We welcome the opportunity to comment on the second Exposure Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2019.
As the national centre of excellence in health justice partnership, we work to address the multiple, intersecting legal and social problems in people’s lives that affect their health, including the impact of discrimination. Discrimination affects people directly, by causing stress and anxiety, and indirectly, for example by denying people access to services for which they are entitled or by making their workplaces unsafe and therefore their employment untenable.
We oppose this Bill because, despite its stated intention of providing protection from discrimination for people of religious belief or activity, it increases the likelihood that people will be discriminated against.
