Weekend Wrap for 7 November 2021

7 November 2021

Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 7 November 2021, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.

At the National Level

Coalition MPs are split over the government’s revised religious discrimination bill, with the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, holding urgent meetings with MPs before parliament returns to try to resolve the issue. (The Guardian)

Religious groups have warned the Morrison government to retain a clause allowing discrimination against staff who don’t share their faith in the Coalition’s religious freedom bill, as Liberal MPs reserve their right to cross the floor over the draft legislation. (The Guardian)

Around the Country

VIC: A Melbourne photographer, who was “abusively outed” at school, broke into the grounds of his former Catholic school St Kevin’s and and burnt a blazer to protest the toxic homophobia and misogynistic culture at the institution. (Star Observer)

NSW: Hundreds campaigned outside the Town Hall in Sydney last Sunday to take a stand for LGBTQI rights and protest Premier Dominic Perrottet’s 'parliamentary agenda'. (Star Observer)

VIC: Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge has renewed a call for people to get vaccinated. (Catholic Leader)

WA: Premier Mark McGowan has asserted that school chaplains in Western Australia’s public schools do not need to be people of faith, despite his own government’s policy suggesting otherwise. (RSA)

VIC: Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli's claim that the Equal Opportunity (Religious Exceptions) Amendment Bill 2021 unfairly targets religious organisations has been "backed up by legal experts who say the state is at open war with committed Christians and other believers". (Catholic Weekly)

Commentary and Analysis

Alastair Lawrie writes on why there must be a Senate Inquiry into the Religious Discrimination Bill. (alastairlawrie.net)

Meredith Doig, president of the Rationalist Society of Australia, writes that the not-so-secret agenda of conservative religious activists is unpopular among many Australians — including the religious mainstream. (Independent Australia)

Kristina Keneally writes on the appointment of Dominic Perrottet that "no-one ... is seriously trying to turn Australia into a theocracy where the rule of law is replaced by the rules of any one religion." (Catholic Weekly)

Mike Southon examines the notion that Labor's policies are anti-Christian, and suggests that Christians need to "get involved" again. (Eternity News)

Meredith Doig writes on a meeting between Attorney-General Michaelia Cash and a fundamentalist far-Right Christian lobby group working to import the Texas-style tactics to reduce women’s access to legal abortion services in Australia. (RSA)

Patrick Parkinson discusses the Equal Opportunity (Religious Exceptions) Bill and asks how Christians should "respond to the Victorian government’s hostility to religious faith". (ABC)

Barney Zwartz writes on the current "trend in Australia towards politicising faith." (SMH)

Jasmine Yuen writes on the passing of the Sex Work Decriminalisation Bill 2021 in Victoria's Lower House. (ACL)

Read Alastair Lawrie's submission to the WA Law Reform Commission Review of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984. (alastairlawrie.net)

The debate is over, says Kylie Beach: most Australian Christians support action on climate change, even if it's costly. (Eternity News)

Christopher Schelin writes on the growth (or re-growth) of the "Spiritual but not Religious". (The Conversation)

Events and Advisories

Watch a reply of the Rationalist Society of Australia webinar featuring Rev. Dr Elenie Poulos and Professor Marion Maddox, "Unpacking the religious freedom agenda".

Sign up to the #DontDivideUs campaign currently being run by a group of pro-secular groups including the NSL, to act against the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill.

Minister for Human Rights, Tara Cheyne, is running a petition calling on the Australian government to restore the right of Territories to pass laws on VAD. She also recommends people email the Commonwealth Attorney-General with their views, at attorney@ag.gov.au.

Dying With Dignity NSW are petitioning the NSW Parliament to work together to deliver voluntary assisted dying laws.

Dying With Dignity NSW has a tool that makes it easy for people to contact their federal MPs and senators to request help in repealing the "Andrews Bill", the 1997 legislation which denies the Territories the right to pass legislation on Voluntary Assisted Dying.

The Human Rights for NSW alliance has launched a campaign calling for NSW to pass a Human Rights Act.

That's it for another week!

Until next time, please follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Don't forget to add your voice to the #DontDivideUs campaign against the Religious Discrimination Bill.

And if you are able, please consider making a small monthly contribution to the NSL to help us raise the secular profile in Australia. Every dollar helps!