Gay kids need protection and they need it now: PM
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is confident none of his coalition colleagues will get in the way of changes to ensure no school can exclude LGBT students.
A controversial review of religious freedoms has recommended allowing religious schools to discriminate against students on the basis of their sexuality.
But Mr Morrison revealed on Saturday the coalition would reject the advice, opting instead to strengthen discrimination laws to make sure no school can discriminate against LGBT young people.
The prime minister said he does not forsee any problems with the position in his own party room.
It was reached after discussions with his cabinet.
“I have only had strong messages of support from my colleagues,” he told reporters in Adelaide on Sunday.
Religious schools have not been excluding LGBT students despite Labor introducing the current arrangements in 2013, he stressed.
But he said the prospect has been causing “unnecessary anxiety”, which the coalition will aim to fix in the coming fortnight.
“I hope we can do that without a whole bunch of posturing and hoopla, that we just actually get on with it. No one goes into point scoring. We just get it done,” he said.
The Greens are pushing for an amendment to the coalition’s proposed law that would also protect LGBT teachers from being excluded.
Labor leader Bill Shorten says it’s right to have a discussion on that issue.
“It’s probably time to have a conversation about what other exemptions to discrimination we provide against teachers in our school system. So let’s have that conversation,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
But the opposition is calling for the government to release the full review into religious freedoms, led by former Liberal minister Philip Ruddock.
So far only the report’s recommendations are public, having been leaked to the media this week.
The report had first been handed to former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in May.
“The first thing we need to do is find out what is in the review, what have the experts said? I’m sure the experts don’t mind telling us,” Mr Shorten said.
-AAP