(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister delivered a message that was greeted with applause by Christian believers gathered inside a Sydney arena on a frosty winter’s night -- but one that’s creating concern in the gay community.
“There’s a lot of talk about our freedoms as Christians in this country, and they should be protected,” conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison, 51, told the crowd of 21,000 worshipers after taking center-stage of the Hillsong Church Conference last week. What Australia needs, he said, “is the love of God.”
The heart-on-sleeve display by Morrison, who credited his shock May election win as a miracle, is unusual for a prime minister in a nation that’s long prided itself for its secular heritage and where the population who identify as non-religious has more than doubled in past three decades to 30%. And his push to enact Australia’s first nation-wide religious-freedom laws has stoked fears within human-rights groups representing the LGBTQ community, women’s interests and minorities that it could lead to legal discrimination.
While four of Australia’s six states have similar laws to those proposed by Morrison, 51, the prime minister is arguing federal legislation is needed to bolster protections in the country, which doesn’t have a Bill of Rights.
Although details of the legislation have yet to be released, the government says it will “make it unlawful to discriminate against people over their religious belief or activity,” similar to provisions on gender, race, sexual orientation and disability.
The independent Human Rights Law Centre says the government is aiming to enshrine the rights of religious groups and schools to discriminate, along with removing legal impediments to views opposing same-sex marriage. It’s also concerned the government could legislate to permit “unfettered free speech,” which could allow women to be harassed outside abortion clinics or fired for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
“We absolutely support the right of people of faith to be protected from discrimination,” said Lee Carnie, a gay-rights campaigner and senior lawyer at the centre. Still, “some of the proposals that have been brought by far-right and conservative religious lobby groups have called for the laws to go further, potentially turning a shield into a sword to attack others.”
A spokeswoman for Morrison declined to comment.
U.S.-Style Freedoms
Morrison’s call at the Hillsong conference for more prayer to help Australia is reminiscent of a speech delivered by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence last month where he urged believers to pray for America because “it will make a difference.”
In 2015 when he was governor of Indiana, Pence oversaw his own religious-freedoms legislation amid warnings from minority groups that it could lead to them being openly vilified. Unlike the Trump administration, the Australian government hasn’t tied its arguments in support of the need for more religious freedoms with anti-abortion and women’s reproductive rights issues.
The issue of religious freedoms hit the headlines in April when one of the nation’s best rugby players, Pentecostal convert Israel Folau, sent a warning on Instagram that “hell awaits” homosexuals. Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia’s biggest airline and a major sponsor of his employer Rugby Australia, noted it didn’t want its brand to be damaged by the controversy.
After Rugby Australia announced it was terminating his A$4 million ($2.8 million) contract for breaching its “inclusiveness” policy, the Australian Christian Lobby said it had raised more than A$2 million in two days toward Folau’s legal battle against his former employer.
“There is no doubt it is getting harder for Christians to live out their faith in modern Australia,” the lobby group says on its website, urging the government to pass religious-freedom laws due to “increasing levels of discrimination at school, university, work and in our communities.”
Gay Weddings
Morrison’s religious-freedoms push has its roots in the years-long debate over same-sex marriage, which was finally legalized in December 2017 after winning overwhelming support in a nationwide survey. He abstained from the final vote in the parliament. Some religious leaders and lawmakers warned the laws could infringe on worshipers’ beliefs, such as forcing churches to host gay weddings.
To placate those concerns, then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered a review that ultimately delivered 20 recommendations to Morrison, who by last August had seized the leadership. The new prime minister announced his government would accept 15 of the proposals, including creating a Religious Discrimination Act, with the other five under further review.
Patrick Parkinson, dean of law at the University of Queensland and chair of a Christian legal think tank, is urging the government to legislate further changes to ensure religious freedoms become enshrined as a fundamental human right, rather than protected through exemptions of existing laws, as now occurs.
“The current laws being proposed can only be the first stage, and the government will need to go beyond that next year to balance religious-freedom rights with other rights,” Parkinson said in a phone interview.
Some human-rights campaigners agree the current laws need to be amended as some states allow religious schools to reject gay students and teachers. Yet a poll released this month shows only 38% of Australians support Morrison’s Religious Discrimination Bill.
Suburban Dad
Morrison’s openness about his religion has been welcomed by mainstream Australians because it’s seen as authentic and re-enforces his stable, “average suburban dad” image, according to Andrew Hughes, a political analyst specializing in branding at the Australian National University.
Still, “there’s a strong argument that this debate is a distraction when Morrison should be focusing on an economy that’s showing signs of being in trouble,” Hughes said.
Tim Costello, a veteran human-rights and charity campaigner who is a reverend in the Uniting Church, said while the discussion on the need for the legislation is legitimate, religious groups suggesting they are being persecuted for their beliefs need to calm down.
“Having the lost the gay-marriage debate, there’s some in the Christian lobby who feel their religious freedoms have been weakened,” Costello said. “We’ve just elected a Pentecostal prime minister, so it would be good to keep perspective.”
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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