Submission on second exposure draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill

The enactment of the Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB) in its current form would place Australia in breach of its obligations under a number of international treaties to which it is a party, by permitting discrimination in employment on the basis of religion, sex, marital status, gender identity and sexual orientation where this accords with the organisations’ religious belief. These proposed exemptions for religious bodies in the RDB are inconsistent with international human rights law because their scope is unclear, they may be applied arbitrarily, and they do not require that the limitations on those rights be necessary and reasonable in each case. 1 The RDB exemptions for religious bodies should be re-drafted in line with the model found in European Union (EU) law. Unlike proposed and existing exemptions for religious bodies in Commonwealth law, the EU model closely implements international human rights obligations by requiring the careful balancing of human rights.