Weekend Wrap for 13 October 2024
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 13 October 2024, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
If you're not already following us on social media, please consider dropping by our pages on X (Twitter), Facebook and Mastodon.
If you know someone who might be interested in the stories in our Wrap, please forward them the link to this Wrap web page or use the "Forward this email to a friend" link at the bottom of the Wrap email.
If you are able, please consider making a small one-off or monthly contribution to the NSL to help us raise the secular profile in Australia. Every dollar helps!
At the National Level
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) says the Albanese Government’s misinformation bill leaves a question mark over what is considered a “reasonable” religious belief. The bill, which was debated in Parliament this week, is designed to regulate and stamp out misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms. “Some people consider elements of religious belief to be misinformation,” the ACBC said in a new submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the misinformation and disinformation bill. “If aspects of dialogue are silenced in the search for truth in an environment where the very existence of objective truth is contested, how can a person truly be free to seek the truth? Who decides what is objectively true in a pluralist society?” (9 Oct 2024)
Read more at CathNews (originally published at The Daily Telegraph)
The Australian Human Rights Commission has warned that Labor’s proposed laws to combat online misinformation do not “strike the appropriate balance” between protecting free speech and moderating content. While acknowledging that online misinformation and disinformation can have a negative impact, the commission cautions that the labels can be “opportunistically” applied to content to undermine alternative views and stymie public debate. Communication Minister Michelle Rowland introduced the bill last month with multiple changes, including updated definitions of key terms and exemptions for religious speech, after the draft bill provoked significant criticism from legal experts and the Coalition. A coalition of faith groups has also raised concerns the bill will stifle religious speech and debate, and may incentivise social media platforms to “over-censor” content they may deem harmful. In its submission, the group argues the bill effectively makes social media companies the arbiter of religious expression by transferring the burden of policing misinformation onto them, which will “only serve to make providers overzealous in the policing of content”. (10 Oct 2024)
Read more at CathNews (originally published at The Australian)
A Liberal politician calling on the federal government to block proposed changes removing the inherent bias from the Census religion question says it is vital that data can be comparable over a long time period. In the South Australian Parliament last month, upper house member Jing Lee also warned that those wanting to “highlight growing secularism in Australian society” may “skew” the results of the revised question. Despite the pleas of faith groups and Liberal figures for a government intervention, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has confirmed it is going ahead with testing of the proposed new religion question for the 2026 Census. In a letter to the ‘Census21 – Not Religious?’ coalition (of which the NSL is a part), the ABS said a mixture of testing methods would now be adopted, along with stakeholder consultation, before finalising the text of the religion question. (11 Oct 2024)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Around the Country
QLD: LNP leader David Crisafulli is expected to face more questioning today over his party's stance on Queensland's abortion laws. Mr Crisafulli has previously said there would be "no change" to abortion laws if an an LNP government is elected on October 26, but has declined to explain how he would guarantee that. Both Mr Crisafulli and LNP Deputy Leader Jarrod Bleijie voted against decriminalising abortion when Labor introduced the bill in 2018. But the Katter's Australian Party (KAP) has told the ABC it would introduce a private member's bill in the next term of Queensland parliament to repeal abortion laws. Mr Katter said KAP abides "by Christian values" and actively pursues "the things we believe in". (8 Oct 2024)
Read more at ABC News
QLD: Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli has refused to say whether his MPs would get a conscience vote on a push to repeal the state's abortion laws. He also sidestepped questions about why, when Labor brought legislation to decriminalise abortion in 2018, he voted against it. On the campaign trial in Townsville a day later, Mr Crisafulli reiterated that an LNP government would not make any changes to abortion laws, but refused to say whether his MPs would get a conscience vote if KAP's bill went before parliament. (9 Oct 2024)
Read more at ABC News
NSW: NSW is the only state that still imposes the requirement that reassignment surgery is necessary to change gender on birth certificates. However, under an equality bill, which Sydney MP Alex Greenwich introduced to NSW Parliament more than a year ago, that requirement would go. Premier Chris Minns weighed into the issue on Wednesday, indicating he believed that the state could no longer force surgery requirements on transgender people who want to change their name. Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown said ongoing delays to Greenwich’s bill had caused “unnecessary distress”. (9 Oct 2024)
Read more at The Age
QLD: Abortion will almost certainly become an issue in Queensland parliament again if an LNP government is elected later this month. Less than a decade after it was decriminalised, the debate this time would be about whether to reinstate abortion as a criminal offence. LNP leader David Crisafulli's oft-repeated mantra that it's "not part of our plan, I'm ruling it out" fails to address the likely sequence of future events. Katter's Australian Party (KAP) leader Robbie Katter says his party will put an abortion repeal bill back into Queensland parliament "quick as you like" after the election. (10 Oct 2024)
