A high school student went head-to-head with Christian broadcaster Stephen O’Doherty during a passionate exchange about marriage equality and religious freedom on last night’s episode of Q&A

In the panel show’s first outing since the result of the marriage law postal survey last Wednesday, Melbourne high school student Milly Roper raised concerns about “the conservative views of older Australians”, specifically in regards to religion, that have dominated the debate around the marriage act.

Attorney General George Brandis was first to respond, arguing that it would do no harm “to have a declaratory statement in the bill… to the effect that nothing in the bill can limit or take away from a person’s right to manifest their religious faith.”

Brandis said the wording of such a statement could be based on the language of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

How do religious protections relate to the Marriage Act at all? George Brandis & @janet_rice respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/k0FPe9RSKW

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 20, 2017

But O’Doherty, who is the chair of Sydney’s Hope Media, a Christian community radio station, said Brandis’ proposal was “grossly inadequate”, and insisted that “there’s more protection now for people on the basis of sexuality than there is on the basis of their religion.”

O’Doherty then brought up an incident during the postal survey campaign in which an 18-year-old woman in Canberra lost her job after she added an anti-marriage equality filter to her Facebook profile picture.

According to O’Doherty, “the amendments that myself and my colleagues want are precisely to protect that young woman — and anybody else who wants to simply express a view about marriage and not be punished for it. The same protections that are awarded to people for sexuality ought to be awarded to people who hold religious views.”

But Roper wasn’t convinced. “People of Christian and Catholic views haven’t been persecuted and they haven’t been systematically oppressed,” she said. “People of the LGBTIQ+ community have, for centuries. I think this debate was about improving their rights and in doing that we need to make sure discrimination can’t happen on any level.”

“When people say that it’s OK to discriminate against a gay couple, when it’s legally and morally wrong to discriminate against a single gay person, it’s just unjustified.”

Watch The Whole Exchange Here

.@BOConnorMP wants to see proposed amendments to a cross-party bill. @stephenodoherty says don’t pay lip service to religious freedom #QandA pic.twitter.com/eA0brmeVIA

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 20, 2017