Atheists become Christian, and people of other faiths convert to Christianity. An Australian can be Celtic by race, eclectic by culture, and Buddhist by religion, or Aboriginal, consumerist and secular humanist. We know that race need not define a person's culture or beliefs. Yet this draft legislation fails to recognise that, while none of us can choose our race, in Australia we are free to choose our religion. This in itself would suggest that racial and religious matters require different treatments.
Victorians have many reasons to be wary of broad laws prohibiting religious vilification.
People should be protected from discrimination and vilification regarding race and other fixed attributes. And they should certainly be protected from discrimination and vilification regarding religion, and other matters over which they have choice. The trick is to build that protection without removing the capacity for the freedom of choice. This capacity, in the liberal tradition, will always be the higher good. It may be that the changes necessary could be achieved through laws about racial vilification alone.