Religious Freedom Bills – Second Exposure Drafts Submission - January 2020

This submission outlines the following:

• YACSA does not support any legislative change or any existing exemptions in anti-discrimination laws that impact on the right of all citizens to be free from discrimination and to be equal before the law.

• Australia is obligated to adhere to and acknowledge the equal status of all universal human rights and to apply these rights to all citizens without condition.

• The right to hold a religious belief is already afforded and protected by international human rights instruments. This right does not and should not allow an individual or group to force that belief on anyone else or to impinge upon the inherent rights of others.

• Many of the provisions contained in the draft exposure Bills (in particular the broadening of the concept of conscientious objection for health care providers, exemptions in anti-discrimination legislation for religious individuals, groups, organisations and businesses to engage in positive discrimination and publicly expressing statements of belief) will have undue impacts on already vulnerable populations such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer communities (LGBTIQ), rural and remote Australians, women and girls and Indigenous Australians.

Government must review and re-draft religious freedom laws to ensure that human rights are applied equally and that protections are provided for people to hold and practice a religious belief while protecting the rest of the community from having those beliefs impact upon them.