The Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Unions Tasmania are both concerned about the impact of the federal government's Religious Discrimination Bill on Tasmania.

The Bill will override and weaken our gold-standard Anti-Discrimination Act.

From a business perspective, the Anti-Discrimination Act has boosted business and tourism in Tasmania thanks to the perception that Tasmania is "the most inclusive state in Australia".

From the perspective of Tasmanian workers, the Act has given them the right to challenge prejudice and discrimination they experience at work.

Most importantly of all, the Anti-Discrimination Act has fostered more inclusive workplaces and a more productive relationship between employers and employees.

If the Religious Discrimination Bill becomes law in its current form, Tasmania has more to lose than any other state or territory.

That is because the federal Bill specifically targets our Act in several ways.

Firstly, it weakens Tasmania's gold-standard protection from humiliating, intimidating and other bullying behaviour.

It will allow that behaviour if it is in the name of religion, although such statements would remain illegal if they are not religious.

That means a manager would be allowed to tell a female co-worker that her divorce was a sin and that women should submit to their husbands.

A worker with disability could be urged by co-workers to seek faith-healing because their disability is the result of sin.

A small business owner could tell their First Nations employees that their culture is "inspired by Satan".

Under current Tasmanian law there is an avenue to resolve each of these situations with mediation at the Anti-Discrimination Commission, but the Religious Discrimination Bill would cut this avenue off and protect the perpetrator.

In short, workplace bullies will be able to step behind the Religious Discrimination Bill as a defence.

We chose the examples of someone with a disability, a woman and a First Nations person because the highest proportion of complaints to Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner are on the grounds of disability, gender and race.

The second major override of the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act is in relation to faith-based schools, hospitals and other services.

Since the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Act was passed 24 years ago, staff in faith-based schools and services have been protected from discrimination in their employment on grounds including sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status.

This means that staff can't be denied a promotion or sacked just because they are LGBTIQ+, in an unmarried heterosexual relationship, or have children through IVF.

Discrimination is allowed in relation to religion in limited circumstances, so a Catholic school doesn't have to employ a Muslim teacher, but the law is clear that religious belief can't be used as cover to discriminate on other grounds.

This has fostered much more inclusive schools, hospitals and other services.

Just one example among many is that in 2018 Baptcare Tasmania - a faith-based provider of a range of community services such as housing, aged and disability care - received an award for its LGBTIQ-inclusive workplaces and services.

The Tasmanian law has worked so well for so long that other places like the ACT, Queensland and Victoria have since followed our lead, although the Tasmanian law remains the gold-standard.

The federal Bill will undo all of this.

It will broaden exemptions allowing religious discrimination and override Tasmania's laws protecting LGBTIQ+ people, de facto partners and others.

Teachers and other staff who thought their jobs were secure will suddenly find their job security under threat.

Some proponents of the Bill say faith-based schools and services should be able to choose people who share their values, like political parties can.

But there is a critical difference; faith-based schools or hospitals are funded by taxpayers to provide an essential service.

In return for their money, parents, patients and the general public expect staff in faith-based services to be selected according to their competence, not church doctrine.

There are a number of other ways the high standard of Tasmania's anti-discrimination law will be undermined by the federal Bill.

For example, professional bodies will have less power to discipline members who make "statements of belief" that demean people and bring the profession into disrepute.

The state government won't be able to write anti-discrimination clauses into its agreements with faith-based contractors delivering government services.

Faith-linked commercial services like conference centres, food retailers or camps that are open to the public will be allowed to discriminate.

To be clear, we oppose discrimination against people of faith and support Tasmania's existing strong protections for religious belief and practice.

But the federal Bill goes way beyond this by allowing discrimination and special exemptions in the name of faith.

Tasmania is a more tolerant and inclusive place because of our Anti-Discrimination Act.

The benefits of this have been experienced by workers, businesses and the wider public.

As we Tasmanians stand together in the face of the global challenge of COVID, the last thing we need is federal meddling that will create more division.

Join us in telling Canberra to leave Tasmania's gold-standard Anti-Discrimination Act alone.