People of faith deserve honesty and respect from Australia’s political class

For the churches and faith based schools who have serious skin in the game when it comes to retaining and preserving the exemption provisions the media comments on 20^th January of the federal Labor spokesperson for education and Deputy Leader will certainly not bring reassurance, let alone joy. When pressed to explain the Opposition's position on the matter she is reported a saying that Labor had "no plans" to change existing religious exemption provisions in anti-discrimination laws.

It was not missed by those concerned about this matter that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition did not rule out a future Labor government considering such changes. Jumping at shadows is generally not a wise thing to do in politics and perhaps nothing can be read into the Deputy Leader's comments. However, the ground on the issue has moved from just a few years ago. From the robust "get stuffed, tell'em they're dreamin" position to "no plans" to change the existing arrangements seems to be opening up some wriggle room.

That brings us to last week and the appearance of the NSW Parliamentary LGBTI Cross Party Working Group before the Ruddock Expert Panel. Members of the Working Group includes a member of the Nationals who is Deputy President of the Legislative Council, Labor's Shadow Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Shadow Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events, The Greens MP for Newtown, Independent MP for Sydney and the Liberal Party MP for Coogee. All are well-known advocates for LGBTI issues and causes both inside and outside of the NSW Parliament.

While the Working Group's submission to the Expert Panel has not yet been formally published, the media reporting of its position on the matter regarding exemptions was unequivocal. The reports said that the Working Group's submission stated that the current exemptions "go too far" and serve to "entrench substantial inequality" against gay and lesbian Australians. You don't need to have a degree in political science to understand what is being said here; the time has come for these exemptions to be removed from the anti-discrimination legislation or, at the very least, significantly pared right back. It may be the case that some of these politicians were doing some freelancing last week without the express knowledge or permission of their party or the respective education minister's or shadow minister's. Be that as it may they were proudly wearing their party jumpers at the time of appearing before the Expert Panel and strongly arguing for the abolition or downgrading of the exemption provisions.

Time will only tell what is going to happen in the months ahead regarding this issue. All one can say to the churches and the faith based schools is that we are in 2018 and the ground has shifted. Indeed, the tectonic plates continue to move over each other. Do not assume that there is from the point of view of the major political parties certain givens; givens that will always be there to fall back on. The growing evidence is that the church and faith based schools should not feel relaxed and comfortable in the current political and social climate.

It would be brave to suggest that the circumstances for them are going to improve anytime soon. And furthermore, challenges are not just coming from the left of centre political parties. All the major political parties now have elected representatives at all levels of government, endorsed candidates, policy advisors, electorate staff and people employed in party administration who hold views that do not see organised religion as a positive or benign force in society, but rather something to be marginalised and kept on a tight leash. Perhaps now, more than ever before, the entreaty of St. Matthew rings true for organised religion in Australia, "Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves."