Religious schools in Western Australia will no longer be allowed to sack teachers or expel students due to their sexuality, or to reject students due to a disability, under new laws proposed by the Cook Government. Source: ABC News.
Religious institutions, including schools, will still be allowed to discriminate based on religion, but not other grounds under a rewrite of the state’s Equal Opportunity Act.
Attorney General Tony Buti said that would stop institutions discriminating against people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
“The exemption is purely on religion, not on sexual orientation,” he said.
The proposed laws will also include broader protections against discriminating against a person’s disabilities in all circumstances, including schools.
Dr Buti said the bill was the biggest overhaul of the state’s anti-discrimination laws in more than 40 years, and would widen the scope of who was protected.
It will seek to outlaw discrimination against people who are homeless, exposed to domestic violence, who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or involved in union activity.
The proposed laws come after an initial tranche of laws in 2024 which the WA government implemented aimed at improving the lives of people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Those laws removed the need to undergo medical or surgical reassignment to change a person’s sex or gender, and abolished the state’s Gender Reassignment Board which managed applications for gender changes.
The government’s latest proposed overhaul follows Independent MP Allegra Spender’s calls to reform federal laws which exempt religious institutions from the Sex Discrimination Act.
Premier Roger Cook said his message was clear: “Hate is not OK in WA.”
“Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, discrimination, acts of violence or intimidation, have taken hold in Australia and in WA in recent times,” he said.
“Nobody should face discrimination or abuse based on their race, religion, sexuality or disability.”
Shadow Attorney General Nick Goiran said the opposition would carefully scrutinise the bill once it was introduced in Parliament today.
FULL STORY
New WA laws aim to prevent sexual discrimination against staff, students at religious schools (By Cason Ho, ABC News)
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Labor says schools can refuse to hire, but can’t fire, teachers because of their religion (The West Australian)
