Aged Care
Religious aged care organisations oppose Religious Discrimination Bill
Eight faith-based aged care, health care and service providers have released a joint statement opposing the Coalition Government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill.
The providers, including Anglicare, Jewish Care and Uniting, launched the statement through LGBTIQ+ lobby group Equality Australia, in united opposition towards the bill which they believe is “a means to cause harm”.
“We respect the diversity of the beliefs held by people who access our services. While there are people who work in our organisations who have active and meaningful expressions of their faith, many do not,” the joint statement states.
“We are proud of the work we do and are focused on the many needs before us. We believe a divisive national conversation about whether people of faith should be able to discriminate against people of no, or different faiths, is not in the national interest”.
“It is our view that the draft Religious Discrimination Bill will allow people and organisations to use faith as a means to cause harm,” the joint statement continues.
Uniting Victoria/Tasmania CEO Bronwyn Pike justified her organisation’s opposition to the bill, saying “there are no grounds on which religion can be justification for saying or doing harmful things”.
Her counterpart at Jewish Care Victoria, Bill Appleby agreed, saying “we [believe] in the law being equitable for all, and [in] a person’s right to be free from those that seek to discriminate against them”.
Debate on the Religious Discrimination Bill continues in the Federal Parliament, with submissions to the inquiry on the bill having closed in January.