Churches, religious leaders, parents and private schools said they will defend discrimination based on faith in the face of a review of Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act and its exemptions, a news report said.
The parliamentary review, covering all areas of discrimination, including whether private men's clubs can continue to exclude women, has sparked widespread alarm among religious Victorians, from the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne to Islamic, Christian and Jewish schools, and faith based hospitals and aged care centres, The Age reported.
The groups said religious freedoms, such as the right to insist the upholding of the organisations' beliefs, are at risk.
Under the 53 exceptions and exemptions to the Equal Opportunity Act, a religious organisation can insist on staff sharing its belief. A Christian private school, for example, can legally discriminate by refusing a Muslim a job as a teacher, receptionist or cleaner, The Age said.
The Law Institute of Victoria, community legal advocates and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission recommended changes to make it more difficult for religious groups and schools to discriminate against people in "non-core" roles - those not directly relating to worship or the teaching of faith, such as pastors and religious education teachers
Religious groups are fiercely rejecting the idea of core and non-core roles. Neil Benfell, principal of Warrnambool's King's College Christian school, said all his staff had to have a Christian faith.
"Our school's receptionist looks after the sick bay and prays with the children to give them comfort," he said. "Our receptionist is the first line of publicity and is often asked what the school is about."
The advocates for change say existing exemptions are too broad and allow widespread discrimination, particularly against people such as gay teachers in religious schools, and female teachers and staff members who become pregnant out of wedlock.
The Law Institute of Victoria's Dominique Saunders said: "Unless there is a direct link to the observance or teaching of religion, there should be no exception in the laws to discriminate, for example, against a gay maths teacher. I don't think that is acceptable."
Rob Ward, the Victorian director of the Australian Christian Lobby, dismissed the example of a teacher being sacked in a Christian school for having a child out of wedlock. That person, he said, would be offered "pastoral care and support". But, he said: "If someone says, 'I worship Satan, but I am a pretty good maths teacher, can I come and teach your Christian kids maths?' Well, probably not."
One of the nation's leading discrimination law experts, Professor Margaret Thornton, supports the review. "I think that if private schools receive money from the state, as they do, they should be subject to the law of the land, they should not be able to claim all these exemptions," she said.
The parliamentary review committee will hold public hearings in August and report in October or early November.
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Church and state clash over equality laws (The Age)
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