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Labor’s shadow cabinet has been meeting since 8am to discuss the religious discrimination bill, and related amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act.

Guardian Australia understands that one of the options presented to the meeting by the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, is to move amendments:

• Removing the controversial statements of belief clause, that provides that statements grounded in faith or non-belief do not infringe other discrimination laws (including state laws); and
• Increasing protections in the Sex Discrimination Act to protect both teachers and students on grounds of sexuality and gender identity

This was only described as an option – either because anything agreed in shadow cabinet will need caucus approval when it meets at 10:15am, or because there are other options still under consideration including amending the statements of belief clause rather than removing it entirely.

We’ll bring you more as we have it.

Victoria’s opposition leader, Matthew Guy, says he will cooperate with police, who are investigating images of his MPs not wearing masks inside parliament yesterday.

He told reporters:

Whatever comes comes, [we] will obviously deal with that and cooperate with any questions that are put to us. But I say this again, these rules are confusing, mask mandates in non high-risk settings should be a thing of the past. It is time for all of us to move on.

Guy says several MPs were drinking coffee as Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy gave a motivational speech to the Liberal party room ahead of the 2022 state election.

Some took their masks off for the photos with Sheedy, he said.

Like any law abiding citizen who wants to do the right thing, if we’ve made a mistake then of course we’ll do the right thing.

In October 2021, Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, was fined $400 for twice not wearing a mask outside parliament.

At the time, Andrews told reporters if he was not fined he would donate $400 to charity.

Guy has offered to do the same.

Following on from the statement of acknowledgement to parliament yesterday, and ahead of Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame’s appearance at the National Press Club later on, the government has confirmed it will press ahead with another two out of the 28 recommendations in the Jenkins report.

According to the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, the legislation to be introduced in the Senate will do three things:

• Amend the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 to strengthen and clarify the employment rights of MoP(S) Act employees. The amendments implement recommendation 17 of the Jenkins Report.
• Amend the Work Health and Safety Act to clarify that parliamentarians are officers of the Commonwealth for the purposes of the WHS Act. This would clarify that parliamentarians must exercise due diligence to ensure the Commonwealth is fulfilling its duties under the WHS Act. The amendment also implements recommendation 17 of the Jenkins Report.
• Amend the Age Discrimination Act 2004 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to clarify that these laws apply to persons employed or engaged under the MoP(S) Act to put beyond doubt that these employees have protection from age and disability discrimination. These amendments implement recommendation 24 of the Jenkins report.

Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, handed down her report on the culture of Australian parliament last year.

Today’s focus now switches to what Labor will do on the religious discrimination bill.

Shadow cabinet is meeting right now, before a wider caucus meeting later on.

Labor has largely kept mum on where it will land on its final party position, but speeches from MPs on Tuesday revealed some reservations. Matt Thistlethwaite warned the bill was being “rushed” and that the contentious “statement of belief” clause may take Australia “in the wrong direction”. Stephen Jones’ emotional speech called for more protections for gay and transgender children.

Opposition MP Sharon Claydon, who will chair Labor’s caucus meeting, told a Parliament House press conference that the party believed there should be “no discrimination”. She said:

Stephen Jones made it very clear last night that we should always seek to get important vital legislation right.

We have always said people should have the right to practice their religious beliefs, but the whole point of anti-discrimination law is that the rights given to one group don’t override the right of others.

Claydon said there was “robust discussion” within Labor. The Coalition took two separate party room meetings to reach their final position yesterday; Claydon didn’t commit to Labor reaching a final decision today.

At his own press conference, Greens leader Adam Bandt pleaded for Labor to not “trade trans kids for votes” and oppose the religious discrimination bill, describing it as a “Trojan horse for hate”.

Independent MP Helen Haines told the ABC that she wouldn’t be supporting the bill, claiming it was “not ready to be passed”.

“I have serious concerns and most particularly I have real concerns about the safety and protection of our young gay students, our LGBTIQ+ students and transgender students,” she said.