Wednesday, 5 June 2019

 Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Equality, Minister for Creative Industries) (09:36): Freedom of thought, of political expression and of religious belief are an important part of our democratic society. Victorians recognise this and the importance of ensuring the principles of our democratic rights in a diverse and inclusive society. Our Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities reflects and enshrines a range of rights, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief, so we watch the current debate in the federal government on this issue with great interest.

As the commonwealth’s own inquiry has found, no-one’s freedom and practice of their religion in Australia is under threat. That is not to say that laws protecting people of faith and others based on their identity, race or gender, especially from mounting waves of hate speech designed to incite division if not violence, are not needed—they are. For too long the Muslim community, the Jewish community, the South Sudanese community and others have been subject to racist and violent hate speech. Fascists gathering on St Kilda Beach delivering Nazi salutes are a shocking development. People of faith should be protected from discrimination, as should LGBTIQ people.

The argument within the federal government should not be used by conservatives to give licence to discriminate against LGBTIQ people. The debate around legal reform is not an opportunity to exclude LGBTIQ people from the legitimate protections that they are entitled to or to give licence to faith-based groups to refuse critical services. This is an opportunity to build a better, more inclusive and stronger Australia, not a more divided one.