Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, everyone. I always enjoy at the start of the Parliamentary year that we can come together in this way, and I particularly want to thank Archbishop Makarios who I know very well, and Jenny knows, and to see him here this morning was great. It was particularly nice to be here in a, in a Orthodox Church today. First time we've done that, and it reminded me, as we consider some of the big issues of today and the Parliamentary year, that people from all around the world have come to our country. And they've so often come from many different faiths and many different backgrounds. They’ve come from places where they were discriminated against for that faith and for that belief. And as Bishop Tarabay from the Maronite Church often reminds me, so many of those who came from Lebanon, in particular, came here because they wanted to get away from the persecution and discrimination that they suffered in their home country.
For so many Australians, their faith and their religion is their culture. You can't separate them. And when you listen to their stories, as I often do, they will tell stories over hundreds of years and even longer about how they as a, as a people of faith and religion have survived through some of the worst things you can possibly imagine in countries all around the world. But they came here to Australia so they could get away from that and they could start a new life. And so they could have their religious faith and they could have their belief and they could have their community and they could have their culture, and that they would not be discriminated against. I don't want them to be discriminated against, and before the last election I said I wanted there to be laws in place that ensured their freedom from that discrimination. And that's what this is about.
There are many other laws in our Parliament, many other laws that deal with many other things. And there's time and place to deal with those. But on this day, it's important that we remember that for so many Australians - it doesn't matter whether you’re Hindu, whether you're Sikh, whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Muslim, whether you’re Jewish, whether you have, choose to have no religious faith at all - that is also important to protect this country because we sing, ‘Australians all one and free’. And I hope that means something today as we gather together and we seek to put in place the opportunity for those who wish to live their religion here in this country and live their faith, which has such an important contribution to our country and always has - binding Australia together, not forcing it apart. This is why I made that pledge before the last election, and that is why I continue to stand very strongly on this point.
Now this will be a year where we will be faced with some very big choices. We’ll begin the Parliament this year by acknowledging the terrible events that have taken place in our own Parliament, and that began an important conversation in this country about how Australia can be better when it comes particularly to the treatment of women in our workplaces, in our society and in our lives. And I welcome that. It's been a difficult journey and an important one, a very important one, that our Government has embraced and I believe the Parliament has embraced, not as a political issue, but as one of shared objective and shared purpose. And so I look forward to that being progressed today.
More broadly, though, as we go into this year, Australians will be making an important choice about a strong economy and how to keep it, about how to keep Australians safe and our borders secure, about how to ensure that we grow together and not apart, as we ensure that that strong economy upon which everything else depends - the essential services that Australians rely on, the very safety that we have in this country - all of this will be the issues that I'm sure will weigh heavily on the minds of Australians this year as we work through to when the election is held.
But today is a time of prayer and reflection before we begin what will be, I think, a very important year for Australia, on which our future will be determined. And for our Government, it's about keeping Australians in a place where our economy is strong, we’re keeping Australians safe and we're keeping Australians together. And with that I’m happy to answer a few questions.
JOURNALIST: Are you confident that the Religious Discrimination Bill will pass before the next election?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm confident this is a very important bill, and I stand by it 100 per cent. And I'm standing with the millions of Australians for whom this is such an important issue. I gave them that pledge and I'm honouring that pledge, and I'm calling on the Parliament to honour it also. Australians at the last election elected our Government. We were very clear that this was a bill that we wanted to see passed, so it will go to the Parliament.
JOURNALIST: Will religious schools be able to expel trans students under the proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this bill does not provide for that. You’re referring to an existing law that was introduced by the Labor Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. That is the Dreyfus law that you’re referring to. He put that in place. This bill does not seek to endorse that arrangement. That is an existing law. What we are dealing with here today are not those matters. They are going through a process with the Australian Law Reform Commission, as you know. What we're dealing with today is discrimination against people for their religious belief and faith. That's what that bill does. That bill does not do the things that you’re saying. That is an existing law that was introduced by the Labor Party when they were in Government.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if you can’t get major legislation like this through the Parliament, isn't that a sign that your leadership is weak?
PRIME MINISTER: Let’s just see what happens.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how do you plan on uniting your party on the Religious Discrimination Bill, and will you be listening to Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins’ speech at the National Press Club this week?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's going to be a busy week, I don't get the opportunity to listen to all those speeches, but I’ll certainly ensure that I’m aware of what they have said, and and I’m certainly, like the rest of the country, very interested in the contribution that they make and the contribution that they have made. I think the contribution they have made, as I said, has brought forward some very important issues that we’ve had to deal with and we should deal with and were long overdue, and I’m very pleased that they have been in the actions we're taking together as a Parliament to address those very serious issues.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you’ve had a, you have had a rough start to the year. You’ve had assaults on your character by members of your own side. You’re behind in the polls. Do you believe that you can turn things around yourself politically this fortnight?
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.