Senior Liberal Simon Birmingham says it's hard for the Coalition to support religious discrimination laws it has not seen, as the federal government threatens to ditch one of its election promises unless it has the backing of both major parties.
Shadow Senate Leader Simon Birmingham, one of the most senior moderate voices in the Liberals, told the ABC the opposition wanted to see the legislation.It's reasonable to aspire to bipartisanship, but you also have to work to achieve bipartisanship … the opposition has not yet seen the proposals from the government, so it's very hard to give bipartisanship to something you have not seen," Senator Birmingham said.
Christian Schools Australia's policy director Mark Spencer said bipartisanship was desirable and achievable. Greens senator Janet Rice said the government should be seeking to win the support of her party rather than dealing with the Coalition.I cannot imagine that the Coalition are going to be supporting laws to protect against religious discrimination that aren't also going to be appallingly discriminatory against trans, gender diverse and same-sex attracted people," Senator Rice said.