Weekend Wrap for 27 June 2026
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 27 June 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 parliaments may be in winter recess, but the scaffolding of religious privilege nonetheless got a thorough inspection this week.
In Perth, a Labor MP has asked his parliament to stop opening each sitting day with the Lord's Prayer. Dave Kelly's argument is partly the familiar one — a Christian prayer is no longer a fair fit for a multicultural, multi-faith and non-religious state — but he sharpened it by pointing to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, for whom a daily Christian recitation in the people's house can be a genuine wound. Only the ACT has dropped the prayer at this point. The pushback was immediate, with an Australian Christians MLC calling the move "troubling."
Then to the Census, where the Rationalist Society has prised loose, under freedom-of-information laws, the letters the Catholic bishops sent the Prime Minister and the Australian Bureau of Statistics fighting the very fix that would make the religion question accurate. The bishops' claims, the RSA shows, were dubious: that a clearer question would "destroy" the data, that it had been cooked up by opponents of religion. The motive is plainer. An inflated religion count underwrites public money for chaplaincy and faith-based services, and an honest question threatens it. The lobbying worked — the 2026 Census will reuse the old, biased question. If you haven't already, check out the Census — Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion', campaign, run a coalition of pro-secular groups including the NSL.
In Australia's fourth Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations, the government accepted at least some recommendations for every marginalised group it was asked about — except LGBTIQ+ people, for whom it declined all eight. Among the rejected: removing the exemptions that let religious schools sack a teacher or expel a student for being gay or trans, and a national ban on conversion practices the review likened to torture. The religious carve-outs in our discrimination law are the most durable form of state-sanctioned religious privilege left on the books, and the Commonwealth has just defended them on the world stage. And in Melbourne, the Victorian parliament's inquiry into anti-LGBTIQA+ hate crimes began hearings, where witnesses drew a straight line from political rhetoric about "monoculture" — One Nation was named — to violence in the street.
The week also brought a vivid reminder of why the school-funding fight matters. A Herald/60 Minutes investigation laid bare Redeemer Baptist School in North Parramatta — a government-funded private school run by a fundamentalist church that former students say dictated their careers, their marriages and even the colour of their underwear — now under investigation by the state's education regulator over its funding obligations.
The Australian Christian Lobby has opened a "born alive" front in the Northern Territory, the same framing that has driven abortion-restriction bills in Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales, now aimed at the one jurisdiction about to debate voluntary assisted dying. And John Ruddick's sex-selection bill was due back before the NSW Legislative Council this week. The fringe is patient, and it works even in recess.
News this week
National: Catholic bishops raised dubious claims in urging ABS to 'reconsider' changes to the Census religion question (21 June 2026)
Freedom-of-information documents obtained by the Rationalist Society of Australia show the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference wrote to both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Bureau of Statistics in March 2024, "strongly" opposing the proposed redesign of the Census religion question and asking the government to "reverse" it. The bishops claimed that changing the wording from "What is the person's religion?" to "Does the person have a religion?" would "destroy" the question as a measure of culture and identity, and that the change had "likely been proposed by opponents" of a religion question — claims the RSA rebuts, noting the reform corrects a well-documented bias that inflates religious affiliation by understating the non-religious (by as much as 11 percentage points on some surveys) and that no community group has sought to remove the religion topic. The lobbying, amplified by a public campaign that drew in former prime minister John Howard and Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, achieved its aim: after the government repeatedly missed deadlines and the ABS's critical 2024 household test was scrapped, the bureau reverted in October 2024 to the unchanged 2021 question for the 2026 Census, citing a lack of data to assess the new wording. The ABS attributes the decision to maintaining comparability with past Censuses; the RSA argues government delay "torpedoed" the test and points to possible political interference. Either way, the question that inflates religious affiliation will stand on 11 August — which is precisely why the NSL-backed campaign urges the non-religious to mark "No Religion".
➧ READ MORE:
Rationalist Society of Australia
NSW: Inside the Sydney private school that dictates students' choices right down to their underwear (21 June 2026)
A six-month investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes has exposed Redeemer Baptist School in North Parramatta — a government-funded private school run entirely by volunteers from the fundamentalist Redeemer Baptist Church — as an institution that former students say engineered their lives: vetoing university courses and marriages, controlling discretionary spending, and requiring some children to live in teachers' or elders' homes. One former student, Alexandra Garth, described "not a lot of separation between church and state" and feeling "constantly monitored"; the school blazer's motto reads "To hear is to obey." Redeemer rejects the allegations, saying its practices are lawful even if "unfamiliar" and that students retain control over their choices. The NSW Education Standards Authority is now investigating the school's registration compliance and funding obligations, and both the NSW and federal education ministers called the allegations "deeply concerning," with federal minister Jason Clare referring the matter to his department. It is a sharp illustration of public money flowing to a religious school operating well beyond ordinary scrutiny.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age
WA: Labor MP calls for Lord's Prayer to be scrapped in WA parliament (22 June 2026)
Bassendean Labor MP Dave Kelly has urged the first major review of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly's standing orders since 1999 to drop the Lord's Prayer that opens each sitting day, replacing it with a moment's silence. In a submission to the parliament's Privilege and Procedure Committee, Kelly argued a Christian prayer is "no longer appropriate" in a multicultural state of many religions and none, and that no other WA workplace begins the day with prayer except explicitly religious organisations. He also linked the prayer to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse — particularly by the Christian Brothers — for whom seeing the chamber open each day with a Christian prayer is "triggering" and reads as the parliament siding with the institutions responsible. Australian Christians MLC Maryka Groenewald called the push "troubling," defending the prayer as an acknowledgement of Australia's Christian heritage. The ACT remains the only Australian parliament to have replaced the prayer with a moment of reflection.
