Weekend Wrap for 24 October 2026
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 24 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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Western Australia has introduced the largest rewrite of its anti-discrimination law in more than 40 years, and under it religious schools will no longer be able to sack a teacher or expel a student for being gay. Attorney General Tony Buti was blunt about where the line now falls: the exemption that lets a school choose staff and enrol students on religious grounds stays, but it stops there. "The exemption is purely on religion, not on sexual orientation." The Greens want even that narrowed, and with Labor likely short of a majority in the upper house, they may get the chance to argue it.
The WA bill lands in the middle of a national argument the Wrap has been tracking for weeks. Independent MP Allegra Spender introduced a federal bill a fortnight ago to strip the same exemptions out of the Sex Discrimination Act; Sydney Criminal Lawyers notes the push to remove religious schools' power to discriminate is back on the table. In Tasmania, Liberal MPs now have a conscience vote on the Greens' bill to ban conversion practices, with more than 50 doctors and health workers urging them to pass it and Deputy Premier Guy Barnett warning it could criminalise prayer. The e-petition backing a ban closes on Monday.
The Exclusive Brethren hearing is over, but its consequences are not. The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is writing a final report, due early next year, and the Australian Electoral Commission is running its own investigation into whether the church breached electoral law by mounting a coordinated, undeclared campaign for the Coalition. The money is still what hangs on it: an adverse finding could cost the church's charities their tax-free status, because charities can't run partisan politics.
In Tasmania, the fallout from Premier Jeremy Rockliff's intervention over a primary school's renamed Christmas event has widened: the state teachers' union has banned politicians from public schools for the rest of the term until he apologises. In Victoria, with both major parties promising to fully fund abortion ahead of next month's election, Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli has called the country's treatment of abortion and voluntary assisted dying a hidden "culture of death". And a Melbourne resident has started logging the amplified street preachers who set up outside Flinders Street Station for hours at a time, because the council won't enforce its own noise rules against them.
News this week
TAS: Tasmanian Doctors And Health Workers Back Conversion Ban Bill (17 October 2026)
More than 50 Tasmanian doctors and health practitioners have signed a statement backing the Greens' Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill and sent it to every state MP, with names withheld for safety reasons. Organiser Dr Miranda Hann said conversion practices cause serious harm and that the bill wouldn't change the clinical guidelines for treating young people. Deputy Premier Guy Barnett, a Liberal, opposes it, calling it "fundamentally flawed" and arguing it could criminalise religious conversations and prayers; he wants a further inquiry first. Equality Tasmania's Rodney Croome countered that similar laws in Victoria and New South Wales haven't produced convictions for conversations or prayers. Debate is expected at the end of October, on a Liberal conscience vote.
➧ READ MORE:
Star Observer
WA: New WA laws aim to prevent sexual discrimination against staff, students at religious schools (20 October 2026)
The Western Australian government has announced a rewrite of the Equal Opportunity Act that would stop religious schools sacking teachers or expelling students over sexuality, and bar them from turning students away over disability. Attorney General Tony Buti said the religious exemption remains, but only for religion: schools could still decline to hire or enrol on religious grounds, and after that point the exemption applies only where religion is an inherent requirement of the role. Buti called it the biggest overhaul of the state's anti-discrimination laws in more than 40 years. Greens leader Brad Pettitt welcomed the reforms but wants the carve-outs removed or minimised, and with Labor likely needing Greens support in the Legislative Council, the upper house is where the exemptions will be fought over.
➧ READ MORE:
The ABC
OUTinPerth
VIC: Archbishop denounces Australia's hidden 'culture of death' (21 October 2026)
Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli has used a Herald Sun opinion piece to attack both major Victorian parties over abortion and voluntary assisted dying, ahead of next month's state election. Victorian Labor has pledged to fully fund abortion care if re-elected, and the Coalition has largely matched the commitment; Comensoli argued that both procedures are hidden from public scrutiny and compared the issue to capital punishment, asking why the same reasoning that ended executions shouldn't extend to the unborn and the terminally ill. The intervention puts the leader of Melbourne's Catholic Church directly into a state election campaign on questions of publicly funded reproductive and end-of-life care.
➧ READ MORE:
CathNews
The Canberra Times
TAS: Teachers' union bans politicians from Tasmanian public schools amid Premier Jeremy Rockliff row (23 October 2026)
The Australian Education Union's Tasmanian branch has banned politicians and their representatives from visiting public schools for the rest of the term, after Premier Jeremy Rockliff's intervention over a Launceston primary school that renamed its end-of-year event. Rockliff cast his stance as a defence of "traditional Christmas values"; the union said his letter naming the school and its female principal, then leaked to the media, sparked a wave of abuse. Branch president David Genford said ministers Felix Ellis, Eric Abetz and Guy Barnett joined the social-media pile-on while the education minister failed to defend the school. The ban holds until the Premier apologises.
➧ READ MORE:
The Mercury (paywalled)
VIC: Melbourne council has "lost control" of amplified street preaching, says resident (24 October 2026)
A resident living near Flinders Street Station has told the Rationalist Society that the City of Melbourne has "lost control" of street preachers who use amplifiers, and has begun logging the preachers, gospel singers and religious groups who set up outside the station almost daily, some from 7.30am and some until 11pm. Council officers monitor the precinct but don't enforce the rules against amplification, even in the council's own no-amplification zones. Buskers need permits and must follow volume and location rules; street preachers need no permit, and the resident says some singing groups invoke religion to avoid one. The resident isn't asking for anyone to be moved on, only for the existing noise rules to apply to amplification whatever is being amplified. The council says its local law may be reviewed later this year.
