of our sexuality then we must stop working for these parasitic organisations, stop sending our children to their brain-washing schools, stop attending their synagogues, churches and mosques and listening to the garbage they utter, the conditional promises they make! “Do as we tell you and you will go to Heaven/Paradise where you will enjoy a life of Joy for Eternity”, “Disobey us and its off to Hell, Hades,, Eternal Damnation, Purgatory, etc. where you will spend an Eternity in Suffering.” If those aren’t the threats of Control Freaks, I would like to know what they are.
…. and receive ZERO funding from the government. We would then see a change of heart I am sure.
This is appalling that religions that are suppose to preach love, preach hate.
It is appalling we indoctrinate our children into a cult of discrimination and reinforce the concept that being LGBTIQ is somehow wrong.
To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if Labor backtracked on this – they didn’t have enough gumption to pass these changes a year ago. Social justice is going backwards.
This is a nuanced issue. I do not support discrimination in schools, with a limited caveat. Certain courses or subjects may have a need for a teacher of faith or who shares the values of the school. Limited circumstances may include the teaching of religion, or philosophy.
One鈥檚 gender identity, faith, religion or lack thereof has absolutely no relationship to the teachings of mathematics, of physics, of economics, of biology, of chemistry, of accounting, geography or geology.
One鈥檚 identity has no relationship to the ability to serve as a school laboratory assistant, technical assistant, bursar, administrative officer or HR manager.
There is no link between Archimedes and Sexuality. Teachers or students must not be discriminated against.