The federal government's plan to legislate to protect religious freedoms is in disarray, with internal disagreement about the details and the process for changing the law.
Prior to the last election, the Coalition promised to introduce new laws to explicitly protect "sincerely held" religious beliefs.
But it also vowed to legislate protections to ensure that schools could not ban students or teachers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a Brisbane radio station on Thursday that he would use next week's return of parliament to introduce protections for gay students.
Some moderate Liberal MPs are insisting that could be achieved by changing the Sex Discrimination Act to ensure gay students and teachers cannot be expelled from religious schools.
They want the changes to both the sex and religious discrimination acts to happen at the same time to guarantee it happens.
Mr Morrison on Friday said it was his "intention" to amend the sex and religious discrimination acts at the same time. When asked if it would happen before the election, he said "yes".
That leaves the government just five days to achieve it, with the Senate rarely due to sit between now and the election.
Earlier on Friday, the Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, Amanda Stoker, said that was not her plan.
"That provision [to the Sex Discrimination Act] shouldn't be changed unless we know the final form of the Religious Discrimination Act," Senator Stoker said.
"It's important that the two integrate well because if you change one without knowing the final form of the Religious Discrimination Act that emerges from Senate, you could actually end up creating problems rather than solutions."
Questions over 'statements of belief'
Two separate committees looking into the proposed bill handed down their reports and recommendations on Friday, ahead of Parliament returning next week.
Both the Senate and joint parliamentary committee recommended the bill be passed, but each raised questions about a part of the act that would give people extra protection from existing state-based discrimination laws when they made "statements of belief".
The statements could not be made in a malicious way and could not "threaten, intimidate, harass or vilify a person or group" in the eyes of a "reasonable person".
The Senate inquiry noted that the statement was raised by multiple stakeholders during public engagement.
"The committee agrees that there is a balance to be struck between the competing values that inform Australian society," the committee said.
"But it is not convinced that affording protection to people of religious faith (or of no religious faith) to express moderately held religious beliefs made in good faith would disturb that balance or skew it in favour of one particular attribute."
Coalition MP and one of the members of the Senate inquiry Andrew Bragg added his own comments about the statement, saying multiple religious groups said it was not something they had asked for.
"Numerous employers, religious organisations, anti-discrimination groups and legal experts are against it.
"What is the evidence of persecution of people of faith that justifies this proposal?"
The joint inquiry report also noted some confusion around the statement and recommended the government provide "further explanation and examples" about what kind of "statements or actions may, or may not, be considered to not constitute discrimination".
Both reports also noted issues raised with another element of the act which would see it override state and territory discrimination laws.
Brisbane school sparks debate
Debate over protections for students erupted again this week after a Brisbane religious school sought to implement a controversial enrolment contract.
The contract, which described homosexuality as a sin and compared it to bestiality and paedophilia, demanded families denounce homosexuality and that students identify by birth gender, or risk being excluded from the school.
Backlash from parents and the broader community prompted Citipointe Christian College to abandon the contract.
Mr Morrison first pledged to protect gay students in the months after becoming prime minister in 2018.
Senator Stoker said that while years had passed, the government remained committed to enshrining those protections in law.
"We believe that and we plan to deliver that," she said.
"And that reflects the consultation and conversations we've had from all the different stakeholder groups in our community.
"There's no surprises there. And so, really, the only question here is about the mechanics of how that's implemented, because it has always been our position that we would take steps to make sure that wasn't something that gay kids faced."
