Calls to Remove Religious Schools Exemptions Against LGBTIQA+ Students and Teachers Are Back

Independent MP Allegra Spender has introduced laws to repeal the exemptions that permit religious schools to deny entrance to or to remove teachers, students and contractors from their institutions, due to their diverse sexualities and genders.

This proposal originally took centre stage in 2018, as the national religious freedoms debate took off prior to then PM Scott Morrison shooting it down.

Introduced on 12 October 2026, the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work Amendment (Equality in Treatment in Religious Schools) Bill 2026 seeks to repeal the offending exemptions in federal sex discrimination law, along with removing the related provisions in federal workplace relations law, and it further, extends protections to associates of those captured under the current exemptions.

Section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (the SDA) makes it lawful for religious education institutions to discriminate against a person due to their “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status or pregnancy” in connection with being a teacher, a student or a contract worker at an institution that is conducted in line with religious doctrines, tenets and beliefs.

The previous campaign to get rid of these laws was sparked during Morrison’s push to establish a religious freedoms regime raised awareness of their existence in late 2018. Morrison’s yearslong religious privileging crusade was then defeated due to debate around these exemptions. And current PM Anthony Albanese promised to progress the reform in 2022 but then changed his mind.

So, despite far-right commentators on social media declaring that Spender has unleashed a left-of-field attack against the Christian Church, the member for Wentworth is progressing reforms that vast numbers have long supported. Yet, these reforms will again face the wrath of the politicians of the Christian Right, as those conversative have been extremely reluctant to let this proceed in the past.

Repealing exemptions to discriminate

“These exemptions have already been removed in state and territory law, to varying degrees, but there are no national standards,” Spender told parliament last week. “The Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2024 review found that religious schools could still maintain their ethos without this exemption.”

“At its heart, section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act is repealed in its entirety and replaced with a far narrower provision,” the teal independent continued, during her 12 October second reading speech on her private member’s bill. “Protections are also extended to a person’s associates…. This means a child cannot be treated differently just because she has two mums.”

The legislation repeals the current provisions affecting students, teachers and contract workers in section 38 and replaces it with a provision that allows institutions to preference staff based on faith in two ways: at initial employment and in the promotion of senior leadership roles, such as “principal, vice-principal, religious education teacher, chaplain” or any other comparable role.

The bill too inserts new section 7AAA into the SDA, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against an associate, such as a spouse or relative, of a person protected under the Act. It removes additional provisions that permitted discrimination based on sex, sexuality or gender. And it also repeals provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) that extend discrimination into workplace agreements.

“But preferencing is not a licence to discriminate. A school can choose a candidate because of their faith. It cannot fire someone because of their sexuality,” Spender further clarified in progressing her bill. “Many students have wonderful, formative experiences at religious schools. Many LGBTQIA+ students come out to their friends and teachers in these schools and are accepted.”

“But… this is not everyone’s experience.”

Morrison’s religious privileges crusade

The exemptions in section 38 of the SDA relating to sexual orientation and gender identity, where inserted into the Act, when a 2013 bill added antidiscrimination provisions into the law that related to sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex characteristics. And the exemptions in respect of gay and transgender individuals joined preexisting ones that permitted discrimination based on sex.

In October 2018, the Ruddock review into religious freedoms recommended tightening these exemptions in federal law, and it drew widespread attention to and then condemnation of the laws. And whilst then PM Morrison initially decided to downplay the outcry by justifying the laws as preexisting, by the end of the week, he’d promised to repeal the measures targeting students.

As Morrison, a devout Pentecostal, attempted to progress three versions of the Religious Freedoms Bill, two in 2019 and one in 2022, the removal of any exemptions was forgotten. Each version of the religious freedoms legislation was increasingly watered down. And over the three years of debate surrounding these laws, it became clear that the measures sought were religious privileges.

The Australian public sphere is markedly different in terms of religious concerns in the present. Right now, there is a push to insert the IHRA definition of antisemitism into all levels of government in order to curb criticism of Israel and its genocide. But, at the beginning of the decade, the push was from archconservative Christians, who wanted to ensure that their religious beliefs usurped all else.

And the 5-year-long religious freedoms debate came to an abrupt end in early 2022, when Morrison shelved the bill at the eleventh hour, due to five Liberal MPs having crossed the floor to support an amendment progressed by Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, which sought to block the ability to expel gay and trans students, as Morrison was only prepared to allow this change for gay students.

The long road to reform

Following the end of Morrison’s crusade, Albanese made a promise to remove the exemptions for students and teachers in the lead up to the May 2022 election. In March 2024, the PM had two draft laws, one to remove the exemptions and the other to progress religious discrimination protections, but as he didn’t receive Coalition commitment to progress the laws prior, he dropped them.

Spender told the chamber last week that there have been ten inquiries, more than 260 hearings and over 70,000 submissions related to religious discrimination and the removal of the exemptions, since 2016. She questioned why four years after federal Labor made a commitment nothing has been progressed and added that she’s now created a legislative path to enable it to keep its promise.

The teal independent further explained that whilst the removal of the exemptions will not encroach upon the way in which religious educational institutions operate for the most part, the repeal of the law is necessary because, as it stands, the message this sends rings out “well beyond the school gate”, as these laws posit that discrimination against LGBTIQA+ people is permitted on occasion.

“Australians expect equality in front of the law, not least from those institutions that are partly funded by taxpayers,” Spender added, when introducing her proposed law changes.

“Getting this balance right is not easy, but our laws need to be applied fairly across our country,” the MP said in ending. “I think there is a practical and sensible pathway through this and I welcome working with the government and colleagues across the house to do this. I believe there is a path that this parliament could unite around.”

Image: Scott Morrison taken from a photo of a 2020 climate protest placard. Spender 2018 by state of NSW is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Student with books from Shutterstock: Image ID 2657675949