Weekend Wrap for 31 August 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 31 August 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
Even in countries with the strictest separation of church and state, being a Christian means living and acting like one, Pope Leo XIV has told a group of politicians and civic leaders from France. There should be no "split in the personality of a public figure; there is not the politician on one side and the Christian on the other. Rather, there is the politician who, under the gaze of God and guided by his conscience, lives out his commitments and responsibilities as a Christian!” The pope encouraged the politicians and civic leaders to grow in their faith and study Catholic doctrine, particularly the social teaching of the church, and “apply it in the exercise of your duties and in the drafting of laws.” (Note: Around 30% of our federal politicians are Catholic.) (28 Aug 2025)
Read more at OSV News
Around the Country
QLD: Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says "a plethora of well-meaning right-wing campaign groups" fractured the base of the Peter Dutton-led Coalition at this year's federal election. Crisafulli urged the LNP not to be distracted by ideological issues or internal squabbles, as he laid out his plan to lead a multi-term state government. (25 Aug 2025)
Read more at ABC News
QLD: A church diocese covering a third of Queensland has entered receivership to help fund ongoing compensation payments to victims of child sex abuse. Receivers have been appointed to the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland through a Supreme Court order. A spokesperson for the diocese said: "Despite the appointment of receivers, the diocese remains conscious of its moral and financial obligations to survivors of historic abuse. The diocese is committed to truth, justice and healing for those who have suffered so profoundly in the past." The National Redress Scheme requires participating institutions to compensate victims of historic abuse through a claims process. In May, North Queensland Bishop Keith Joseph told the ABC the diocese would need to find about $8 million to pay victims of child sexual abuse. (25 Aug 2025)
Read more at ABC News
VIC: The Moyne Shire Council in Victoria has become the latest local government to do away with acts of religious worship as part of formal meetings, after councillors stood firm today against an attempt to keep prayers. At a meeting this week, councillors voted 4-2 against a motion that proposed rescinding a July decision by council that removed prayers. In recent years, a number of local governments across the country have removed religious worship from their formal meetings, while several others have blocked attempts to re-introduce prayers. In Victoria, these councils have included Bendigo, Boroondara, Mildura, Mornington Peninsula, Pyrenees, and South Gippsland. (26 Aug 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
WA: Advocates for secular public education are stepping up the pressure on the WA government to put an end to the funding of religious chaplains in public schools after school communities made their voices clear on the issue. Last weekend, delegates attending the annual conference of the peak body representing parents and carers of public school students, the Western Australian Council of State School Organisations (WACSSO), voted in support of every public school being able to directly employ secular wellbeing officers. Advocacy group WA Public School Alliance is now urging the state’s education minister, Sabine Winton, to listen to parents and carers, and give all public schools the choice to directly hire student wellbeing officers. (29 Aug 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Commentary and Analysis
Si Gladman: ABS decision to reuse biased, coercive Census religion question puts human rights in the spotlight
"Regrettably, the ABS backed down following a media campaign by the Catholic hierarchy — who wanted to keep the question as it was, to ensure comparable data with past Censuses — and following the Albanese Government’s intervention on the Census design just days out from the large-scale test. ... And so the ABS has traded away the accuracy desired by data users right across the community — such as governments and bureaucracies that make funding decisions, politicians, researchers, and the wider public — in favour of the comparability desired by a narrow set of data users. This is despite “comparability” having not prevented the ABS from making changes to the wording of other questions over the years." (28 Aug 2025)
Read more at Pearls and Irritations
John Frew: How the ALP built the market that is destroying public schools
"The Albanese Government’s refusal to guarantee the full SRS for public schools until 2029 is more than a policy failure. It is a moral abdication. Every year of delay means another generation of children, disproportionately from low-income, regional, and First Nations communities, are denied the resources the government itself says they need. This is not an unfortunate oversight. It is the latest act in a long-running pattern of Labor Governments privileging market logic over public provision, even when it undermines their own working-class constituency. Labor still trades on its image as the party of equality and opportunity. But when it comes to education, its record is one of consistent surrender, and often leadership, in the marketisation of schooling. The most damaging reforms of the past 40 years have Labor fingerprints all over them." (29 Aug 2025)
Read more at Pearls and Irritations
Events and Campaigns
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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