Weekend Wrap for 17 October 2026
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 17 October 2026. The Wrap covers Australian secular politics — religious privilege and funding, religion in public schools, discrimination laws, voluntary assisted dying, and many other related issues. If someone forwarded this to you, you can subscribe on our website.
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The world leader of the Exclusive Brethren fronted a federal parliamentary committee on Friday, the first time Bruce Hales has answered public questions in decades, over his church's covert campaign for the Coalition at the 2025 election. He denied ordering the thousands of Brethren who turned out in blue Liberal T-shirts, denied any knowledge of the stunt operation in which members paid far-right figures with neo-Nazi links to tail and heckle the prime minister, and revealed that members have met Donald Trump in New York. The committee did not hide its scepticism. What hangs on the finding is money: if the church is declared a significant third-party campaigner, its dozen charities and their hundreds of millions in tax-free assets could be exposed, because charities are not allowed to run partisan politics.
Religious freedom was the shield raised throughout. Coalition members called the inquiry a "witch hunt" and an attack on faith, a line pushed in parallel by the American lobby group Turning Point USA. Their argument is that asking a church to account for an organised political campaign is persecution. The Brethren run taxpayer-funded schools and a $252 million charity, and none of it is registered as a third-party campaigner.
Two other threads ran through the week. The Rationalist Society published freedom-of-information documents showing that a Liberal senator asked the Bureau of Statistics whether the "Census – Not Religious?" campaign — which the National Secular Lobby helped drive — was lawful and whether it threatened the integrity of the Census. The ABS said it had seen no evidence of any such risk and had sought no legal advice. And independent MP Allegra Spender finally put her bill to parliament: it would stop religious schools expelling gay students or sacking staff over sexuality, the carve-out Labor has twice promised to close and twice left alone.
In Redfern, the Catholic Church refused to hand a building it hasn't used in 50 years to the Aboriginal health service that has. In Tasmania, the premier told his education department to overrule a public school that renamed its Christmas raffle. Each turns on who gets to draw on the public purse, or the public square, and on what terms.
News this week
National: Four years after Labor's promise, a new bill challenges religious school discrimination (13 October 2026)
Independent MP Allegra Spender introduced a private member's bill in federal parliament on 12 October to narrow the exemptions that let religious schools discriminate against LGBTQIA+ students and staff under the Sex Discrimination Act and the Fair Work Act. Schools could still prefer co-religionists in hiring and in promotion to senior religious roles such as principals, chaplains and religious education teachers, but couldn't dismiss existing staff over sexuality or gender identity. Labor promised reform in 2022, then made it conditional on Coalition support, and the talks collapsed. The government hasn't said whether it will back the bill, and no debate date is set. The Australian Christian Lobby and Anglican Bishop Michael Stead have raised objections to the drafting.
➧ READ MORE:
Q News
National: ABS told senator it did not see evidence that 'No religion' campaign posed risk to integrity of Census (15 October 2026)
Freedom-of-information documents obtained by the Rationalist Society show that Liberal senator Dean Smith wrote to the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 5 August, days before Census night, asking whether the "Census – Not Religious?" campaign was lawful and whether it risked the integrity of the count. The National Secular Lobby was one of the groups that backed the campaign, which urged people to mark "No religion" if they are not religious. ABS head David Gruen replied that the agency had not sought legal advice and had "not seen evidence" the campaign posed a risk, adding that the ABS was grateful to the many groups encouraging accurate completion. The current question wording, which the ABS's own documents concede may lead respondents to a particular answer, is estimated to undercount the non-religious by about ten percentage points.
➧ READ MORE:
Rationalist Society of Australia (15 October)
Rationalist Society of Australia (11 October)
TAS: Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff criticised after social post on 'Christmas' event causes school pile-on (15 October 2026)
Premier Jeremy Rockliff asked his education department to "step in" after Trevallyn Primary School in Launceston renamed its end-of-year fundraising raffle, "formerly known as Christmas on the Hill", the "End of Year Extravaganza". He posted about it on Facebook, writing that acknowledging other traditions was no reason to abandon "our own" and that children should sing Christmas carols "whenever they please". The post, which named no school, drew hundreds of comments before other outlets named the school and its acting principal. The Australian Education Union called the premier's intervention "reprehensible" and said it had caused psychological harm; the Tasmanian Principals Association president called it "absolute overreach". The department said no decision had been made and that the school's calendar still listed Christmas carols.
