(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)

Ever since Australia legislated marriage equality in late 2017, religious discrimination laws have been high on the Christian right’s agenda and they came a step closer early this morning when the Morrison government’s religious discrimination bill was passed in the House of Representatives, its third attempt at getting a divisive piece of legislation up.

But the gruelling session delivered pyrrhic victories for everyone. Five of the government’s MPs crossed the floor to vote with Labor on a critical amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act, which will provide much-needed protection against discrimination for gay and transgender students, moved by Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie. 

And while the opposition celebrated this as a progressive victory, it narrowly lost three votes seeking to amend the government’s bill, despite support from dissenting Liberal moderates.

Labor is adamant it will be able to secure those amendments in the Senate. The crossbench is less sure. But it sets up another showdown today as time runs out for it to pass before the election.

Why Labor voted for the bill

Labor’s support for the bill — it voted with the government to secure its passage after its amendments were defeated — drew a fair bit of flak from some on the left.

“Labor has just supported Scott Morrison’s hate bill, saying it’s terrible but then voting it into law,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said.

Labor’s position is a bit of a tightrope — in principle, the party supports extending protection against discrimination to people of faith. But it doesn’t like the government’s model, and wants to smoothe its harder edges.

“We determined as a matter of principle something that we hold very dear, that we support the removal or the extension of any discrimination legislation to cover discrimination on the basis of religion, or on the basis of faith,” Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said.

“But we don’t believe that should be at a cost of increasing discrimination against other groups.”

The party is also concerned about the sedge. Labor suffered losses among conservative, religious voters within its heartlands in 2019. There’s fear within caucus that Morrison might use any stiff opposition to the bill against it in an election campaign. 

That caution coloured a long internal debate yesterday about how to respond to the final bill. For months, the opposition kept very quiet, insisting on waiting until the final legislation was revealed. Yesterday caucus voted to support the bill in the House if its amendments failed, and seek to introduce them again in the Senate. A handful of MPs called to oppose the bill in the House if amendments failed. This approach wasn’t backed.

What happens in the Senate

Now everything heads to the Senate, where the road is all very unclear. This morning Liberal Senator Jane Hume suggested the government would try to undo the amendments to the act and wind back protection for LGBTIQA+ students. But Assistant Attorney-General Amanda Stoker indicated the government hadn’t committed to that yet.

Labor hopes to reintroduce its amendments in the Senate, where it could remove the highly contentious statements of belief clause. With support from the Greens and crossbench senators Rex Patrick, Stirling Griff and Jacqui Lambie, Labor could defeat the bill outright. To get amendments through, it needs those senators, plus at least one Liberal defector. Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg, who indicated he wanted the statements of belief clause removed, could vote with Labor.

Patrick, Lambie and Griff have all said they opposed the bill throughout the debate. This morning Lambie said most Tasmanians “do not want change” which would override the state’s strong anti-discrimination protections. She also indicated Labor wouldn’t have the numbers to move its amendments.

“Even if we were to vote for Labor’s amendments, they don’t have the numbers, and that’s the truth of the matter,” she said.

Patrick tells Crikey he still opposed the bill but said it was unlikely to be resolved in the Senate today: “I think I would vote for amendments that would improve the bill, but overall I think the bill will still cause more harm than good.”

Today’s Senate order gives only just over an hour for government business. The only way to extend debate on religious discrimination is for the Senate to pass an hour’s motion. Patrick says he won’t support such a motion, and Crikey understands there’s little to no appetite on the crossbench and Labor for another all-nighter on religious discrimination.

After today, the Senate will sit for just two more days during budget week in late March, meaning the government might have run out of time.

The Christian Right is angry

Amid all the uncertainty, the bill’s strongest backers now want it gone. The Australian Christian Lobby, which pushed Attorney-General Michaelia Cash to introduce the bill last year, want it removed after amendments to the SDA removing the right to discriminate were removed last night.

“These protections have enabled faith-based schools to teach their religion and conduct their schools according to their faith values,” ACL’s national director of politics Wendy Francis said. “The loss of this protection would outweigh any benefits that could be obtained by the religious discrimination bill.”

After plenty of debate, nobody is really happy.