Religious Freedom protections in new same sex marriage proposals: too few, too narrow
The debate over same sex marriage in Australia has been re-ignited by news that some members of the federal governing Liberal/National Party ( LNP ) coalition are proposing, contrary to their party’s policy, to introduce legislation in Federal Parliament this coming week to redefine marriage to extend it to same sex couples. In particular, press reports today indicate that a new Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms ) Bill 2017 will be introduced, one feature of which is that it contains legislative protections for religious freedom, designed to encourage support of the legislation by believers. In my view the protections to be provided, if press reports about the proposal are accurate, are far too few and far too narrow, and the proposal cannot be seen as providing adequate protection for this fundamental human right. Background to current proposals I have noted previous developments on this area in Australia in a number of previous posts. In brief, marriage in A