Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in response to a question on August 9 on Labor’s religious discrimination bill pointed the finger at the Coalition, which he said had received a copy to consider in March.

Given today’s political climate that might mean he means to allow the Coalition to handle this “divisive debate”.

Currently religious discrimination laws allow religious schools to legally discriminate against LGBTQ staff and students. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus told the National Press Club in July that the “religious freedoms” debate involves providing “protections to staff and students in religious schools and protections to people of faith”.

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Religious freedoms became a rising issue for the Christian Right during marriage equality debate. Two weeks after it became law, in December 2017, soon-to-be PM Scott Morrison warned that he would be seeking greater protections for people of faith, “particularly” Christians.

The findings of the Malcolm Turnbull government-initiated religious freedoms review, under Philip Ruddock in late 2018, brought to light the fact that religious schools can discriminate against teachers and students based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

That fact became central to the debate.

Morrison’s religious freedoms crusade fell over in the end, because he insisted that religious schools be allowed to discriminate.

Albanese came to office promising to rectify this, however........

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