Weekend Wrap for 16 June 2024

Greg Sheridan: Churches fight elite efforts to silence Christians
"The Albanese government, like the Morrison government, has abandoned the attempt at a religious discrimination law to protect people of faith. It won’t even present a bill for public consideration. Both sides of politics, when in government, are paralysed by fear of having the debate about religious freedom and how that interacts with other freedoms. Surely the voice referendum demonstrated the danger of not having a big open debate before implementing fundamental change. This political timidity indicates cowardice in the face of rising prejudice, in some cases hatred, against Christianity in the activist class, and the anti-Christian assumptions increasingly permeating the bureaucratic and institutional elites. Former Labor senator Jacinta Collins, now executive director of the National Catholic Education Commission, tells Inquirer: 'In the public policy class, the political elite and the policy bureaucracy, it’s becoming more common not to see Christianity as a social good.'" (8 Jun 2024)
Read more at The Australian

Si Gladman: The Catholic Church’s fight to keep ‘cultural Catholics’ at Census time
"The next Census in 2026 will likely be a watershed moment for our nation, with the proportion of Australians identifying as not religious set to overtake Christians and the total religious affiliation set to fall below half the population. The dramatic decline of religion is, no doubt, the reason leaders of the Catholic Church are experiencing palpitations about proposed changes to the religion question in the Census." (9 Jun 2024)
Read more at Rationale Magazine

Royce Millar: Cherryl Barassi relished life. Now, she says it is time to go
"Cherryl’s health is fading. An old whiplash injury has damaged nerves in her neck, affecting her arms, hands, digestion, speech and ability to write. She does not qualify for help under Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws, which were trailblazing seven years ago but which are now conservative by interstate and international standards. ... This month marks the fifth anniversary of the start of Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws – legislated in 2017 but taking effect in 2019 – hailed by the Andrews/Allan government as one of its major achievements. But critics, including some medicos and groups like Dying with Dignity, insist the legislation – a compromise package to win sufficient votes to pass the parliament – never went far enough in allowing end of life by choice." (11 Jun 2024)
Read more at The Age

Rodney Croome: We deserve full equality, not compromise
"Just.Equal Australia’s response whenever a new form of discrimination is being proposed in return for removing an old form, is to ask the LGBTQIA+ community whether it accepts the trade off. This takes the decision out of the hands of a coterie of advocates and gives it back to all those who are affected. It is a step towards transparency and democracy." (11 Jun 2024)
Read more at QNews

Nicole Shackleton: The government is drafting anti-hate speech laws. Here are 4 things they should include
"In May, the federal government confirmed it’s working on new laws to prohibit hate speech, sometimes called vilification, based on sex, gender, sexuality, race or religion. Many have welcomed the plan to introduce stronger laws as needed to tackle hate speech against Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim communities in the wake of growing antisemitism and Islamophobia in Australia. Many people agree freedom of speech has its limits and the law has some role to play in prohibiting harmful speech. But what should these laws look like? Here are four things that should be addressed in the legislation." (12 Jun 2024)
Read more at The Conversation

Craig Thompson: The twilight of the secular: Does theology still have a place in the public square?
"Last week saw the official launch of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Policy, an initiative of Melbourne’s Wesley Uniting Church in partnership with other Uniting Church entities. The Centre intends to be “a Christian voice in the public conversation”. That voice has already been heard a couple of times on this platform, but outside the happy pluralism of public broadcasters in liberal societies, theology in the public square tends to be rather less well-received, with responses to such a proposal typically ranging from a bemused raising of eyebrows to the more revelatory “WTF?” The latter is more revelatory because of the confronting juxtaposition of “theology” and “public” in modern liberal spaces — for many, an inadmissible contradiction in terms. Such a coupling contravenes deep-seated cultural assumptions about the exclusion from public discourse of things culturally deemed to be private, religious convictions included." (12 Jun 2024)
Read more at ABC Religion & Ethics

Lucy Carroll: This Sydney school science lab has shut down until there is money to fix it. How did it come to this?
"When NSW public schools were told in April their budgets would be cut and any unspent accumulated funds frozen, it triggered a wave of concern among principals that long-awaited building and classroom upgrades would be abandoned. A few weeks later, millions of dollars sitting in public school bank accounts vanished without any communication. The cuts had come “from necessity”, [NSW Education Department secretary Murat] Dizdar said, to ensure effective and efficient funding of schools to match enrolments and student needs. ... States and territories are locked in negotiations with the federal government to ensure public schools reach 100 per cent of the Schooling Resourcing Standard (SRS) agreed under the Gonski reforms a decade ago. ... Australia has one of the most socially segregated school systems in the OECD, with disadvantaged students concentrated into disadvantaged schools." (13 Jun 2024)
Read more at The Age

The Age - Editorial: Victoria’s assisted dying laws need updating
"When Victoria passed voluntary assisted dying laws in 2017, it was the first state in Australia to allow the sick and dying to leave this world at a time of their own choosing. The laws — debated in Parliament over 100 hours — faced fierce opposition from religious and conservative groups. The final legislation — possibly the most contentious ever passed in Victoria — included 68 safeguards to ensure anyone accessing the laws was doing so voluntarily. Five years after the laws took effect in July 2019, however, all other states and the ACT have since introduced their own versions. And Victoria, once viewed as a trailblazer on the important issue of dying with dignity, has now fallen behind other jurisdictions with such laws, with those advocating for the legislation to be updated arguing some of the measures designed as safeguards are unnecessary barriers." (15 Jun 2024)
Read more at The Age