Australia’s government wants to allow religious people to discriminate

THE LORD works in mysterious ways. For Christian leaders of a conservative bent, recent decades in Australia have seen what the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, calls a “militant secularism” deal repeated blows to the devout. The most notable is the legalisation two years ago of same-sex marriage, after a postal survey showed Australians to be overwhelmingly in favour. The passage of a bill on October 2nd making it easier to get an abortion in New South Wales is another. A cause célèbre for religious conservatives is Israel Folau, a rugby star and staunch Christian who was sacked from his club for saying that God’s plan for homosexuals was “hell”. Mr Folau’s case against unfair dismissal is making its way through the courts. But his treatment, the archbishop says, “smacks of a new and ugly Australia” in which believers are unable to express their faith.

There are more general instances of discrimination, Christian leaders say. In the name of tolerance, diversity and inclusion, many companies expect their employees to leave their faith at home. But, says Michael Stead, Anglican bishop of South Sydney, faith is integral to a Christian’s identity: “It’s not just something you can switch off.”

Yet just when all around is darkness comes a ray of light. The right-wing government of Scott Morrison, the prime minister, has thrown its weight behind a package of bills designed to provide enforceable anti-discrimination protections for people with religious beliefs. The legislation is expected to come to parliament before the end of the year.

Many of the provisions work in just the same way as laws against discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, disability and so on. But as well as serving as a shield, the proposed legislation also acts, as Luke Beck of Monash University puts it, as a “sword”. People could take actions on the basis of their beliefs that would clearly fall foul of other anti-discrimination legislation, without consequences. An upper-caste Hindu doctor, Mr Beck suggests, could turn away a lower-caste patient he considered untouchable. A devout pharmacist could refuse to provide contraception to an unmarried teenager. And although it would still be illegal to deny women promotions, say, on the basis of their sex, the sort of evidence used to prove such abuses—sexist statements by a boss, for example—would be protected by the proposed legislation if they had a religious underpinning.

Cases like Mr Folau’s are tackled in the bills, too. Large firms (ie, with a turnover of A$50m ($34m) or more) may restrict employees from making statements of belief only if that is to avoid “unjustifiable financial hardship” to the firm. In other words, firms could not sack an employee like Mr Folau for denouncing the conduct of their colleagues if he did so based on religious convictions—unless a lucrative deal hinged on it. Not only are the rights of individuals protected, but also those of religious entities, including schools and charities. They are exempt from rules against discrimination if the discrimination is done “in good faith”. That could be a licence to expel gay pupils, for instance. And on top of such distasteful scenarios, it seems odd to give certain people legal privileges—the right to act in a way that would otherwise be unlawful—simply because they identify themselves as religious.

The Australian Human Rights Commission, while approving of the protective provisions in the legislation, is concerned about the assertive ones. Others have joined it. Such provisions may well be watered down. But the fact that the bill has made it this far is striking, given Australia’s growing godlessness. In the most recent census, in 2016, 30% said they had no religion, compared with 22% five years earlier.

Yet no previous prime minister has been so “out and proud” as a Christian, as John Warhurst of the Australian National University puts it. Mr Morrison described his surprise election victory in May as “a miracle”, which Archbishop Davies says is “about right”. Mr Morrison holds a weekly prayer session in his office in Canberra.

Marion Maddox of Macquarie University points out that most Australian Christians hold moderate beliefs, including accepting abortion, at least in some circumstances. For the most part, the anti-discrimination bill is a useful bit of virtue-signalling by the political right. Secularists are hardly on the back foot. It is more a consolation prize to religious leaders than the harbinger of a new God-fearing era.