Weekend Wrap for 18 July 2021

Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 18 July 2021, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.

Don’t forget that the Weekend Wrap, which aims to help secular-minded Australians keep abreast of the latest news on current issues, is also published on our Facebook page!

At the National Level

Around the Country

QLD: Suffering Queenslanders seeking to end their own lives would not first need to see a specialist doctor, sparking fears among euthanasia opponents that families might go 'doctor shopping'. (Brisbane Times)

QLD: Queensland doctors have backed a push by churches to enshrine their right to refuse access to voluntary assisted dying at faith-based hospitals and aged-care homes. (The Australian)

QLD: The president of Queensland’s peak medical body has claimed that one-third of the state’s hospital and aged-care beds are at risk of folding if religious-run organisations are not given the right to refuse to allow assisted dying on premises. (The Australian)

QLD: Townsville Bishop Tim Harris continues to campaign against voluntary assisted dying after attending one of the seven public hearings currently being held across the state before Queensland MPs vote on the legislation. (Catholic Leader)

WAThe Perth Theatre Trust (PTT) initially denied an application from the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) to hold an event at the publicly owned Albany Entertainment Centre, due to the political nature of the group. (ABC News)

WA: Christian conservative group FamilyVoice Australia has likened the West Australian government’s policy of refusing to lease its entertainment venues to groups with alternative views to the government to communistic ideology. (FamilyVoice Australia)

WA: Western Australian LGBTQIA+ advocates have announced their support for the Perth Theatre Trust (PTT) over their decision not to allow the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) to make use of their venues. (Out in Perth)

WA: The West Australian government has backflipped on its decision to ban the Australian Christian Lobby from hiring its venues, promising an overhaul of a controversial policy that barred ­organisations that did not hold its views from renting state-owned facilities. (The Australian)

WA: A freedom of speech expert says she could see what the WA government was trying to do with their venue hire policy but that it was the “wrong wording entirely” and the government needed to beef up laws in other areas to stop discrimination. (SMH)

WA: Ethnic groups and foreign policy experts are calling on the Perth Theatre Trust (PTT) to urgently review or scrap a policy that allows state-owned venues in Western Australia to reject hiring requests from groups "identifying with countries whose political status is unclear or in dispute". (ABC News)

WAWestern Australian based organisation True Identity, in collaboration with the Australian Christian Lobby, are pushing for the McGowan Government to resist introducing laws which would stop religious based counsellors from treating people for, what they describe as – unwanted same-sex attraction. Equality advocates however describe the practice as nothing more than “gay conversion therapy”, and have repeated their call for the McGowan Government to ban the practice as other states have. (Out in Perth)

VIC: Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli is facing dissent from within over ambitious plans to restructure almost 200 parishes across the city. In the wake of Australia’s clergy abuse scandal, Archbishop Comensoli has warned that the archdiocese had reached a “threshold” and could “sink into the sunset” without structural reform.

VIC: The Rationalist Society of Australia reports on more councils in which the standing ritual of Christian prayers are being challenged. (RSA)

Commentary and Analysis

Events and Advisories

That's it for another week!

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