A public hearing in Sydney yesterday into the Federal Government’s proposed new anti-discrimination laws heard that it was of utmost importance to provide specific legal protections for intersex people as well as remove or significantly tighten exemptions allowed for religious organisations.

As the Liberal Party amps up its opposition to Labor’s proposed consolidation of federal anti-discrimination laws, the union representing staff across the nation’s universities has said the laws do not go far enough to protect the LGBTI community from discrimination and, if passed in its current guise, will actually legislate for homophobia.