Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, has said he is “deeply disappointed” and “at a loss to understand why” the state Labor government reneged on its promise to overhaul the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
As foreshadowed by Guardian Australia, the attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, on Friday tabled a new bill that will enact only some of the promised reforms.
Other recommended changes to the act – including scrapping exemptions that allow faith-based schools to discriminate against teachers based on their sexuality, pregnancy, relationship status and gender identity – will not be passed before the October election.
McDougall said the Queensland Human Rights Commission had conducted an extensive review of the Anti-Discrimination Act culminating in draft legislation, released for consultation in February.
He released a statement on Friday that said the government appeared to have “recklessly abandoned” three years of extensive consultation aimed at modernising the outdated laws.
“Queenslanders have spent many thousands of hours sharing their expertise and experiences to these consultations and have provided clear and compelling evidence about the barriers to equity and justice under the current framework,” he said.
“I expect the community will be justifiably confused and frustrated that the end result of this work is piecemeal amendments which do not go far enough to address many of the practical concerns they raised, both with us and with government.”
The bill introduced on Friday will introduce a positive duty to eliminate workplace discrimination. It will also extend protections to people experiencing homelessness, and to people experiencing domestic and family violence.
The QHRC welcomed those changes, but said the piecemeal changes will mean “some people in some circumstances will be better protected than others who experience discrimination and harassment at an arguably higher rate”.
“[This] is the equivalent of giving one room in the house a coat of paint and some new curtains when the building’s foundations are in need of attention,” McDougall said.
“Equality legislation should be considered, evidence-based, well-balanced and – as far as is possible – should ensure that nobody is left behind.
“Instead, we have a bill which appears hastily constructed, is unclear in scope, with an apparent scattergun approach to implementing recommendations the government committed to over a year ago.”
In a statement earlier this week, D’Ath said the government was still committed to passing other recommendations from the review, but that some elements – including exemptions for religious schools – required further consideration.
Labor sources say the party is reluctant to pick a fight with the churches, who had vowed to campaign against the overhaul, ahead of the election. Sources said on Friday that there had also been pressure from within federal Labor, which appears to be balking at introducing similar legislation recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
Polling from Just.Equal released this week shows more than half of Australians oppose laws allowing faith-based schools to legally sack or refuse to hire teachers on the basis of sexuality and gender identity, as the proposed federal changes hit a political deadlock.
The secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, Jacqueline King, had pushed behind the scenes for Labor to implement reforms that broadly mimicked the federal “respect at work” bill. She released a statement on Friday morning welcoming the reforms, but said it was disappointing the government had not removed the religious schools exemption.
Greens MP Michael Berkman said Labor was “throwing teachers and nurses under the bus to please the Australian Christian Lobby”.
“This is a free pass for schools … to vilify and persecute teachers for being themselves, whether they teach maths, English or religion.
“Being gay doesn’t affect your ability to teach maths. Being a single mum doesn’t make you an unsuitable nurse.”
