Prime Minister Scott Morrison has introduced the religious discrimination bill to Parliament, and one teacher has told Q+A her experiences show why calls to make sure gay schoolteachers and students are protected are necessary.

Audience member Stephanie Lentz told Q+A she had been fired from her English teaching job at a Sydney Christian school earlier this year and claimed it was because she came out as gay.

Ms Lentz identifies as both a member of the LGBT community and a member of the Anglican faith but said the former had, in January, cost her her job.

She did not identify the school directly.

"I worked at a Christian school teaching English from 2017 to 2019 and I loved it," Ms Lentz said.

"I really enjoyed the colleagues and the relationships with students but in January this year, the school fired me.

"They fired me because they disagreed with me that you can be Christian and also live true to the biological realities of your sexuality or gender."

Ms Lentz was then asked by Q+A host Stan Grant if she believed she was fired "because you were gay or because you could no longer teach the ethos or the doctrine of that school? Had you offered to do just that?"

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She responded that she had.

"I had offered to promote the school's ethos on sexuality," she said.

"Obviously, notwithstanding things that I believed would be harmful to the students, but I did offer to back the school's position on a lot of things.

Her allegations sparked a passionate and problematic debate on Q+A against the backdrop of the bill that Mr Morrison, who holds his own strong religious views, himself introduced to Parliament.

Anglican Pastor Michael Jensen was asked how freedom of sexuality and freedom of religion could coexist and how situations like Ms Lentz's could be resolved, without the loss of jobs and under the proposed new legislation.

"It's complicated," Pastor Jensen said.

"What we've got to do in an open society is got to make room for different types of view, different types of expression."

Under Mr Morrison's proposed legislation, the religious schools and organisations would be allowed to give preference and prioritise the employment and enrolment of people from the same faith, but the institutions would have to have a clear public policy that explained how religious views would be enforced.

Mr Jensen defended the right for religious institutions to employ who they like based on belief structures.

"The current legislation that's before Parliament deals with belief," he said.

"It deals specifically with an issue of whether you sign up to a belief statement or not, rather than saying anything about someone's identity or their behaviour.

Ms Lentz said it was troubling that some in the Christian community no longer believe she "belonged" there because of her sexuality.

Pastor Jensen however said that was the right of the community to have that discussion.

"That's an issue for the Christian community to talk about and for you to contribute to that particular theological debate," he said.

"But the issue at law is whether there is freedom for a particular community to express its identity in that particular way too, isn't it?"

'No-one should have to go through that'

Asked for his thoughts as to whether this would happen more under the proposed legislation, NSW MP for Mackellar Jason Falinski offered an apology to Ms Lentz before giving somewhat of a non-answer spruiking the right to freedoms for all.

"What you've gone through, no-one should have to go through that," Mr Falinski said.

"What I would say though about this legislation is that as a liberal, a philosophical liberal, the role of the state is to maximise the freedom of individuals wholly consistent with the freedom of others.

"The role of any government is to ensure that those things are protected because if our nation is to mean anything, people need to be free to express themselves within that context."

Asked for his viewpoint, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who is homosexual, made a pitch for her to teach in Canberra and labelled her sacking discrimination.

"To Steph's question, I'm just so sorry to hear that, that's terrible," Mr Barr said.

"Come and teach in Canberra. You are really welcome in our city.

"We will value you for who you are and the wonderful professional skills you could bring to our education system.

"I'm sorry you've been discriminated against. It's terrible and shouldn't happen."

Addressing the wrong election promise?

One of the more controversial elements of the originally proposed bill, the so-called 'Folau clause', has been cut from the bill tabled in Parliament, but the Q+A panel discussed the matter of people airing views that are grounded in religious beliefs but potentially harmful to others.

In 2019, Israel Folau was sacked by Rugby Australia for a series of anti-homosexual social media posts the final of which claimed hell awaited homosexuals along with drunks, adulterers, thieves, liars, fornicators, atheists and idolaters.

In the storm that followed, Folau tweeted about having "the fight of his life" on his hands in regard to his career and right to express himself.

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In the end, Folau and RA came to a settlement but he has not played rugby union in Australia since.

Melinda Cilento, chief executive of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, was asked how workplaces may deal with religious views aired in the workplace environment if the bill passes.

"You're already seeing businesses and business groups reflecting they're not sure how this plays out and how they're going to deal with this and what the implications for them as they deal with the laws and the regulations of this," Ms Cilento said.

Either way, Folau and Ms Lentz both lost their jobs for different issues, raising the question of where Australia stands on freedom of speech.

However, on that issue, journalist and documentary maker Yaara Bou Melham said that this bill should not have been the priority for the government regardless of how passionate the discussion is.

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When it was suggested that the religious discrimination bill was an election promise that Mr Morrison made three years ago, Ms Bou Melham said the government had been dragging its heels on other promises.

"He [Morrison] said he would bring in a federal integrity commission three years ago also," Ms Bou Melham said to applause from the audience.

"Bridget Archer, the Tasmanian Liberal MP crossed the floor today to support an independent proposal for a federal ICAC of sorts.

Under pressure over the issue and questioned why he may not have crossed the floor on an issue such as climate change despite being a strong advocate, Mr Falinski then finished the show by saying there would be a federal commission against corruption, however declined to set a date.

"We will do an integrity commission and an independent commission against corruption," he said.

Watch the full episode on iview or via the Q+A Facebook page.