Wentworth MP Allegra Spender is urging the Albanese government to honour its 2022 election promise to close a loophole under federal law that allows religious schools to discriminate against teachers and students based on their gender identity, sexuality or marital status.
Wed 21 Oct 2026 01.01 AEDT
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
As with most things in Australia, the ability to shackle women during child birth is a practice that impacts more First Nations women than others, and most women in parliament would never have spoken to a woman who had given birth while shackled to a bed. And yet, the Australian parliament could not even manage to support minimum guidelines.
Australia’s 20 richest people now hold more wealth than the poorest three million households combined, with the Greens accusing Labor, the Coalition, and One Nation of protecting corporate interests while ordinary Australians fall further behind.
Wentworth MP Allegra Spender is urging the Albanese government to honour its 2022 election promise to close a loophole under federal law that allows religious schools to discriminate against teachers and students based on their gender identity, sexuality or marital status.
The independent MP has introduced a private member’s bill to amend the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work acts, seeking to prevent schools from sacking teachers or expelling students because they are gay, transgender, unmarried, pregnant or divorced.
“The Labor party has had a commitment to make these changes but has failed to act. There is a pathway through the parliament for these,” she said.
“If they aren’t going to act now, when will they?”
Former Sydney Christian school student James Elliot-Watson said he was denied a leadership position and referred to counselling because he was gay.
“My school treated me as less worthy of opportunities, acceptance and patience simply because of who I am, my humanity,” he said.
“No young person should have to experience that. We’ve had years of broken promises that the laws will change, but right now we’re leaving kids across the country at risk of the same treatment that I faced.”
Former prime minister Scott Morrison shelved his religious discrimination reforms three months before the 2022 election.
The move followed five Liberal MPs crossing the floor to support an amendment extending protections to transgender students in religious schools, triggering a backlash from religious groups and conservatives.
Anthony Albanese promised ahead of the 2022 election to “deal with” the issue but, more than four years later, the promised protections are yet to be legislated.
The government has maintained that religious discrimination reforms require bipartisan support, with The Australian reporting that Labor and the Coalition would not back Ms Spender’s bill.
“Schools should be places where students are protected, where they can grow and be themselves. These laws do the opposite,” said the Community Strong MP.
Equality Australia welcomed the bill and urged Labor to back the “long-overdue” protections.
“With the support of the Greens, there is a clear path through parliament to pass this bill,” said Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown.
“The question is whether the government is serious about honouring the commitment it made to our community and women’s groups all those years ago.”
Quality research, analysis, explainers and factchecks from experts you can trust.
Ms Spender said her Sex Discrimination and Fair Work Amendment (Equality in Treatment in Religious Schools) Bill 2026 would deliver what Labor promised.
She added that it would preserve religious schools’ ability to appoint people of faith, promote staff to substantial leadership roles based on faith and teach according to their beliefs.
“I’ve spoken to people who lost their jobs because they got divorced. Inquiries have heard from teachers who were let go after marrying their same-sex partner, or after becoming pregnant through IVF,” she said.
“This is about faith and fairness coexisting. We can protect religious freedom without anyone being able to lose their job or being expelled because of who they are.”
Ordained pastor Dr Karen Pack said she was fired from her teaching job at a Baptist tertiary college in Sydney in 2020 after becoming engaged to her same-sex partner.
“No one should be forced to choose between their faith and who they are,” she said.
“Every year these reforms are delayed, more people are left vulnerable to the same hurt and rejection I experienced.”
In a 2021 statement to the ABC’s 7.30 program, Morling College said Dr Pack had decided to leave because she could “no longer adhere to a key Morling value”.
Dr Pack disputed that claim.
“When students and staff are forced to hide who they are to keep their place in a school community, the cost can be devastating, leading to significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression. We have a choice: care over closeting, compassion over coercion,” she said.
Ms Spender said differing state and territory laws had created a “confusing patchwork” with protections depending on where a person lived.
“In NSW and WA, students have no protection, while in other jurisdictions they do, and protections for teachers vary from place to place,” she said.
“We are a country of different faiths and cultures, but we should have one set of laws that apply to us all.
“Staff and students at religious schools deserve the same protections afforded to those at other institutions.”
