On Friday, the Prime Minister announced at a press conference that he was going to abandon religious discrimination reform after the Opposition vetoed their legislation.
This broken promise from Labor has received universal scorn from across the political aisle. Religious leaders, LGBTIQA+ community and Labor’s own voters expected Labor to deliver their election promise — not capitulate to Peter Dutton’s whims.
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s report last year was a roadmap to reform everyone could agree to and Labor has had a clear pathway through the Senate, with the support of the Greens and crossbench, to deliver those recommendations in full.
But to Labor, the only opinion that matters is Peter Dutton’s.
Stephen Bates, Australian Greens LGBTIQA+ spokesperson
Yet another broken election promise from a Prime Minister too cowardly to do his job. Labor won the last election with a promise to protect LGBTIQA+ workers and people of faith from discrimination and he’s failed at both.
Enough broken promises. If this government cares at all about LGBTIQA+ workers, they would move right now to remove section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act like the Law Reform Commission said to.
This Labor government has had the numbers to get this done for months and The Greens have offered time and again to work collaboratively to make this change.
The LGBTIQA+ community wants protections. Communities of faith want protections. The vast majority of the country wants this positive and progressive change.
When it comes to keeping progressive promises, it seems this Labor government is incapable of doing so without the sign off of the LNP.
Sex discrimination reform on Friday. Makarrata Commission on Monday. How many election promises does Albanese plan on breaking this week?
Labor needs to realise that they are the government and have been for over two years. They have the power to implement progressive change with The Greens but it’s painfully clear that Labor has no intention of doing that.
When the LNP are in government, they waste no time in implementing a radical conservative agenda. Now that Labor is in power, we are told their hands are tied and that they’d love to do nice things but can’t because Dutton won’t let them. No-one’s buying it.