Commenting on the Religious Discrimination bills, our President Pauline Wright told Scott Levi: "Sadly these bills do or would allow people to override existing human rights protections and anti-discrimination laws and effectively give a licence to discriminate in the name of religious freedom. So people’s fears in that regard are founded. In my view, it is a flawed proposal because it basically puts religious views above other sorts of human rights that are really important" Pauline told Scott.

Asked about the need for the bill, Pauline commented:

"At the moment there really isn’t any evidence - or any huge evidence - at all that religious people are being discriminated against, so the question is: is there a need for this at all? It certainly was promised in the wake of the Folau incident and also it was a response to the marriage equality plebiscite, where it was promised that freedom of religion wouldn’t be affected... But [the bill] doesn’t get the balance right between that important task of protecting religious adherence, [and protecting] non-believers from religious discrimination."

"We’ve got anti-discrimination laws for a reason. If we’re going to allow people to discriminate against others ... based on their genuinely held religious views, I think that is the start of a slippery slope. I think it's very regrettable, it will in fact allow people to refuse access to premises or services for the purposes of same-sex marriage for instance."

"There is no need for this ... the ordinary religious person can go about their business and be free to practice their religion, express their beliefs, the only brake on that at the moment is that they shouldn’t express beliefs that are likely to insight hatred and violence."

Listen to the full episode: Breakfast with Scott Levi
Ms Wright appears from from 2:06:55