Weekend Wrap for 7 December 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 7 December 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
An independent audit of the National Redress Scheme has found average decision wait-times for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse have ballooned to roughly 16 months, with about 60% of applicants still awaiting an outcome — a steep decline from 2021 when nearly 80% of claims were resolved within six months. Survivors and advocates say that the extended delays, compounded by limited communication, are retraumatizing applicants as they await formal recognition or compensation — sometimes just seeking an apology rather than money. With the Scheme slated to end in 2028, support organisations and legal services are calling for an extension, additional funding and reforms to avoid denying redress to many applicants before the deadline. (4 Dec 2025)
Read more at ABC News
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has chosen to retain a religion question for the 2026 Census — “What is the person’s religion?” — a formulation that critics say assumes all respondents have a religion, thereby biasing results by inflating religious affiliation. Despite conducting public consultation and internally recognizing that the existing wording was problematic, the ABS rejected proposals — supported by the public and secular advocacy groups including the NSL — to instead ask “Does the person have a religion?” with a follow-up for those who answer yes. The Bureau argues the decision preserves continuity and comparability with past censuses, but opponents contend that the choice undermines data accuracy, misrepresents the number of non-religious people, and fails to treat religious and non-religious Australians equally under international human-rights standards. The continued use of the flawed question means that governments, policy-makers, researchers and the wider community will still not be able to access any accurate Census data on the religious and non-religious affiliation of Australians. (4 Dec 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
Around the Country
VIC: The Victorian Government has introduced the Health Safeguards for People Born with Variations in Sex Characteristics Bill 2025 to Parliament, aiming to curb non-essential, irreversible medical interventions on children born with intersex traits until they can give informed consent. The legislation also mandates improved information and support for patients and families, with clinicians and parents required to provide comprehensive disclosure of risks, benefits and alternatives — including the option to delay or forgo intervention entirely. Advocates have welcomed the bill as a long-awaited protection of bodily autonomy for intersex people, with some calling on other Australian jurisdictions to follow suit. (2 Dec 2025)
Read more at OUTinPerth
VIC: The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) is seeking a statement from the Victorian Liberal Party on whether it plans to restore compulsory religious instruction during class time in public schools, should it win next year’s state election. The party had previously committed to reintroducing unpopular Special Religious Instruction (SRI) to the regular curriculum. The RSA argues that reinstating SRI during class hours would amount to state-sponsored segregation by religion — undermining public-school principles, harming social cohesion, and disadvantaging non-participating students. (2 Dec 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
WA: Western Australia has passed long-awaited legislation modernising its surrogacy and assisted-reproduction laws, widening access to IVF and altruistic surrogacy for single people, same-sex couples, and transgender and intersex individuals, rather than limiting eligibility to those with medical infertility. The reforms consolidate and replace outdated statutes, introduce an advisory board to oversee the system, and strengthen the rights of donor-conceived people to obtain information about their genetic origins. After years of political and community debate, the overhaul brings the state into line with the rest of Australia, with an 18-month implementation period before the changes take full effect. (3 Dec 2025)
Read more at ABC News
VIC: A large mosque in Melbourne’s outer west that was vandalised with Islamophobic graffiti will hold a community meeting to discuss the “disturbing” incident. The offensive graffiti was sprayed two weeks after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was suspended for entering the Senate chamber wearing a burqa for the second time in her political career. Aftab Malik, the special envoy for combating Islamophobia, said Islamophobic incidents had rocketed since the war in the Middle East, and Muslim women had been targeted and fake bombs planted outside mosques. Evan Mulholland, opposition multicultural and multifaith affairs spokesman, said there was no place for religious intolerance in Victoria. (6 Dec 2025)
Read more at The Age
Commentary and Analysis
Mike Seccombe: Moderates despair as the Liberals enter a ‘death spiral’ egged on by Murdoch
"One might think, given the electoral drubbing in May, and the evidence accumulated over the previous couple of electoral cycles, that the Coalition parties would make adjustments. They have to a degree, installing a more centrist figure in Sussan Ley, but this has brought neither unity nor progressive policy change. Speculation is rife about how long it will be before she is cut down and replaced by a right-wing man – either Angus Taylor, the shadow treasurer who failed to produce a coherent economic policy before the election and is seen as an old-school conservative, or the populist from the religious right, Andrew Hastie. ... Yet the Coalition parties, says [former Liberal powerbroker Matt] Kean, preferred, and still prefer, to fight culture wars." (29 Nov 2025)
Read more at The Saturday Paper
Trevor Cobbold: Australia’s school bureaucracy is growing faster than classrooms
"While governments often emphasise their investment in public education, there is a systemic reallocation of funding away from classrooms and towards bureaucracy. A growing share of school spending is absorbed by non-teaching staff. ... At a time when public schools face profound challenges – persistent underfunding, growing complexity of student needs, large achievement gaps between rich and poor, teacher shortages – Australia can ill-afford to allow bureaucracy to drain more resources from classrooms. It is imperative that the funding increases flowing from the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement over the next decade, although largely postponed until the last five years, be maximised in support of student learning and well-being. The growth of bureaucracy must be contained to maximise the resources available to employ more teachers and allied professionals." (6 Dec 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
Events and Campaigns
CURRENT
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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