Religious organisations and schools will no longer be able to sack or refuse to hire people based on protected attributes such as sexuality, gender identity or marital status, under new laws.
Announced by Attorney-General, Jaclyn Symes, the Equal Opportunity (Religious Exceptions) Amendment Bill 2021 also covers religious organisations that receive Victorian Government funding to provide services.
Ms Symes said under the reforms, those organisations would not be able to refuse to provide services to people based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
“Religious organisations and schools will only be able to make employment decisions based on an employee’s religious beliefs where these are inherent to the job such as a religious studies teacher, or a principal,” she said.
“The Bill recognises the rights of religious organisations and schools to continue to practice their faith, provide religious teaching and instil their religious ethos within their organisation.
“The legislation will not impact on how religious bodies can select priests, ministers, religious leaders or their members.”
Ms Symes said previous protections to prevent discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people were stripped back in 2011 and were blocked from being reinstated in 2016.
The Attorney-General said this left many teachers and other employees at religious organisations in fear of being ‘outed’ to their employers, “potentially risking their livelihoods where their sexuality, marital status or gender identity had nothing to do with their role”.
“It’s been a long journey to fix these gaps in our laws – I hope with these changes all Victorians can live authentically, free of fear and in no doubt that the law has their back too,” she said.
“Our reforms respect the independence of religious bodies while reducing critical gaps in protections against discrimination,” Ms Symes said.
