Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the few minutes I have before we break for members' statements, I want to start my contribution on the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 by saying how disappointed I am at the way in which the government has handled this debate. I stand here, like many members in this place, really feeling for our constituents, for the amount of grief that this government has caused, for the amount of hurt this government has caused and for the amount of anguish this government has caused. People are confused, scared and worried about the consequences of this bill because the government has not taken the time to bring our community with us. I'm standing here, saying to the government: 'You've still got time to do the right thing. You don't need to rush this through in the last days of this parliament.' I'm pleading with them to listen to what the community is saying. This is not the right time to be pushing through this bill. This bill should be a shield. It should be about supporting and protecting people of all faiths. It should not be a sword. This bill, because of the way in which the government have been conducting this debate, is dividing our communities.

In my speech, I want to set out where people in Bendigo are coming from. When I talk to faith based organisations in my electorate, particularly those in aged care, they don't want to talk to me about this bill. They want to talk to me about how they can get staff on their rosters. They want to talk to me about PPE. They want to talk to me about access to RATs. They want to talk to me about how they can get extra money from the government to increase the wages of their aged-care staff. They want to talk to me about how they're exhausted. We're in the middle of a pandemic, and what they don't want to be having is a conversation with their staff about how under these proposed laws they may or may not be able to sack them based upon a religious reason. They don't want to be having those conversations right now. They want to be having conversations about how their staff, who are doing a tough job, can feel supported and protected during the middle of a pandemic.

It's the same for our teachers. Right now our teachers, particularly those in primary schools, are under pressure, where not a lot of children have had the opportunity to be vaccinated or to be double-vaxxed. It's the wrong time to be having a conversation in our community about the right of a school to sack a teacher based upon religious beliefs. The government, by trying to force this bill through, is creating real anxiety in schools, in schoolteachers and in school communities. They're creating fear and anxiety for families, particularly our rainbow families—a lot of families that are still quite hurt because this government, in the previous parliament, put them through a very painful marriage equality plebiscite. We're talking about people—

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