Weekend Wrap for 1 December 2024

WA: Survivors of institutional child sexual abuse have been left disappointed after the WA government rejected a host of recommendations resulting from an inquiry aimed at improving support available to them, including allowing the names of known child abusers to be published prominently on church websites. Just 11 recommendations out of 33 made by a parliamentary committee were accepted by the government or accepted in principle, while 14 are under further examination, and eight were not accepted. Two recommendations were rejected relating to the contentious issue of permanent stays — where a court halts child abuse proceedings when it considers there is no possibility of a fair trial, due to the passage of time, deterioration of evidence, or death of the accused. (27 Nov 2024)
Read more at ABC News

VIC: Victorians who incite hateful or threatening behaviour will face up to five years in jail under the state government’s proposed anti-vilification laws. Premier Jacinta Allan detailed the long-awaited changes – which include tough fines and jail sentences for perpetrators of hate crimes – on Tuesday morning, claiming “American-style division” was infiltrating Victoria. The proposed laws would expand protections for race and religion, which exist under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, to include factors such as gender, sexuality and disabilities. The government will also seek to amend the current exemptions under freedom of expression, which offer some protections in areas such as art and academic research or for religious purposes and matters of public interest. Other changes to existing freedom of expression protections include a tougher threshold for the public interest exemption, while the definition of religious purposes will be amended to clarify what is considered a “genuine religious purpose”. Church leaders and faith-based groups have previously said the reforms could erode protections for religious freedom and invite discrimination against people expressing orthodox beliefs. They also expressed concern over the change to the definition of the religious purpose exemption. (28 Nov 2024)
Read more at The Age

NSW: Commercial surrogacy, gender self-identification on birth certificates, and the safety of women’s only spaces were forefront of a roundtable discussion of interfaith leaders with Susan Carter MLC held at Mary Immaculate parish in Bossley Park on 22 November. The Shadow Assistant Attorney-General met with the group comprising several local faith and education leaders from Catholic, Anglican and Sikh communities in the discussion hosted by parish priest Fr Danai Penollar. Little more than a month after the passage of the Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2024 in New South Wales parliament, Carter urged the group to press politicians on both sides to ameliorate the effect of the reform’s implementation on families, women and girls. (28 Nov 2024)
Read more at Catholic Weekly

QLD: The Rationalist Society of Australia is seeking confirmation from the new Queensland government as to whether it will use taxpayers’ money to fund religious-based discrimination by inserting chaplains into public schools. In a letter to Premier David Crisafulli and education minister John-Paul Langbroek, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman raised concerns about the government’s plan to “expand school chaplaincy”. According to an article published in the Courier-Mail earlier this month, Mr Crisafulli has asked Mr Langbroek to take the action as part of an effort to “crack down on school bullies”. (29 Nov 2024)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia