Weekend Wrap for 29 September 2024
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 29 September 2024, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
A rare coalition of Labor and Liberal advisers has been formed to protect Catholic education funding in the run-up to the next multi-billion dollar national funding agreement. Former federal Liberal director Brian Loughnane has joined the board of the Victorian Catholic Education Authority alongside its chairman James Merlino, the former Victorian Labor deputy premier. Catholic dioceses across Australia are concerned the rising influence of the Greens and other "leftist" groups such as unions "hostile to the Church" (per the article) will have more influence in the next federal Parliament if the Albanese Government is pushed into minority. (23 Sep 2024)
Read more at CathNews (originally published at The Australian)
A Change.org petition calling on Australian governments to pass laws banning conversion therapy and suppression and change practices has just passed 100,000 signatories. Chris Csabs, who is a survivor or conversion therapy practices, launched his petition back in 2018. This week it ticked over 100,000 people showing their support for his call for Australian-wide legislation. (24 Sep 2024)
Read more at Out in Perth
Tasmania has become the third jurisdiction to sign on to the commonwealth’s school funding deal, a move the state and federal government say will see Tasmania’s public schools become fully funded by 2029. But the Australian Education Union (AEU) has dismissed the agreement as a “cloak-and-dagger deal” which will never see schools reach their full funding level, as remaining states continue to hold out for the federal government to offer a better increase. Tasmania signed on to the public school funding boost on Tuesday, adding pressure on New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia – which are pushing for a better deal – to sign on or miss out. (25 Sep 2024)
Read more at The Guardian
Australia has taken groundbreaking legal action with Canada, Germany and the Netherlands which could see all four countries take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its oppression of women. The decision has been praised by women’s rights advocates from Afghanistan who say there is a desperate need for the international community to ramp up pressure on the Taliban, just days after the regime introduced new laws banning women from showing their faces or speaking in public. The many limitations on women in Afghanistan are based on the Taliban's specific interpretation of Islamic Sharia law based on a literal interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah. (26 Sep 2024)
Read more at ABC News
Around the Country
SA: LGBTIQA+ rights group and survivors of conversion therapy practices are urging the South Australian government to carefully consider the legislation currently progressing through the parliament to ban conversion therapy and suppression and change practices. The bill was introduced into the state’s lower house earlier this month and has quickly been passed and moved onto the Legislative Council. While the government is eager to pass the bill, advocates say it is deeply flawed. Ending Conversion Practices WA, Equality Tasmania, the Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council, the Brave Network and SOGICE Survivors (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts) have all expressed concern over the wording of the legislation. (23 Sep 2024)
Read more at Out in Perth
QLD: Queensland’s premier Stephen Miles says Opposition leader David Crisafulli and the Liberal National Party are supporters of conversion therapy. The premier made the claim in a social media post sharing a video of Education Minister Grace Grace making the same claim. "He supports conversion therapy." Grace said of the Opposition Leader. "People who support conversion therapy think that those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer, need to be cured." She said that because Chrisafulli and his colleagues all voted against legislation introduced in Queensland in 2020 it showed they supported the practice. (23 Sep 2024)
Read more at Out in Perth
SA: A proposal to change South Australian abortion laws has prompted intense and heated debate, both in and outside of political circles. The private member's bill from Liberal MP Ben Hood would require women seeking to terminate a pregnancy from 28 weeks to instead undergo an induced birth, with babies to then be adopted. The opposition has committed to allowing its MPs a conscience vote on the issue, which is already proving to be divisive, between — but also within — parties. The health minister has described the legislation as an "extreme right-wing culture war bill", while the MP who is behind it said it was "the right thing to do". (25 Sep 2024)
Read more at ABC News
SA: Hundreds of supporters of Liberal MP Ben Hood's bill attended a rally outside South Australia's Parliament House on Wednesday. Mr Hood's bill proposes that people seeking to terminate a pregnancy from 28 weeks to instead undergo an induced birth. Liberal upper house MP Michelle Lensink, who helped spearhead SA's laws that decriminalised abortion in 2021, said Mr Hood's bill is trying to "correct a wrong that doesn't exist". "There are a lot of things in their piece of legislation that I think have not been thought through and I think would horrify a lot of South Australians," she said. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) is also opposed to the push. (25 Sep 2024)
Read more at ABC News
SA: Many survivors and community organisations have welcomed the passing of a law banning LGBTQA+ conversion practices in South Australia, saying it will save lives. The SA government bill passed 13 votes to 8 on Tuesday night. The new law criminalises conversion practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and cause serious mental or physical harm. The law also provides redress to survivors through a civil pathway and makes it illegal to take someone out of SA to undergo a conversion practice. The SA Commissioner for Equal Opportunity can also disseminate information and conduct research and education about conversion practices. It should be noted, however, that many LGBTI advocates have concerns about the legislation. (25 Sep 2024)
Read more at Equality Australia
TAS: Lawmakers in Tasmania are being urged to take action on a conversion therapy ban following the passage of new laws in South Australia. Equality Tasmania has warned that Tasmania risks being the last state to ban conversion practices after the South Australian Parliament passed a law banning conversion in that state. Spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said it left Tasmania as one of only two states with no protections. (25 Sep 2024)
Read more at Out in Perth
WA: The Rationalist Society of Australia has urged the West Australian government to show leadership and remove broad-based exemptions for religious bodies and religious schools to the state’s equal opportunity laws, which allow religious schools to discriminate against LGBTIQA+ staff and students. The broad exemptions contained in the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) also allow discrimination for a range of other reasons, including marital and relationship status and pregnancy status, for religious bodies and schools to “avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents”. (26 Sep 2024)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Commentary and Analysis
Pasi Sahlberg and Trevor Cobbold: Why the new plan for fairer schools will fail
"The OECD’s latest 'Education at a Glance' report shows that government funding per student in public primary schools is about 3 per cent below the OECD average, while funding for private primary schools is 16 per cent above. It also shows that private schools in Australia are among the most highly government-funded of all developed countries. Closing the achievement gaps between rich and poor also requires full funding of all public schools. There can be no excuse for continuing to underfund public schools when they enrol more than 80 per cent of disadvantaged students, and when more than 90 per cent of schools that have high concentrations of disadvantaged children are public schools." (21 Sep 2024)
Read more at The Saturday Paper
Ian Chubb: Given the choice, would my wife have chosen to 'let dementia take its course'?
"I understand that there are those with a different view. I accept their right to have that view - I just don't agree with it. They might have religion, I do not. They might be philosophers, I am not. They might be healthcare workers, I am not. They might be protecting votes, I am not. They might be prepared to prolong their own life to the last possible moment regardless of some incurable, utterly debilitating, dignity-destroying illness. I am not. There is not one single minute of any day when I concede to any of them that their undeniable right to do as they please means that they can deny me the right to do as I please." (22 Sep 2024)
Read more at The Canberra Times
Patrick Parkinson AM: Christian sexual ethics and the abuse of adolescents: Lessons from the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle
"[Anne] Manne’s book is a sobering account of how a network of sex offenders was able to continue for so long in the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle. It tells the story, first of the persistent pattern of cover-up and denial — a familiar feature of many other church responses — and then of the battle within the diocese to hold perpetrators to account. To a large extent, the story is told through the experiences of a courageous survivor, Steve Smith, who was abused for years by Anglican priest George Parker. The priest died before he could be held accountable for his serious crimes." (24 Sep 2024)
Read more at ABC Religion & Ethics
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!
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