Ian Thorpe doesn't hold back in slamming ScoMo's religious discrimination bill
Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe has hit out against Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s religious discrimination bill.
Appearing at a media conference on Tuesday, the Olympian minced no words while sharing his opinion of the bill.
“We want to see it disappear,” he said.
“It has no friends in Parliament, it hasn’t, the first time it came around, the second has come around, and now this is the third time of this bill and is something that we would prefer to see squashed and get rid of it.”
“What this is, is it becomes a state-sanctioned discrimination. To give rights for 100 people while excluding another group of people, for me, is discrimination.
“And with that, we should consider what this place that we are in, what it represents and how it represents each and everyone of us.”
His comments come as the proposed amendments to the bill would prevent religious schools from having the right to expel gay students, but withholding the same protection from transgender students.
The bill is Mr Morrison’s top priority as Parliament returns this week and ahead of the upcoming federal election.
Appearing on Sunrise, Thorpe said the bill allows “state-sponsored discrimination”.
“Any bill that protects one group of people yet discriminates against another group of people, it’s actually wrong.”
Thorpe was joined on the show by transgender Year 12 student Olivia, who told reporters she experienced “direct discrimination” from a former school after coming out.
“They told me I was very likely to be bullied by people… that my twin brother in the same year at the school would also be bullied. They told us that his leadership potential would be jeopardised,” she said.
“They said that if I just leave this term, it would not have to pay the rest of the term’s fees. This left me without a school going into the new year and with nowhere to go.”
The retired swimmer, who came out as gay in 2014, said he supported people expressing their faiths and that he had been raised in a Christian household, but that expressing a view “that may be villifying another group of people'' would come with repercussions.
Members of the LGBTQI+ community fear the proposed laws could see them be denied work opportunities from those with religious views, as the laws protect a person from being discriminated against on the basis of their religion.
Finance minister and Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, confirmed the amendments would only relate to sexual orientation, raising concerns that trans students would be excluded and left unprotected.
“The proposal that is put forward is to repeal the exemption as it relates to students being exempted from the Sex Discrimination Act on the basis of their sexual orientation. Now it doesn’t go further than that,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
However, Mr Morrison denied that transgender students would not be able to be expelled from religious schools.
“This bill does not seek to endorse that arrangement. That's an existing law. What we're dealing with today are not those matters,” he said.
“We're dealing with discrimination against people for their religious belief and faith.”
Despite opposition from within his own party and from the opposition, Mr Morrison said he was confident the bill would pass parliament.
“I stand by it 100 per cent, and I'm standing with the millions of Australians for whom this is such an important issue,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“For many Australians, their faith and religion is their culture, you can't separate them.”
Images: Getty Images