Disability advocates say their voices have been drowned out in conversations this week surrounding the Religious Discrimination Bill.
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The federal government has indefinitely shelved its controversial Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB), in order to make further inquiries before it goes to the Senate.
The bill passed in the House of Representatives early Thursday morning, after successful lobbying from moderate liberals and labor members for amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act.
The amendments passed would provide discrimination protections for LGBTQI+ individuals under the RDB.
However, Rights Information and Advocacy Centre (RIAC) chief executive Karryn Goode said the 'statement of belief' element to the bill - which would allow people with disabilities (among other minority groups) to be discriminated against on the basis of faith - should be amended before the bill returns to the Senate.
"It's very disappointing that people aren't talking about this," she said, "but it's not surprising - anything to do with people with disabilities is rarely in mainstream media."
Ms Goode said the statement of belief clause of the RDB would allow religious institutions to make discriminatory remarks to students with disabilities - as long as it aligned with their faith.
"Can you imagine what it would feel like for someone to say to a person that has a disability that it's a sin?" she said.
"Firstly, we all know that having a disability is not an act of god."
RIAC is concerned that if the bill gets reintroduced to the senate without amendments to the statement of belief clause, there would be a significant impact on school attendance for students with disabilities.
"There are so many children and young people that go to school to be safe," said Ms Goode, "What we're finding more recently is that schools are becoming the safe space for children, we cannot remove that."
Data from 2019 showed only 32 per cent of people with disabilities aged 20 and over had completed school, compared with 64 per cent for people without disabilities.
"If we want to get good outcomes for people with disabilities, then schools need to remain a safe space," Ms Goode said.
"We really need to support the mental health of kids with disabilities.
"They will start to question where they fit, we're taking a huge leap backwards if that's the way we're going to treat people with disabilities."
Bendigo MP Lisa Chesters said there was no way her party would have let the bill go through the Senate on Thursday if it had not amended the statement of belief.
"Our position is that the statement of belief is constitutionally flawed and is unfair," she said.
"Protections for people with disabilities was part of our key amendments of the bill, unfortunately that did not pass the house of reps, but what we've done here is amended the bill enough to have the bill withdrawn and gone to an inquiry.
"Some could say that was tactical."
Ms Chesters said the federal government had consistently left behind people with disabilities.
"We plan to work with communities to strengthen their rights and make sure they have a voice and a seat at the table," she said.
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