➧ READ MORE:
Rationalist Society of Australia
QLD: Authorities said Elizabeth Struhs was 'safe'. So why did the eight-year-old die? (24 October 2026)
A nine-day coronial inquest into the 2022 death of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs has ended in Brisbane, with findings due next year. Elizabeth died after her parents withdrew the insulin she needed for type 1 diabetes; all 14 adult members of her mother's church, the Saints, were convicted over her death last year. Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard heard that child safety officers twice assessed Elizabeth as "safe", and that her Brisbane doctors — who warned the mother's refusal of medicine could "sabotage" treatment — were "stonewalled" and left out of inter-agency meetings. The coroner singled out a "lack of curiosity" among officials about the family's "quite extraordinary" religious beliefs as a missed opportunity, and said she was weighing whether to adopt recommendations from Victoria's cults inquiry, including a coercive-control-style offence for organised groups.
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The Guardian (24 October)
The Guardian (20 October)
Commentary and analysis
George Browning: Australia's US alliance is tying us to a dangerous politics of religious nationalism (22 October 2026)
Browning argues that religious nationalism now drives much of the politics Australia ties itself to through the US alliance, pointing to US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, whom he describes as a Christian Reconstructionist embedding Christian nationalism in the Pentagon, alongside Modi, Erdoğan and Russia's Patriarch Kirill. His closing appeal is domestic: that Australian politicians pay less heed to the loudest religious voices and more to those working for a generous and harmonious country. The piece is mostly about events abroad, but its warning about which religious voices shape Australian policy is squarely a church-state one.
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Pearls and Irritations
Paul Gregoire: Calls to Remove Religious Schools Exemptions Against LGBTIQA+ Students and Teachers Are Back (23 October 2026)
A survey of the renewed push, federal and state, to close the exemptions that let religious schools discriminate against LGBTIQA+ students and staff. It takes in Allegra Spender's federal bill to repeal the Sex Discrimination Act carve-outs and the wider pattern of reform now moving through the states, and sets out how far the exemptions still reach and what the competing bills would and wouldn't change. Useful background on a thread that runs through this week's Western Australian reforms as well.
➧ READ MORE:
Sydney Criminal Lawyers
Jason Koutsoukis: How the Plymouth Brethren influence politics (24 October 2026)
A detailed account of where the Exclusive Brethren inquiry now stands, drawing on committee chair Jerome Laxale and crossbencher Monique Ryan, both of whom say the Haleses' evidence was the opposite of what church members told them privately. It sets out the stakes plainly: the committee's final report is due early next year, the Australian Electoral Commission is investigating whether the church breached electoral law, and an adverse finding could trigger a charities-regulator inquiry and cost the Brethren the tax-free status its businesses and charities rely on. It also traces the church's Liberal ties back to John Howard in the 1970s, and records moderate Liberals asking why their party keeps turning to the sect.
➧ READ MORE:
The Saturday Paper
David Killick: Christmas concert row: Tas premier accused of culture war distraction (24 October 2026)
Killick reads Premier Rockliff's move against a primary school's renamed end-of-year concert as a manufactured distraction from nurses striking, ambulances failing and unemployment climbing, and picks apart the "traditional values" supposedly being defended: not mateship, a fair go, tolerance or kindness, given a principal and school community were thrown to a social-media pile-on. He notes Felix Ellis pausing his opposition to a conversion-practices ban long enough to post a Grinch screenshot, and ties the dog-whistling to the climate that produced the attack on Helen Haines.
➧ READ MORE:
The Mercury (paywalled)
Fact-checks and explainers
FACT-CHECK: Does the Tasmanian conversion bill really criminalise prayer?
Tasmania’s House of Assembly is due to debate the Greens’ Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026 from Wednesday 28 October. Two claims have come to frame the argument. Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Guy Barnett says the bill risks criminalising religious conversations and prayers. Equality Tasmania’s Rodney Croome says the same provisions have run in Victoria and New South Wales without anyone being convicted for a conversation or a prayer. They point in opposite directions about what the bill would do in practice. Here is what it says, and how the claims hold up.
➧ READ MORE:
National Secular Lobby
Opportunities for action
TAS: Sign the petition and write to your MPs on the conversion practices bill. Closing Monday: Equality Tasmania's e-petition asking the House of Assembly to support a ban on conversion practices closes Monday 26 October 2026 and has passed 4,500 signatures. Debate on the Greens' Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2026 is expected at the end of October, and the Liberals have a conscience vote, so individual members are the audience. More than 50 Tasmanian doctors and health workers have urged MPs to pass it, while Deputy Premier Guy Barnett opposes it and wants a further inquiry. Sign the petition here, and 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.
WA: Back the push to narrow religious-school exemptions in the Equal Opportunity reforms. New this week: the Western Australian government has introduced a rewrite of the Equal Opportunity Act that would stop religious schools sacking teachers or expelling students over sexuality, but keeps an exemption letting them hire and enrol on religious grounds. The Greens want that carve-out removed or minimised, and Labor is likely to need their support in the Legislative Council, where the exemptions will be contested. Write to the Premier and your local members urging that the religious exemptions be kept as narrow as possible. Find your members via the Parliament of Western Australia member list.
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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