Read more at ABC News
QLD: An LNP candidate in the Queensland election who previously shared a social media post saying abortion is a "human rights abuse" has repeatedly sidestepped questions on the issue. Donna Kirkland, who is running for the Labor-held seat of Rockhampton, appeared alongside Opposition Leader David Crisafulli at a press conference on Friday. During an exchange with reporters that lasted several minutes, Ms Kirkland refused to answer a range of questions about abortion as she was quizzed about her views. (11 Oct 2024)
Read more at ABC News
ACT: Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said he believed Labor was the only major party in a position to deliver on a commitment to implement “Australia’s best voluntary assisted dying laws”. Labor has also promised to provide extra funding for palliative care services and would commit to expanding a respite home program for people with life-limiting illnesses. Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee says they would not change the forthcoming euthanasia scheme despite unsuccessfully pushing for amendments before the laws passed and the majority of their members voting against it. Eligible people will be able to access voluntary assisted dying in the ACT from November 3, 2025. (11 Oct 2024)
Read more at CathNews (originally published at The Telegraph)
VIC: Two candidates in Victoria’s current Local Government council elections, both of whom are gay men from the VIC Greens, say that their election posters are being regularly defaced with homophobic slurs and symbols. Harrison Watt, who is the Victorian Greens candidate for Langridge ward (Abbotsford and North Richmond), and Sam Poustie, who is the Greens candidate for Lennox ward (Richmond and Cremorne) in the Local Government Elections for Yarra City Council, say the graffiti is an ongoing issue. (11 Oct 2024)
Read more at Star Observer
Commentary and Analysis
AEU: New analysis highlights economic benefits of investing in public schools
"New analysis from Jim Stanford, Economist and Director, Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, has highlighted the large economic, social, and fiscal benefits from funding public schools to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard. The analysis, Leaving Money on the Table: Foregone Economic Gains from Continued SRS Underfunding, reveals the economic costs of the Albanese government’s current offer to states and territories of a 2.5% increase in its SRS contribution, to 22.5 %, instead of a full 25%. Australian Federal President Correna Haythorpe says: 'While we know that increasing investment in public schools is critically important for teachers, students and families, this analysis highlights the economic benefits to the Albanese Government and the nation, and it profiles the real costs of a failure to provide a full 25%.'" (9 Oct 2024)
Read more at the AEU
Hannah Ferguson: My abortion is acceptable simply because it is a decision I made. I am thankful to be in Australia
"My abortion is the result of failed contraception. The decision to terminate my pregnancy is simple for me. I take a medication that causes high rates of birth defects in babies. This risk would not matter to the lawmakers in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Idaho, South Dakota or at least 10 other US states. While some jurisdictions make murky exceptions for the life of a mother, none with bans in force allow for the termination of a pregnancy due to the risk of infant mortality. ... Last month the South Australian Liberal MP Ben Hood tried to amend the state’s abortion laws to require women to undergo an induced birth and put the baby up for adoption after 27 weeks and six days. South Australian Health data tells us that in 2023 fewer than five abortions were performed after 27 weeks. Hood described late-term abortions as 'healthy, viable babies' – failing to account for these terminations occurring for reasons to do with the physical or mental health of the birthing parent or foetal anomalies. ... As Queensland faces an election, the threat of the Liberal National party criminalising abortion is real, considering that almost every member voted to keep abortion a crime in 2018. According to a post from the Queensland health minister and minister for women, Shannon Fentiman: 'This year every member of the LNP voted against giving rural women enhanced access to the termination of pregnancy pill.' This is the future Queensland faces." (10 Oct 2024)
Read more at The Guardian
Events and Campaigns
Go Gentle Australia have released The State of VAD, a report collating and analysing available VAD data from all jurisdictions for the first time.
Download the report here
The full videos of presentations and panel discussions from the 2023 Secularism Australia Conference are now freely available for viewing on the Secularism Australia website and on YouTube!
The Australia Institute are calling on federal parliament to pass truth in political advertising laws that are nationally consistent, constitutional and uphold freedom of speech. View the petition at The Australia Institute
The Human Rights Law Centre are running a website for those who want to support an Australian Charter of Human Rights & Freedoms.
Visit the Charter of Rights website here
A change.org petition has been started, calling for churches to lose their tax-free status and for "the religious influence of churches in Australian politics and society" to be limited. It's currently up to 31,000 signatures. View the petition at change.org
The Australian Education Union is running a campaign calling for “every school, every child” to receive fair education funding. It's currently up to 95,000 sign-ups. Support the campaign here.
The Human Rights for NSW alliance has launched a campaign calling for NSW to pass a Human Rights Act.
That's it for another week!
Until next time, please follow us on X (Twitter), Facebook and Mastodon.