Catholics limiting choice

That outpouring of public anger would have come as no surprise to those familiar with opinion polls on the issue of private schools and public standards.

Between 80 and 90 per cent of Australians believe religious schools should not be able to expel students who are gay or pregnant. The figure rises to 96 per cent when respondents are asked if it’s good for students of different backgrounds and religions to mix at school.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of Australians are against the kind of discrimination that the exemption sought by the Tasmanian Catholic church would permit. They are strongly against the sectarian environment it is aimed at creating. They are for all Australian children having the same educational opportunities regardless of their religious faith or background.

These values are embodied in a wide range of education frameworks endorsed by successive federal and state governments, including the National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century. But nowhere in Australia are they are embodied as clearly and with as much force as they are in the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act. Watering down these protections would set a dangerous precedent in Tasmania and beyond.

How many other demands for exemptions, in areas such as sex, sexuality and relationship status, will religious institutions demand and be conceded?

The Anti-Discrimination Act already has provisions allowing the Commissioner to grant exemptions if she is convinced they are necessary. The Church should go through this accountable and transparent semi-judicial process like everyone else.

Wasting Parliament’s time with special legislation is bound to provoke the ire of those Tasmanians who’ve had their fill of fast-track approval processes for powerful vested interests.

But as bad as an exemption will be for the integrity of the Anti-Discrimination Act, it will be far worse for the positive school culture I began by describing. More supportive and inclusive leaning environments are important both for individual students and their school communities. Schools that are safe are also schools with better educational outcomes. But positive schools cultures can be undermined as quickly as they develop.

If the strength of Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act has helped make schools safer places for everyone, weakening this law threatens to return us to a time when schools were not safe.

The role of anti-discrimination law is to protect the most vulnerable people in our community from prejudice and harassment.

The increased sense of safety felt by gay Catholics school students is one of the best litmus tests of the success of Tasmania’s anti-discrimination laws in fulfilling this mission.

We cannot afford to jeopardise the gains we have made by turning back the clock of equal opportunity.