➧ READ MORE:
ABC News
VIC: VIC Parliamentary Inquiry Told Rising Online Hate Fuelling Attacks On LGBTQIA+ People (25 June 2026)
The Victorian parliament's Inquiry into Anti-LGBTIQA+ Hate Crimes, established by the Greens, opened two days of hearings this week and was told of a pattern of assaults in which gay and bisexual men are lured to public places through fake dating-app profiles, attacked, and filmed for circulation in online "manosphere" communities. Thorne Harbour Health chief executive Chad Hughes said Victoria Police had identified 95 alleged attacks since June 2024, resulting in 42 arrests, and that the true number is likely far higher because many victims distrust police. Witnesses and the committee linked the violence to political rhetoric about "monoculture" and to figures including One Nation, with Greens MP Aiv Puglielli arguing that what political leaders say helps create the conditions for the attacks. The inquiry's final report is due by 1 September. The secular interest is direct: the same rhetoric that casts difference as a threat to a single national culture is being examined, under oath, as a driver of real violence.
➧ READ MORE:
Star Observer
QNews
National: Australian Government declines all UN LGBTQIA+ rights recommendations (26 June 2026)
Equality Australia says it is "bitterly disappointed" after the federal government declined to accept a single one of the eight LGBTIQ+ recommendations made in Australia's fourth Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations, delivered in January 2026. The recommendations included removing the exemptions that allow religious schools to discriminate against students and staff on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity — a carve-out the UN has criticised for years — a national ban on conversion and suppression practices the review compared to torture, and an end to non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants. Equality Australia's Savanh Tanhchareun noted that LGBTIQ+ Australians were the only marginalised group for which no recommendation was adopted, while measures concerning First Nations people, children, migrants, refugees, older people, people with disability and women were at least partly taken up. The religious-school exemptions are the clearest case of a discrimination law written to privilege religious belief, and the government has chosen to defend them on the world stage.
➧ READ MORE:
QNews
Commentary and analysis
Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor: Public education needs a level playing field to flourish (21 June 2026)
Replying to Trevor Cobbold and Save Our Schools, the authors of Waiting for Gonski argue that fully funding public schools is necessary but not sufficient: while private — mostly religious — schools can combine public subsidy, unregulated fees and selective enrolment, the playing field stays tilted. Their "common framework" would fund all schools fully only if they charge no fees and enrol inclusively. The secular sting is in the diagnosis: the private-school lobby, they write, has hidden taxpayer support for wealthy schools "behind the fig leaf of religious choice." A more structural companion to the Wrap's running coverage of religious-school funding, and pointed reading alongside this week's Redeemer Baptist School revelations.
➧ READ MORE:
Pearls & Irritations
ABC Religion and Ethics Report / Andrew West: Christian Brothers closed down. What now for their sex abuse victims? (24 June 2026)
After 180 years in Australia, the Catholic order of Christian Brothers is closing down – bankrupt and shamed by the child sexual abuse scandal. The Christian Brothers have announced a plan to sell off their remaining 36 properties in Australia at an estimated value of $216 million. The proceeds will go to victims and survivors and their lawyers. Those with claims against the brothers won’t receive all they’re seeking but the Brothers have revealed they’ve already paid a staggering $480 million in abuse settlements since 1980.
➧ LISTEN:
ABC Radio National
Paul Gregoire: The Right to Abortion Is Under Threat: Interview with USYD Women's Collective's Grace Street (25 June 2026)
Gregoire frames John Ruddick's sex-selection bill, still before the NSW Legislative Council, as one front in a rising multi-jurisdictional campaign to chip away at — and ultimately remove — the right to terminate, rather than an isolated measure. The natural companion to the Wrap's running coverage of the cross-state abortion push in South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales: it reads the incrementalism as strategy, and locates the NSW bill within it.
