Weekend Wrap for 20 April 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 20 April 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
A potentially influential Muslim advocacy group is planning to tell voters to preference the Greens above Labor on how-to-vote cards in several key seats, despite objecting to the minor party’s position on religious freedom in schools. Muslim Votes Matter has expressed concern about the party’s plan to ensure religious schools cannot discriminate against teachers or students on the basis of their sexuality, but has welcomed a commitment to ensure “all rights are acknowledged and taken into account”. The group, which is campaigning for candidates in 32 seats has endorsed Greens in the Victorian seats of Wills and Bruce, where Labor MPs are preparing for a backlash over the party’s response to the war in Gaza. Most of the 32 seats are held by Labor and have significant Muslim populations. (16 Apr 2025)
Read more at The Guardian
Around the Country
QLD: The Family First Party have disendorsed their candidate for the seat of Longman in Queensland after a series of racist and homophobic comments came to light. Malachi Brogden Hearne, who is 19 years old, will still appear on the ballot under the party’s name on election day though because nominations have already closed. Amongst his comments was a post he made on a news story about Matilda’s stars Tameka Yallop and her wife Kristy who announced earlier this month that they were expecting their second child. The couple posted an image of themselves and their young family. In response to the Sky News story on their announcement Brogden Hearne posted “Child abuse. Two women cannot and should not raise children. This is disgusting and they should both be locked up. Lesbian is disgusting.” (14 Apr 2025)
Read more at OUTinPerth
VIC: Laws making it illegal to vilify LGBTQIA+ people, women and people living with a disability in Victoria are now coming into effect in 2026, before the state election. The Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill passed at the start of the month and expands upon Victoria’s pre-existing hate speech laws. Originally, the laws weren’t going to come into effect until 2027, after the 2026 state election. But queer MP and member of the Legalise Cannabis Party, Rachel Payne, introduced an amendment for it to come into effect in June 2026, in a bid to keep it safe from being used by conservatives during the state election. (14 Apr 2025)
Read more at Q News
NSW: The New South Wales Department of Education has confirmed it is investigating complaints of caste-based discrimination being taught in the Hindu Special Religious Education program in the state’s public schools. In a letter last month, a spokesperson confirmed that the department had met with community representatives who raised concerns about the teaching of caste in SRE. The response followed calls for the Minns government to take the allegations seriously and investigate them. Last year, the RSA reported that a community group, Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia (PATCA), had claimed children in Hindu SRE were being seated according to caste hierarchical order. (15 Apr 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
TAS: Prominent party members and leading independents have signed a pledge against anti-transgender election hate on Parliament Lawns in Hobart today. The pledge is designed to stave off the kind of anti-trans campaigning that dominated the US Presidential election last year. Signatories included Greens Senator Nick McKim and independent member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie. Labor candidate for Clark, Heidi Heck, and Greens candidate for Clark, Janet Shelly, were also signatories. Bass Liberal member, Bridget Archer, and Labor Senator, Carol Brown, had already signed. (17 Apr 2025)
Read more at Q News
Commentary and Analysis
ABC Radio National / David Marr: LGBTQI rights in Australian schools
In 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced he was shelving the religious discrimination bill, for fear of stoking societal tensions. The move left religious groups and equality advocates disappointed. So where is that bill now? And why have the major parties stayed quiet on the issue? Interview guest Anna Brown, CEO, Equality Australia. (14 Apr 2024)
Listen to this item at the ABC
Neil Foster: The NSW Conversion Practices law, religious freedom and Government “guidance”
"The Conversion Practices Ban Act 2024 (NSW) (“the Act”) is now in force, having commenced operation on 4 April 2025. I have previously posted a paper expressing concerns about the operation of the Act in relation to religious freedom. In this post I want to re-iterate briefly some of those concerns, and comment on “guidance” on the operation of the Act provided by NSW government officials." (14 Apr 2025)
Read more at Law and Religion Australia
Lucy Hamilton: The Coalition commits to Christian Nationalism
"The Republican Party thought it could ride the tiger of the Christian Right: instead, that movement swallowed the party whole. There a presidential candidate’s victory could depend on their success at gaining the Christian Right leaders’ endorsement. The news released on Sunday that Coalition candidates submitted a Christian principles statement to the Australian Christian Lobby’s (ACL’s) voter advice site signals they are making the same dangerous gamble. The ACL is not lobbying for the traditional Australian definition of Christian, which leans more towards “live and let live”. Rather, this is an organisation committed to coercive, American-style Christianity. It has been listed as a “hate group”. Rumours in Pentecostal circles that the ACL is encouraging its leaders to undertake training from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a radical right American organisation that has argued for the “state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people”, need to be addressed." (16 Apr 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
ABC / Anna Levy: The history behind controversial laws of sacrilege and blasphemy in Australia
"On March 25, 2025, a crime was allegedly committed in a church in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Police were called after CCTV showed a man entering the church at 3.30am. The officers apprehended a 25-year-old, who was allegedly found in possession of scripture books belonging to the church. What happened next surprised many and made national news. The man was charged with sacrilege, a little-known and rarely employed law relating to an offence committed in a "place of divine worship". The sentence? A maximum penalty of life in prison — the same as for murder. ... So how did the crime of sacrilege come to be used in South Australia in 2025? And how should our legal system protect religious freedom in an increasingly secular population?" (18 Apr 2025)
Read more at ABC News
Events and Campaigns
The Secular Party of Australia is one of five parties (along with the Science Party, the Pirate Party, Vote Planet, and the Climate Change Justice Party) that amalgamated to form the new Fusion Party. Fusion is running 24 candidates across both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the upcoming election. Visit their website to get more information on Fusion party candidates and Fusion party policies.
The Australian Education Union is seeking volunteers to letterbox flyers on their block in the lead-up to the federal election, encouraging people to support Labor's promise to increase funding for public schools. Read more at the Do Your Block campaign website
The full videos of presentations and panel discussions from the 2023 Secularism Australia Conference are 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
The Australian Education Union is running a campaign calling for “every school, every child” to receive fair education funding. Support the campaign here.
The Human Rights for NSW alliance is running a campaign calling for NSW to pass a Human Rights Act.
That's it for another week!
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