PM abandons religious discrimination protections
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently announced to the media that he won’t be proceeding with the religious discrimination legislation.
In response to a prearranged question in a press conference, he said:
“The last thing that Australia needs is any divisive debate relating to religion and people’s faith. I don’t intend to engage in a partisan debate when it comes to religious discrimination.”
What does this mean for Christian schools?
The good news
As we said in March, the ALRC’s recommendations are a direct attack on faith and freedom of belief in Australia. The initial private draft of the government’s legislative package would have made it unlawful for schools to actively choose staff who share, and live, the same Christian faith of our school communities.
This would have been devastating for Christian schools and it is therefore a positive outcome that the Government did not proceed with their proposals in that form.
You made a difference
As we have met with MPs and Senators at Parliament House in recent weeks one thing has become clear – our Faith In Our Future events made a significant impact in preventing this bad legislation proceeding.
- Through powerful stories, the Government is more aware than ever of the good that Christian schools do in their communities.
- Through sell-out attendances, the Government has seen the huge level of support for our schools.
- Through thousands of postcards to the Prime Minister and messages to MPs, the Government has heard why protections need to be strengthened so this good work can continue.
Thank you to everyone who prayed, attended these events and wrote to your political representatives – your voice was heard and made a difference.
The bad news
Unfortunately, we are no closer to securing a positive right for Christian schools to operate according to their ethos and the future remains uncertain.
The Prime Minister made an election commitment to protect people of faith from religious discrimination. He also made a commitment to faith leaders on 12 April 2024 that religious freedom protections “will not go backwards while I’m Prime Minister of Australia.”
On this basis, we have worked with other faith leaders and engaged in good faith with the Government to develop an approach consistent with international law that would allow a religious educational institution to:
- Act in good faith in accordance with its beliefs in relation to conduct that threatens to undermine its religious character and ethos,
- Protect its ability to teach in accordance with its beliefs, and
- Require staff to adhere to and conduct themselves in accordance with the beliefs of the religious educational institution.
Those detailed proposals were provided to the Attorney General and Shadow Attorney General on 9 May – more than three months ago. We have still received no formal response from the Government.
In fact, the Prime Minister’s recent announcement is the first we have heard from the Government on this important issue.
Next steps
We have provided a prayer update on this and other emerging issues affecting Christian schools. We will also equip you with more resources to grow our supporter base beyond (an already amazing) 13,000 Australians.
For now, we want to say thank you for your support.
It has made a difference. It will continue to make a difference.