Commentary The promise to legislate for religious freedom protections was considered a key commitment of the Coalition during the 2019 election campaign. The case of the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Julian Porteous, who was brought to the Tasmanian anti-discrimination commission simply because he authorised the distribution of a booklet outlining the Church’s position on traditional marriage, made it clear some action to protect people of faith in this country was needed. However, while the promise to protect religious freedom was probably made with the best of intentions, it was always doomed to fail. Augusto Zimmermann noted in The Australian the Bill would not solve all or even most of the problems with religious freedom in Australia. He said that the proposed legislation could be construed in such a way as to allow still the states to take action against religious leaders over the public dissemination of doctrine that leaves people feeling …