victorian health sector response to religious discrimination bill

READ THE JOINT STATEMENT

cohealth, in alliance with 16 community health organisations and hospitals, have released a joint statement outlining our concerns about the second draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill.

We are deeply concerned about the Bill’s provisions which will have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of people who may be the subject of unfavourable religious views.

Laws which should protect religious people from discrimination will hand a licence to those who wish to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ people, women, people with disability, and others.

The joint statement builds on cohealth’s initial submission, published in October 2019, which expressed our concerns about health-related provisions in the Bill.

The Second Exposure Draft of the Bill does nothing to allay the concerns we had about the first draft. We reiterated our recommendations in our second submission, submitted in January 2020.

cohealth is committed to fairness and equality, and making sure no one is left behind. Everyone has a right to access high quality, relevant healthcare services.

Laws that privilege religious views over patient health are unacceptable.