People of faith feel let down by our politicians' failure to guarantee religious freedom

Australian law protects against many forms of discrimination. Race, gender, age, and disability are all protected attributes with their own anti-discrimination legislation. But religious belief is not a protected attribute under Australian law, and this is a glaring gap in our anti-discrimination framework.

Addressing this gap is fundamentally a human rights issue. Article 18 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights recognises the right to hold religious belief and the freedom to manifest that belief in worship, practice, or teaching. Australia ratified this convention over forty years ago.

The Federal Religious Discrimination Bill was far from perfect. It did not protect against vilification of people because of their faith — essential to defend against the type of hate speech and incitement that led to the Christchurch massacre.

The ICV strongly urges the Coalition parties and Labor to take political point scoring out of this debate. We encourage them to take a bipartisan approach and do the right thing by those Australians that feel their religious identity is under siege.