Australia to stop schools expelling gay students
Move by Canberra’s conservative government follows a public outcry that had threatened to sway a crucial by-election
Australia’s conservative government will ban schools from expelling students over their sexuality, after a public outcry over the issue that threatened to sway the result of a crucial by-election and change the balance of power.
Laws allowing faith-based schools in some states to discriminate against gay students and teachers were highlighted in a review into religious protections that was leaked in the media last week.
The ensuing public outcry, with even Catholic organisations rejecting the prospect of discriminating against gay students, came ahead of an October 20 by-election that could cost the government its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.
It’s 2018, not the 1950s, no matter what Scott Morrison thinks
The by-election – triggered when former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull resigned from parliament after being ousted as leader by Scott Morrison – fuelled fears of a voter backlash in the blue-ribbon seat.
Support of gay rights is particularly high in Turnbull’s wealthy Sydney beachside seat of Wentworth, which voted 81 per cent in favour of gay marriage in last year’s national postal poll.
Morrison, an evangelical Christian who opposed gay marriage, initially blamed the furore on “misreporting” and insisted the religious review was about more protection for students against discrimination.
