The Secular Agenda

Secular policy and values are based on the principle of there being a separation between Church and State.

The 2021 Census showed that 38.9% of Australians have "No Religion".  However, research suggests that there are substantial numbers of people who no longer practice their childhood religion but continue to tick a religious box through sheer force of habit.

This is compounded by the ‘closed’ Census question 19;  “What is the person’s religion?”, which wrongly assumes we all have one!

A national Ipsos poll in 2016 showed 78% of people supported the survey question: "How important do you think it is to separate personal religious beliefs from the business of government?"  The public is clearly less religious than our parliaments, who are consistently negative towards the secular issues below. 

  • Legalise marriage equality for all same-sex couples. Passed on 7.12.17, only with a promise of new Religious Freedom laws.
  • Legalise Voluntary Euthanasia. Passed in Victoria 29.11.17. We are supporting VE campaigns in all other states and territories.
  • Abolish remaining laws criminalising abortion and provide legal protection for women, their clinicians, the clinics and their staff.
  • Prioritise government funding to public schools, and for the principles of "religion-neutral" secular education.
  • Abolish the National School Chaplaincy Program and replace chaplains with experienced professional counsellors.
  • Lobby to change the ‘closed’ Census question – “What is the person’s religion?” – to an unbiased ‘open’ question.
  • Repeal employment laws that allow religious institutions to discriminate in employment for non-religious positions.
  • Remove single-faith religious instruction (SRE) from schools; promote and replace it with philosophical ethics, critical thinking, and/or general religious education (GRE).
  • Remove tax exemptions to "for-profit" Church businesses, their non-charitable properties, investments, and assets.
  • Lobby for a stronger voice on all secular issues, with better access to mainstream print and electronic media.
  • Encourage all MPs to include their religious or non-religious affiliations on their parliamentary webpage, for voter transparency.
  • Remove prayers, religious icons and rituals from all "secular" public institutions, including all tiers of government.
  • Withhold public funding from schools that continue to teach creationism over science and human evolution.
  • Ban the religious practice of genital mutilation inflicted on both girls and boys.
  • Legislate against Church hospitals banning clinical procedures based on religious grounds.
  • Select 'secular rationalists' for boards/panels, based on ethics, not church leaders who claim to be society's "moral voice".
  • Endorse the full UDHR definition of "Freedom of Religion and Belief" which includes the right to express non-belief.
  • Lobby for the mandatory reporting of all child abuse by any personnel in religious and other institutions.
  • Abolish existing blasphemy laws; still common law in all states and territories, except Qld and WA.
  • Prohibit the fundamentalist religious indoctrination of children in home-schooling.
  • Lobby for the full separation of Church and State; Church and Medicine; Church and Science.
  • Remove religious bias from all government and legal documentation.

 

Please advise the National Secular Lobby of other issues that need to be addressed.