➧ READ MORE:
The ABC
NSW: Redfern's Aboriginal Medical Service begged for help. Archbishops Anthony Fisher and George Pell said no (15 October 2026)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has refused repeated requests to give the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern the Turner Street building it has worked from for 55 years, the Herald reports. The AMS has sought ownership for more than 25 years; both George Pell and his successor Anthony Fisher declined. A 13,200-word proposal lodged late last year was rejected in a 300-word email that called the site part of the parish's "stable patrimony". The service has occupied the building rent-free since the 1970s; the archdiocese, one of Sydney's largest property owners with many holdings tax-exempt, now offers a ten-year peppercorn lease and says the land can't be subdivided, though town planners the AMS engaged found that it can. The adjoining Sisters of Mercy gave their Redfern properties to the service in the 1970s; the church hierarchy has twice refused to follow suit.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age (15 October)
The Age (16 October)
National: 'Just business': Brethren leaders admit meeting far-right – and Trump (16 October 2026)
Exclusive Brethren world leader Bruce Hales and his son Gareth faced the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on 16 October over the church's covert campaign for the Coalition at the 2025 election. Gareth Hales admitted meeting far-right agitators and belonging to encrypted chats where Brethren elders and neo-Nazi associates planned stunts against left-leaning MPs, but called the meetings "just business". Bruce Hales revealed that members have met Donald Trump in New York, denied directing the campaign, and denied that his "Make Australia smile again" catchcry was an instruction to his sons. Coalition members, led by Ben Small and Bridget McKenzie, repeatedly called the inquiry a "witch hunt" and religious discrimination. If the church is found to be a significant third-party campaigner, the charitable status of its dozen entities and their hundreds of millions in tax-free assets could be at risk.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age
The ABC
QLD: Plan to send girl to cult triggered 'extreme' warning (15 October 2026)
A Queensland coronial inquest has heard that doctors who warned a young girl was at extreme risk from her mother's rejection of medicine were shut out of the child-safety meetings held before she died. A paediatrician told the Child Safety Department in August 2019 that six-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs was "at extremely high risk of harm" in a household where her mother did not believe in medication. After being returned to her family, Elizabeth died in January 2022, aged eight, while her parents and 11 other members of the church group "the Saints" prayed around her and withheld her insulin. The inquest heard the Brisbane doctors could not attend inter-agency meetings without an invitation from Child Safety. Both parents and the group's leader are in prison; the eight-day inquest continues.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age
Commentary and analysis
Anthony Ireland: Bill to ban conversion practices may create new problems (15 October 2026)
Hobart Archbishop Anthony Ireland sets out the Catholic case against the Tasmanian Greens' Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026, introduced by Rosalie Woodruff in September. He supports banning coercive and abusive practices but argues the bill goes further, catching conduct aimed at "suppressing" sexual orientation or gender identity — a term he says is left undefined — and removing consent as a defence, so that a counsellor could be liable even where an adult freely sought help. He warns the reach extends to school counsellors, chaplains and wellbeing staff, and that this is not only a Catholic schools concern. It's a clear statement of the religious objections now being pressed against the bill ahead of the Liberals' conscience vote.
➧ READ MORE:
CathNews
Michael Bachelard: Gaslighting on a biblical scale: Brethren evidence about election antics doesn't match reality (17 October 2026)
Bachelard, one of the reporters behind the masthead's investigation into the Brethren's election operation, argues the church's religious-freedom defence is a distraction from what the hearing was really about: money and accountability. The threshold to be declared a significant third-party campaigner is $250,000; the Australian Christian Lobby, unions and individuals are registered, but no Brethren entity is — not the secretariat, not the $252 million tax-free Vision Foundation, not the dozen other charities. Registering could cost the church its charitable status, because charities can't run partisan politics. The piece is a sharp account of why the stakes of the inquiry are financial, and of how "religious freedom" was deployed to keep the questions at bay.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age
Opportunities for action
TAS: Sign the petition and write to your MPs on the conversion practices bill. Updated this week: the Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Anthony Ireland, has set out the church's objections to the Greens' Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026, and reports suggest more than 50 Tasmanian healthcare providers have urged MPs to pass it. The Liberals have a conscience vote, so individual members are the audience. Equality Tasmania's e-petition asking the House of Assembly to support a ban closes Monday 26 October 2026: sign it here. You can also write to your local members via the Tasmanian House of Assembly member list.