➧ READ MORE:
Sydney Criminal Lawyers
Paul Gregoire: The Australian Health Regulator's Stance on Israel Will Erode Rights and Harm Patients (26 June 2026)
Gregoire reports the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism — announced alongside antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal — and argues it writes a contested political position into healthcare regulation, with a chilling effect on practitioners' criticism of Israel and a risk of poorer care for Palestinian, Arab and Muslim patients. More than 2,000 health professionals and at least 40 organisations have signed an open letter querying what the definition adds to AHPRA's existing anti-discrimination code, which already protects attributes attaching to persons rather than a nation-state. Relevant to the Wrap's hate-speech and religion-in-public-institutions threads (topic 8): a secular regulator adopting a definition that binds a religion to a state, and the free-expression questions that follow. The position is contested — proponents frame the adoption as strengthening the health system's response to antisemitism.
➧ READ MORE:
Sydney Criminal Lawyers
Opportunities for action
National: With faith organisations now running a coordinated campaign to lift the religion count, the 2026 Census religion question (Census night is 11 August) is contested ground. Australians who do not hold a religion can ensure the data is accurate by marking "No Religion". The NSL is part of the joint Census — Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion' campaign. Learn more at the campaign website.
NT: The Northern Territory government's voluntary assisted dying bill remains on track for introduction mid-2026, leaving the NT as the last Australian jurisdiction without VAD. The bill is expected to depart from several recommendations of the 2025 inquiry, including a 12-month prognosis limit, and will be decided on a conscience vote. Meanwhile the Australian Christian Lobby has opened a "born alive" campaign in the Territory, signalling that the religious right intends to contest end-of-life and abortion ground there simultaneously. Secular voices supporting safe, accessible VAD with adequate safeguards should watch for the bill's introduction. Go Gentle Australia is tracking the NT process.
National: Pauline Hanson has pledged to abolish the office of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and unwind workplace inclusion schemes — a reminder of what is at stake in the broader push to redefine "sex" in anti-discrimination law. Equality Australia's "Hands off our protections" petition calls on federal parliamentarians to reject any narrowing of the Sex Discrimination Act. Sign the petition at Equality Australia.
NSW: Libertarian MLC John Ruddick's Abortion Law Reform Amendment (Sex Selection Prohibition) Bill remains before the NSW Legislative Council, and debate was due to resume this week, though no final vote had been confirmed as this edition went to press. The bill would criminalise performing an abortion known to be sought for sex selection. NSW residents who support retaining decriminalised abortion access can contact members of the Legislative Council to register their view before the vote.
National: Not in Our Name (NION) Women Australia continues to invite women across the country to sign an open letter in solidarity with the trans community and in defence of the Sex Discrimination Act. Sign the open letter via Action Network.
National: Nationals MP Alison Penfold has called on the Prime Minister to establish a joint select committee to review the Sex Discrimination Act, including her bill to insert a biological definition of "sex." If such a committee is established and opens submissions, secular and human rights voices will be needed to counter the religious lobby's input. Contact your federal member or senator to register your view on any review of the Act.
NSW: The NSW Human Rights Bill 2025 has been referred to a parliamentary inquiry and submissions are now open. The Australian Christian Lobby is actively mobilising its networks to oppose the Bill. Secular, humanist, and human rights voices are needed to counterbalance the religious lobby's input. Visit the NSW Parliament website to find the inquiry and submission details. Submissions close 3 July 2026.
TAS: Tasmania: Equality Tasmania, Women's Health Tasmania, and Working It Out have formally written to the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner requesting an inquiry into the proposed sale of Hobart Private Hospital to Calvary Health Care. If you are a Tasmanian who supports continued access to gender-affirming and other healthcare services that Calvary's Catholic ethical guidelines would prohibit, consider contacting the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner's office to support the call for an inquiry or following Equality Tasmania's campaign.
National: Dying With Dignity NSW has an opportunity for people to send a message to Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and ask her to make changes to improve VAD availability (by using telehealth). For people in regional areas and those who are unable to travel it is more difficult, or even impossible, to access VAD. This could be easily fixed by excluding VAD from telehealth prohibition. Visit their campaign here.
National: Go Gentle Australia's 2026 State of VAD Report made a compelling case for a straightforward amendment to the Commonwealth Criminal Code: remove the restriction that treats electronic communication and telehealth discussions about voluntary assisted dying as potential facilitation of suicide. This one-line fix would allow dying people — particularly those in regional and remote areas — to consult with VAD practitioners via telehealth rather than being required to travel repeatedly for in-person appointments. A central Queensland man died waiting for VAD access because of bureaucratic prescription mail rules. This is a discrete, fixable federal legislative problem. Contact your federal member or senator to call for the amendment.
National: The Rationalist Society of Australia is running a Change.org petition calling on the Australian War Memorial to take direct responsibility for the Anzac Day Dawn Service and end the imposition of Christian worship on a national commemoration. Read and sign the petition at change.org.
National: 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
National: 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
National: The Australian Education Union is running a campaign calling for “every school, every child” to receive fair education funding. Support the campaign here.
NSW: The Human Rights for NSW alliance is running a campaign calling for NSW to pass a Human Rights Act.
Our activities
NSL is involved in the joint 2026 Census - Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion' campaign aiming to improve the accuracy of census religion data. Visit the campaign website to learn more.
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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