Labor’s hopes of passing two key bills with opposition support have taken a hit with a breakdown in negotiations on religious discrimination and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, labelling its hate speech proposal a “trap”.
Dutton addressed the Coalition party room on Tuesday for the first time since the government revealed it intends to create a new criminal offence to protect all attributes – including sex, sexuality, gender, race and religion – from vilification.
According to three accounts of the meeting, Dutton described the proposal as a “trap”, promised not to be distracted by a Labor “wedge” and vowed to stand for Liberal values including free speech.
Although the Coalition is yet to see legislation for the hate speech proposal, expected to be introduced in August, Liberal MPs Keith Wolahan and Garth Hamilton made remarks also calling for the opposition to proceed with caution to avoid unintended consequences.
Contributions cited the experience of hate speech laws in the UK and Canada, and argued they resulted in community conflict through courts and tribunals. One MP labelled it a potential “backdoor” to blasphemy laws.
Separately to the hate speech proposal, Labor is still seeking opposition support for religious discrimination laws, which remove religious exemptions to sex discrimination laws and add an anti-vilification protection for religion.
On Tuesday the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, met with his shadow counterpart, Michaelia Cash, to seek the opposition’s response to the bill, which it has seen but has not been released publicly.
Accounts of the meeting are disputed, with both sides accusing the other of aggressive behaviour including raised voices, which both deny.
Cash said: “I was appalled by Mr Dreyfus’s behaviour. Mr Dreyfus needs to stop playing games with his religious discrimination legislation.
“As I told Mr Dreyfus he needs to take on board the feedback he has received from the faith communities and release his legislation publicly.”
A spokesperson for Dreyfus said Cash’s claims were “not correct”. “The attorney-general did not raise his voice and at no point was aggressive or demeaning.
“Senator Cash interrupted the attorney general, described his request for the opposition’s position … as unreasonable and walked out of the meeting.”
In a further flashpoint of tension between Labor and the Coalition, the former shadow attorney general, Julian Leeser, rejected the government’s call to establish an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into anti-semitism.
The Liberal backbencher said the AHRC had not spoken out enough since the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
Leeser briefed the party room about his alternative, a private member’s bill to establish a judicial inquiry into anti-semitism in Australia.
He condemned the leaders of universities which have hosted pro-Palestinian encampments and said Jewish students were being intimidated.
While the Coalition pathway to pass religious discrimination laws appears closed, LGBTQ+ advocates have urged Labor to take up the Greens’ offer to pass the Australian Law Reform Commission’s proposal to remove religious exemptions to sex discrimination laws.
The proposal has concerned some religious stakeholders including the National Catholic Education Commission, due to the limits on the ability for schools to preference staff in line with their beliefs, only so long as it is proportionate and “reasonably necessary” to maintaining a community of faith.
The Equality Australia chief executive, Anna Brown, said: “Legal protections for students and teachers are too important to play politics with.”
“There are a number of pathways through parliament with or without the support of the opposition and every day the government delays is another day a teacher could be fired or a student could be expelled or denied a leadership position.”
The Greens justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said “ending discrimination against students and teachers is too important for it to stall in a shouting match between the Coalition and Labor”.
“It is incredibly frustrating this is the path the Albanese government appears to have chosen.”
