Coalition’s religious discrimination bill passes after marathon all-night sitting

The Morrison government has passed the religious discrimination bill in a marathon all-night sitting of the House of Representatives, despite Liberal moderates defecting to help add more extensive protections for LGBTQ+ students.

The Liberal MPs Bridget Archer, Trent Zimmerman, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin and Dave Sharma crossed the floor against the government, helping Labor and the crossbench add protections for LGBTQ+ students into the Sex Discrimination Act.

The main bill received a third reading at 4am, officially passing the lower house with Labor support after Wednesday's resolution by the opposition caucus to fight for amendments but not oppose the bill at the final stage.

The human rights amendment bill, which now prevents religious schools discriminating against students on gender and sexuality, passed shortly before 5am - despite a last-ditch attempt from the government to defeat its own legislation.

Labor and several of the government's own members were galvanised by the Morrison government revealing it will protect gay students from expulsion - but not other forms of discrimination - without protecting trans students at the same time.

Zimmerman told the house the parliament could not send a message by "omission" by moving to fix sexuality discrimination but not gender identity discrimination. "I could not live with myself if I didn't seek to address those issues."

Earlier, the Morrison government defeated Labor amendments to the statements of belief clause by the narrowest margin.