Weekend Wrap for 10 August 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 10 August 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
Nationals leader David Littleproud has called for changes to the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement following a spending spree by the US Mormon church in which almost half a billion dollars’ worth of Australian farmland fell into foreign ownership in little more than six months. Sources say that Farmland Reserve has agents looking for more large Australian farms to buy. CEO of Grain Producers Australia, Colin Bettles, said it was not in the nation’s interest to have foreign entities controlling large tracts of Australian farmland. “It’s totally unacceptable that a foreign entity, emboldened by significant tax advantages, should be allowed to accumulate significant volumes of farmland and cannibalise Australia’s food producing capacity.” (8 Aug 2025)
Read more at the Australian Financial Review
The federal education department is masking ongoing religious-based discrimination in chaplaincy roles in the National Student Wellbeing Program (NSWP) through inadequate reporting processes, says the Rationalist Society of Australia. As the RSA has continually pointed out, religious-based discrimination remains a central feature of the $61 million-per-year NSWP, with the chaplains employed in schools under the program being required to meet religious credentials. Last month, the RSA – supported by eight other non-religious, ex-religious and pro-secular organisations (including the NSL) – detailed the discriminatory nature of the NSWP in a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review into Australia’s human rights. It was one example of discrimination and unfair treatment against non-religious people in government institutions and programs. (9 Aug 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Around the Country
SA: Christian SA senator Alex Antic has announced that he intends to introduce a private members bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act and remove references to gender identity. The Liberal senator announced his intention to introduce the bill when parliament returned last week. The laws were updated by the Gillard government in 2023 giving greater protections to people who are transgender, intersex or non-binary, a change that Antic would like to see reversed. The South Australian senator argued that clearer definitions would be of benefit to people who experience gender dysphoria. (3 Aug 2025)
Read more at OUTinPerth
VIC: The Victorian government has remained silent on its failure so far to deliver its long-overdue promise of removing daily acts of Christian worship from the state parliament. Asked in May to provide an update to the parliament on the progress being made in developing a replacement for the Lord’s Prayer, the Allan government has not yet provided a response. It has been 1461 days since the then attorney-general, Jaclyn Symes, gave a commitment that the Labor government would, in the 2022-2026 term of parliament, “workshop a replacement model that is purpose-fit for Victoria”. (3 Aug 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Commentary and Analysis
Dean Arcuri: Concerns raised as peak orgs call for review of NT’s Anti-Discrimination Bill
"Last week, the Northern Territory Attorney-General, Marie-Clare Boothby, introduced an Anti-Discrimination Amendment Bill into Parliament. This amendment reinstates exceptions for religious schools amended in 2023. But if passed, its effects could go further. With the legislation weakening hate speech protections and opening the door to discrimination. The national federation for Australia’s leading HIV and LGBTIQA+ organisations has raised concerns about the amendment." (4 Aug 2025)
Read more at Q News
Andrew West, The Religion and Ethics Report: An investigation into the Toowoomba cult called The Saints
"In February, the Queensland Supreme Court jailed 14 members of Toowoomba-based religious sect called “The Saints”. They were convicted of manslaughter over the death in 2022 of 8-year-old Elizabeth Struh, who died of a diabetic condition. In this joint investigation with ABC TV's Compass, award-winning journalist Suzanne Smith goes into the world of this extreme Pentecostal cult and meets some of the Christian leaders fighting back against the cult’s influence. “The Cult of The Saints” will air on ABC TV and be available here on ABC iView." (6 Aug 2025)
Listen to this episode at the ABC website
Bridget McManus: ‘They’re so fired up’: The flagship ABC show taking on a deadly cult
"Six-time Walkley award-winning ABC journalist Suzanne Smith – author of The Altar Boys, about child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Newcastle – is no stranger to crimes against children. Her investigations helped instigate the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Yet, she approached with trepidation a brief from Compass to follow up on the Toowoomba sect known as the Saints, of which 14 members were sentenced in February for the 2022 death of eight-year-old diabetic Elizabeth Struhs, whose insulin was substituted for prayer. This time, Smith wanted to achieve the seemingly impossible: offer a glimmer of hope amid the inconceivable cruelty." (7 Aug 2025)
Read more at The Age
Paul Gregoire: The Envoy’s Proposal to Adopt the IHRA Antisemitism Definition Is a Threat to Free Speech
"The suggestion is that the Albanese government is now contemplating the draconian plan that it’s so-called “antisemitism expert” put on the table a month ago, which includes as it centrepiece the recommendation that the nation adopt a definition of antisemitism that conflates political criticism of Israel with prejudice towards Jewish people, and ultimately, sacrifices free speech to do this. ... The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) adopted this working definition of antisemitism in 2016. This definition is controversial as it recognises criticism of Israel and its policies as being antisemitic, or prejudicial towards Jewish people and the religion of Judaism, and in doing so, it criminalises and silences legitimate criticism of a political entity under the guise of racism." (8 Aug 2025)
Read more at Sydney Criminal Lawyers
Henry Reynolds: The Segal report and the universities
"The Segal report presented to Prime Minister Albanese on Thursday, 10 July, represents an unprecedented challenge to Australia’s 39 public universities – to their autonomy, their independence and to their reputation both here and internationally. Not that the general public would know, given the mild and accommodating response of the tertiary educational leadership. It is as if they don’t appreciate that a right-wing trojan horse is already sitting there securely within their gates. ... The response of the universities to the Envoy’s plans has been muted. They have officially welcomed the report, expressed their commitment to opposing antisemitism but few of them have voiced even the mildest concern about the far-reaching, inquisitional ambitions! If the university leaders are disturbed, they have kept it to themselves." (8 Aug 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
Martin McKenzie-Murray: ‘We grow up afraid’: Victoria’s public inquiry into cults
"Last month, the Victorian parliament began a public inquiry into “the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups” – the first of its kind in Australia. From my own previous reporting, and the conversations I had this week, it’s clear that survivors of cults or fringe religious groups had an awkward relationship with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse – its terms of reference couldn’t accommodate the histories of fuzzier, unregistered groups. Many survivors hope this inquiry might yield public awareness of secretive practices, avenues of redress and the legislative reform of coercive practices." (9 Aug 2025)
Read more at The Saturday Paper
Events and Campaigns
CURRENT
The Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee is calling for written submissions to its Inquiry into Voluntary Assisted Dying, which will consider whether VAD laws should be introduced into the NT. The closing date for submissions is 15 August 2025. Get more information on the NT parliamentary website.
The NSW Law Reform Commission is reviewing the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) and public submissions are being requested. The closing date for submissions is 15 August 2025. Learn more and make a submission at the LRC website.
ONGOING
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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