QLD: Have your say on Queensland's human rights and anti-discrimination laws. A review of the state's human rights and anti-discrimination framework, led by former judge Peter Flanagan KC, is taking public submissions on its discussion paper. Part of it covers the paused Respect at Work amendments, and the Australian Christian Lobby is mobilising supporters to argue for weaker anti-discrimination protections and stronger religious exemptions. Submissions close Friday 30 October 2026 and can be made by email to qhrc.strategic.review@justice.qld.gov.au. Details and documents are on the Queensland Government consultation page.
VIC / National: Register for VADCON26, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Conference, in Melbourne on 19–20 October 2026 — this coming Monday and Tuesday. The conference brings together clinicians, advocates and researchers working on access to and improvement of voluntary assisted dying laws. Details and registration via Go Gentle Australia.
National: Back Allegra Spender's bill to end discrimination in religious schools. New this week: independent MP Allegra Spender introduced a private member's bill on 12 October to stop religious schools expelling LGBTQIA+ students or dismissing staff over sexuality or gender identity. The government has not said whether it will support it, and no debate date is set. Write to your federal MP urging them to back it, and find your member via the Parliament of Australia member list.
National / NT: Email the Attorney-General on voluntary assisted dying and telehealth. A provision in the Commonwealth Criminal Code bans electronic communication about VAD and forces regional patients to wait for scripts by post. The Australian College of Nursing has written to the Prime Minister urging that sections 474.29A and 474.29B be amended, warning that a 2023 Federal Court ruling exposes practitioners who use telehealth for lawful VAD care to fines above $360,000. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young's Criminal Code Amendment (Equal Access to Voluntary Assisted Dying) Bill 2026 is before the Senate, and the South Australian government has urged the Commonwealth to act. Email Attorney-General Michelle Rowland via Go Gentle Australia's telehealth campaign.
WA: Back the call for secular wellbeing officers in public schools. The Rationalist Society has used freedom-of-information documents to show that up to 39 per cent of Western Australia's $28 million chaplaincy and wellbeing budget goes to the overheads of faith-based labour-hire firms, and that schools asking to employ their own secular staff are refused and in some cases left "forced to go without". Write to the Premier and your local members urging that schools be allowed to choose, and follow the campaign via the Rationalist Society's school chaplaincy campaign. Find your members via the Parliament of Western Australia member list.
WA: Have your say on Christian prayers in the WA parliament. The Legislative Assembly's procedures committee is considering whether to replace the daily Lord's Prayer with a more inclusive opening, while the Australian Christian Lobby has lodged a submission urging that the prayer be kept. Premier Roger Cook is opposed to change; Labor's Dave Kelly is leading the push for a moment of silence. Write to the Premier and your local members urging a parliament that is neutral on religion. Find your members via the Parliament of Western Australia member list.
QLD: Sign the Queensland parliament e-petition to keep state schools in Pride in Diversity. After the education department withdrew from the LGBTIQ+ inclusion program, PFLAG's Shelley Argent lodged an e-petition asking it to rejoin and to restore support for staff. Queensland residents can sign until 20 November 2026 via the Queensland Parliament e-petition 4694-26.
National: Sign the Census – Not Religious? campaign's petition to fix the Census religion question for future censuses. Census night has passed for 2026, but the leading question the ABS's own documents concede "may lead respondents to a particular response" will be back in 2031 unless it is changed. Sign the Change.org petition, and read why the wording is loaded.
National: Push back on the $1.2 billion Choice and Affordability Fund. Private school organisations are campaigning to extend the fund beyond 2029 — money available only to Catholic and Independent schools, outside the needs-based model. Support the AEU's For Every Child campaign.
National: Support an Australian Charter of Human Rights & Freedoms. The Human Rights Law Centre runs a site for supporters. Visit the Human Rights Act campaign website.
Our activities
We recently made a submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission's review of the Anti-Discrimination Act. You can read it here.
NSL was a partner in the joint 2026 Census – Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion' campaign, which ran through census night on 11 August and has now concluded. The petition remains open: visit the campaign website to learn more, or sign the Change.org petition calling on the ABS to change the leading religion question in the Census.
As always, the full videos of presentations and panel discussions from the 2023 Secularism Australia Conference (co-organised by NSL and other groups) are freely available for viewing on the Secularism Australia website and on YouTube!
More coming soon!
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