Scott Morrison has claimed gay students are not being expelled from religious schools while defending his decision to delay protections for them until after the passage of the religious discrimination bill.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, hit back at the comments on Sunday, accusing anyone who thinks young people are not “discriminated and vilified” based on their sexuality of having views that don’t reflect “reality”.
Morrison’s comments resurfaced division in the Liberal party, with backbench MP Katie Allen reiterating that she will continue to support changes “to protect gay and trans students” which she labelled “not negotiable”.
MPs Bridget Archer and Trent Zimmerman also confirmed to Guardian Australia their position remains unchanged.
Morrison is under pressure over his commitment to religious groups to reintroduce the religious bill “as stand-alone legislation” and to refuse “any attempts to make changes to other laws that undermine protections for religious institutions”.
In February five Liberal moderates crossed the floor to add protections for LGBTQ students into the Sex Discrimination Act at the same time as passing the religious bill.
The Coalition shelved its own legislation as a result, due to concern from the religious right that protections for transgender students would harm their ability to offer single-sex education.
On Sunday Morrison told reporters in Melbourne that the religious bill and changes to prohibit expulsion of gay students would be pursued “sequentially”.
When proposed in February, the changes were revealed not to protect trans students nor prohibit other forms of discrimination short of expulsion.
Morrison said it had “always been” the government’s position to pass the religious bill first and there was “no new position here”.
“I have been seeking to achieve that for a long time and I was disappointed we were not able to achieve that in the last parliamentary term,” he said.
Asked what had changed since five MPs and at least one senator, Andrew Bragg, moved to protect LGBTQ students at the same time, Morrison replied he was “quite determined” to deal with the religious bill first although they are “both important”.
“I don’t give up on these beings. I pursue them in the right way,” he said, in a backhand to MPs Archer, Zimmerman and Fiona Martin for spearheading the broader changes.
Morrison repeatedly refused to nominate a timeframe for the gay student expulsion ban and incorrectly claimed the timetable, determined by the government, was in fact contained in the religious bill.
“You pass one and then you pass the other because one triggers the other,” he said. “One triggers the other, that is what is set out in the legislation.”
In fact, the government has asked the Australian Law Reform Commission to report back on the Sex Discrimination Act 12 months after the passage of the religious bill.
Nothing in the bill prevents the changes from occurring simultaneously, as the successful February amendments demonstrate.
Morrison said it was “possible to protect Australians from religious discrimination” without adding to mental health concerns of LGBTQ students, despite concerns that strengthening non-government schools right to discriminate on the grounds of religion can be used to indirectly discriminate on the grounds of sexuality and gender.
“It has been presented, [as if] students are being expelled each and every day, apparently, each and every week, and each and every year,” Morrison said.
“There is no evidence of that at all. There is none.
“There is no evidence because religious schools themselves don’t wish to do that.”
Before the religious bill was debated in parliament, Citipointe Christian college asked students to sign enrolment contracts setting out that homosexual acts were “immoral” and “offensive to God” and that trans people would not be recognised.
The contracts were withdrawn after a storm of controversy, with the school insisting it “does not and will not discriminate against any student because of their sexuality or gender identity”. Morrison noted that he had “condemned” the use of such contracts.
Religious schools also claim not to sack teachers over sexuality, although several teachers testified to a parliamentary inquiry that they had been sacked for that reason.
Allen immediately contradicted the prime minister on sequencing of the bills, telling reporters in Melbourne: “I believe you can protect religious freedom and can protect gay and trans students [at the same time] – I believe you can.”
Albanese told reporters in Sydney that “there is evidence of religious discrimination” and Labor had supported the religious discrimination bill, but it needed to contain anti-vilification provisions.
He cited a senior Catholic figure “abused for walking down the street dressed as a Catholic” and women “spat on because they wore a hijab in the street”.
“If people don’t think that young people are discriminated against and vilified because of their sexuality, then that does not reflect reality,” Albanese said.
Christian Schools Australia policy director, Mark Spencer, backed the prime minister’s claim there was “no evidence that students are being expelled from faith-based schools simply because they are gay”.
Just Equal spokesperson, Brian Greig, said the religious bill will adversely affect “people with disability, religious minorities, women seeking health care and LGBTIQ+ people” because it “allows discrimination in the name of religion”.
Labor’s policy is to support a religious discrimination bill and “protect teachers from discrimination at work, while maintaining the right of religious schools to preference people of their faith in the selection of staff”.
Greig said Labor had “made it clear it would protect LGBTQ+ students, however, its position on teachers and other workers is unclear”, because the policy implied religious institutions may retain the power to discriminate in future hiring.
