A protest planned for Saturday in Wollongong is likely to still go ahead even though it appears the federal government will shelve plans indefinitely to overhaul religious freedom laws.
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Speakout: Kill the Bill! Protect LGBTQ+ Kids! protest is slated to be held at the Crown Street Mall from 12pm on February 12.
The protest has been organised by the Wollongong Undergraduate Students Association (WUSA) at the University of Wollongong, to coincide with similar protests to defend LGBTQI + rights happening around the country.
WUSA spokesman Jack Mansell said the main goal was to put pressure on the government to withdraw its "contentious and unpopular" Religious Discrimination Bill.
Various media outlets today reported that Coalition sources had confirmed the government was all but guaranteed not to bring the Bill back for debate when the Senate next sits in March.
That is because the government does not want further debate about religious freedoms to hijack its plans to sell a pre-election budget.
The religious discrimination bill put before the lower house this week was a much-watered down version of what the government had initially proposed.
In the early hours of this morning, five Liberal MPs joined Labor and the crossbench to vote against the government and extend protections for transgender school students.
Conservative government members and some religious groups are advocating for the bill to be formally dumped.
This is music to the ears of Mr Mansell, who said the "Bill in its entirety was a problem, not just the most argerious aspects of it".
"As it stands, a nurse or a teacher who is gay or transgender, which has no bearing on their ability to give care or teach children, can still be fired under this legislation," he said.
"They have been entirely left out of the discussion in the Bill, and the Labor Party hasn't said anything about the fact that this is basically a massive attack on anti-discrimination laws around employment.
"I think more broadly, the point of the legislation is not just about specific rights, because actually religious schools in NSW already had the right to fire gay staff, which was outrageous in itself, but I think it is about emboldening those institutions that actually exercise those powers.
"I think that is why there is a general backlash.
"WUSA stand with the 75 per cent of voters, which polling showed opposed the main contends of the Bill.
"We want to put pressure on the government to withdraw the Bill, which is extremely unpopular at the moment."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
