Weekend Wrap for 23 November 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 23 November 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
The nation’s charities regulator has told a parliamentary inquiry into cult groups that some religious charities’ exemptions to reporting requirements and governance standards “significantly impacts” its ability to act when public concerns are raised about charities. In a submission provided to the Victorian Parliament’s inquiry in August, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) also said that the “differences between the obligations” of Basic Religious Charities (BRCs) and other charities “could impact … the public’s trust and confidence” in the charity sector. (16 Nov 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
A national memorial for victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse will be built in Canberra after the Albanese Government selected a new design. The $7.9 million lakeside memorial will be located at Acton Peninsula, between the National Museum and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, with construction to begin next year and expected to be completed in 2027 – a decade after it was first promised. In 2017, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended a national memorial to help survivors who felt that remembering was one way to help prevent child sexual abuse and protect children in the future. (18 Nov 2025)
Read more at CathNews (originally published in the Canberra Times)
Around the Country
NSW: The NSW Legislative Council has voted 23–16 against a Bill that would have allowed faith-based aged care facilities to decline offering Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) on site. Alex Greenwich, who introduced the original VAD legislation in 2021, said, the bill "would have cruelly limited access to voluntary assisted dying in aged care homes". The Bill was introduced on 15 October by Liberal MLC Susan Carter. It proposed amendments to the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2022 that would allow religious aged care facilities to refuse access to doctors attending residents for matters related to VAD. However, they would still be required to facilitate a resident’s travel to another location where VAD-related care could occur. (20 Nov 2025)
Read more at The Weekly Source
NSW: A senior pastor and his church have been accused of failing to disclose to the congregation a youth group leader’s child sex abuse, while the regulatory body in charge of investigating such abuse is alleged to have dismissed a complaint due to links to the church. The claims, aired in parliament on Thursday by NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, involved senior members of Maitland Evangelical Church. The allegations include a separate cover-up involving the abuse of a teenage girl in year 8 by a second offender. (20 Nov 2025)
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald
VIC: Leading barrister Rachel Doyle, SC, has taken aim at Victorian judges and barristers who wear their formal court robes to attend the Catholic archdiocese’s annual Red Mass, held to mark the start of the year. “The red mass has a long history. And those who are proponents of it will tell you it dates back hundreds of years. And I accept that. But we have to look at all traditions with modern eyes,” she said. The leading silk said people should be allowed to attend the mass should they choose, but wearing robes risked creating a perception of connection between the secular institution of the law and the religious institution. (21 Nov 2025)
Read more at the Australian Financial Review
VIC: Members of the public have raised concerns about issues of coercive control in religious charities with the national charities regulator, a parliamentary inquiry examining cults and fringe organised groups has heard. Appearing at the Victorian Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee inquiry on Monday, Sue Woodward, the head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), confirmed that the regulator had received “concerns” related to allegations about the treatment of people in religious charities. (22 Nov 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Commentary and Analysis
James Gardiner and Lizzie Maughan: School exemptions to discrimination law leave religious LGBTQIA+ teens unprotected
"It’s a common misconception that religion and gender and sexuality diversity are at odds with one another. There’s good reason for this. Some LGBTQIA+ people have had very difficult experiences in religious settings. But in reality, many LGBTQIA+ people hold religious and spiritual beliefs. Our new research has interviewed gender and sexuality diverse Australian young people about their experiences, including how they navigate school, faith, family and digital media. Our findings illustrate the urgent need for legislative changes to federal anti-discrimination law, particularly religious exemptions. We have heard from LGBTQIA+ youth whose school environments were unsafe because their religious schools were exempt from the Sex Discrimination Act. Under the laws, religious schools can discriminate on the basis of their gender and/or sexuality, leaving LGTBQIA+ teachers and students unprotected. LGBTQIA+ and religious young people are erased in this legislative environment, because it assumes that religious and LGBTQIA+ communities do not overlap. Our research shows this isn’t the case." (17 Nov 2025)
Read more at The Conversation
Kieran Tapsell: Pope Leo and transparency in child sexual abuse cases
"In an address to the National Safeguarding Conference in the Philippines, Pope Leo stated that 'there can be no tolerance for any form of abuse in the Church.' At the same time, he had a meeting with board members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA Global), which has been advocating a 'zero tolerance' policy for child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The pope acknowledged that there was some 'resistance in some parts of the world' to zero tolerance. What he did not mention was that most of the resistance comes from his own dicasteries." (19 Nov 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
Trevor Cobbold: Overworked, overburdened, and burning out: Australian teachers' workloads among the worst in OECD
"New figures from the OECD show that Australian teachers have one of the heaviest workloads of in the OECD. Overall working hours of Australian teachers, especially non-teaching hours, are significantly above the OECD average and contribute directly to teacher stress, burnout, and growing attrition from the profession. Despite multiple policy announcements, governments have made little meaningful progress in reducing these workloads, and this failure is contributing to national teacher shortages. ... To fundamentally reduce workload, some researchers advocate reorganising schools as “multi-opportunity communities” or community hubs that support both academic learning and student wellbeing. Employing more allied professionals (e.g., wellbeing staff, psychologists, social workers) is supported by other research. It would alleviate the burden on teachers while addressing increasing student needs. However, the long-term underfunding of public schools prevents this approach from being implemented. Full funding is needed to enable additional staffing and reduce reliance on teacher labour for wellbeing and administrative services." (20 Nov 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
Michael Bachelard: ‘We’re not a cult’ and a call for $250 million: Inside Exclusive Brethren’s rallying call to members
"The leaders of extremist religious sect the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church this week tightened their grip over every aspect of their members’ lives and finances, while rejecting the prime minister’s accusation that they’re a cult. Leaked audio from the church’s annual conference, Strive 26, held on Monday and obtained by this masthead, features Dean and Charles Hales – two of the ultra-wealthy sons of the “Man of God”, Bruce Hales – pressuring the Brethren “saints” to give more money and to hand over more financial information to centrally controlled companies. The church is facing an ongoing Australian Taxation Office investigation, scrutiny from a parliamentary committee over its widespread support for Peter Dutton at the last election, and a number of audits of its publicly funded school system." (22 Nov 2025)
Read more at The Age
Events and Campaigns
CURRENT
Religious MPs in NSW Parliament are trying to amend the voluntary assisted dying laws to allow aged care facilities to deny their residents access to VAD. Faith based aged care providers want the right to prioritise their religious beliefs over the rights and choices of elderly residents in their care. Use this tool at the Dying With Dignity NSW website to send a message to NSW MPs.
The NSW Government is inviting people across the state to help shape NSW’s first whole-of-government LGBTIQA+ Inclusion Strategy. Submissions will remain open until 10 December 2025. Click here to have your say.
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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