Weekend Wrap for 17 March 2024

Neil Foster: Queensland – new proposed discrimination law
"The Queensland government has released a draft of a proposed new discrimination law for public comment. The proposed Anti-Discrimination Bill 2024 will make some radical changes to Queensland law, and of interest here is that it will seriously impact religious freedom in that State. One of the ways that religious freedom is protected in Australia is through the inclusion in discrimination laws of “balancing clauses” (provisions that balance the right not to be discriminated against, with the important right of religious freedom). But the new Bill will dramatically narrow those clauses." (12 Mar 2024)
Read more at Law and Religion Australia

Alexandra Smith and Michael McGowan: Matt met 40 friends through gay conversion ‘therapy’. Only six survived.
"Former Pentecostal preacher Anthony Venn-Brown has spent decades supporting people who were told they were broken and needed fixing. But it was an email from a young gay man called Matt that really reinforced to Venn-Brown how dangerous – and deadly – gay conversion practices can be. Matt wrote to Venn-Brown to thank him for his autobiography, which told the story of a young boy from the Sutherland Shire who went to a church 'rehabilitation' centre in the late 1970s in the hope of being cured of his homosexuality. He ultimately came out as gay aged 40. Like Venn-Brown, Matt, 34, had also been through gay conversion programs. But this was the heartbreaking line for Venn-Brown in Matt’s email: 'I made a lot of friends in my years of conversion therapy. Out of 40, only six are still alive. One died naturally, the rest suicide.'" (13 Mar 2024)
Read more at The Age

Matthew Wade: Faith, privilege, and charity: Should donations to school building funds be tax deductible?
"Most fiercely contested among the recommendations is removing the ability to claim tax deductions for donations to school building funds. Non-government schools — commonly referred to as “independent” or “private” schools — lean heavily on such funds to support capital works. The vast majority of these schools are faith-based, offering choice for those seeking a specific cultural grounding in the education of their children. But should donations to their building funds be tax deductible? Do they deliver sufficient community benefit to justify subsequent losses in revenue to the public purse? Or are they further exacerbating an already egregious divide in the resourcing of public and private schools?" (14 Mar 2024)
Read more at ABC Religion & Ethics

Lyndsay Connors and Jim McMorrow: Australia’s school system: OOPs!
"Soon after coming to office, the Albanese Government recognised the need for a better and fairer education system and set up an independent panel to provide advice on reform. The opening quote comes from this panel’s report, Improving Outcomes for All. Even if it was no surprise to the Government, it must have been confronting to read a description of our school system so starkly at odds with Labor’s egalitarian tradition. There are growing signs that debate about how to deal with this is becoming inevitable. But this is one debate that governments in Australia try their hardest to avoid. Providing public funding across a hybrid system of public and non-government schools with distinctive secular and religious traditions is politically challenging and has traditionally proven to be politically divisive and, in many instances, toxic." (15 Mar 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Chip Le Grand: Power and protest: Why Muslim leaders have left the table
"'We have seen the corrosion of social cohesion to the point where the Muslim community leadership made the decision to disengage, uninvite and non-attend events at a time when we really need to engage more. They felt there is no more point.' In Melbourne, the Muslim withdrawal can be traced back to a week before Christmas when the chair of Victoria’s Multicultural Commission, Vivienne Nguyen, and Stitt invited the commission’s Multi-faith Advisory Group, which includes representatives from the ICV and Victorian Board of Imams, to parliament to discuss the impact of the war on their communities. The meeting, moderated by Anglican Bishop Philip Huggins, was notable for the no-show by both major Islamic organisations. ... Religious and community leaders who have spent the past two decades building multi-faith dialogue to preserve social cohesion in difficult times are dismayed." (16 Mar 2024)
Read more at The Age

Trevor Cobbold: Fully funding public schools is critical for the government’s education agenda.
"The fact is that after adjusting for these accounting tricks, public schools are only funded at 87.6% of their SRS in 2024. This represents a funding shortfall of about $6.8 billion. Public schools will lose another $13 billion over the next five years if these accounting tricks are retained in the new agreements being negotiated between the Federal and state and territory governments. Unfortunately, this seems very likely because they are included in the new in-principle agreements between the Federal and Western Australian and Northern Territory Governments. It sets a precedent for the negotiations with other states. The Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare, says the special allowances for the states will be retained in the current agreements and negotiated in the next round of agreements that will operate from 2030. So, the swindles will continue for at least another five years despite the promise of his predecessor in Opposition that a future Labor Government would end the 'accounting tricks'. Any claim that public schools are fully funded while the accounting tricks remain in new agreements will be a blatant lie." (16 Mar 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations