Yuyutsu,

People in this country are free to follow whatever
religion they want as long as their beliefs do
not hurt others or break our laws.

When we hide discrimination under the guise of
'religious freedom' we make a mockery of human rights.

ALTRAV,

'Political Correctness' is a label that some people often
use to distract from their ignorance and bigotry.
BTW - your opinion is not my reality.
And of course you have a right to your opinion.
And I have a right to ignore it.

Cheers.

Yuyutsu, fair enough.
I would immediately suggest that, just as common law has it's experts, govt, courts etc., so too does the church.
It may not be possible for the layman or even a lawyer or govt to debate or understand religion, but the church does.
And it does it impeccably.
If as you contend, 'ordinary humans are not able to discern and tell which actions are religious and which are not', Then thankfully the matter is handed onto the religious experts for clarity, and put in a form easily understood by mere mortals.

We have a separation of church and state in this
country.

Our laws are those enacted by the Parliament under
the Australian Constitution. We do not have a
separate stream of law derived from religious sources
that competes with or supplants Australian law in
governing our civil society. The source of our law is
the democratically elected legislature not the church.

Foxy,

Then how is it that we have penalty rates for working on a Sunday and Seventh Day Adventists can choose not to work on a Saturday?

Then there are the Jews:
"VICTORIA'S Jewish community has set up a special court to resolve disputes involving its members.
Specially trained rabbis will handle civil and commercial issues using a combination of Jewish and Australian law.

The court, known as a Beth Din, has previously only dealt with matters relating to divorce and the conversion to Judaism.

Rabbinical Council of Victoria president Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said the court would offer parties arbitration and mediation to resolve disputes so they wouldn't need to go through the normal legal system".

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/rabbis-to-settle-jewish-disputes-in-special-court/news-story/08dda8afcd8c3b27eb7a45c518c65d01

Foxy, I think we all know that, but we are discussing the exemption of certain laws based on religious grounds.
We are not looking to supplant a religious law in place of a common law.
As I said, and because it has been so for as long as I can remember, we do have exemptions based on religion, and have done for a very long time.
So what is being discussed/proposed is already enacted so we need not discuss this further, other than to see if the govt gives specific exemptions to the church and in what context.

Foxy,

I forgot to mention Customary Law as it pertains to Indigenous Australians,

"In the Northern Territory, some statutes and courts make explicit reference to customary law where such is useful in identifying relationships or social expectations. These changes have not been without controversy, especially in cases where customary law is either imprecise, or infringes upon human rights."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customary_law_in_Australia