Weekend Wrap for 8 June 2025
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 8 June 2025, where you can catch up on the latest secular-related news from around the country.
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At the National Level
Despite being one of Australia’s fastest-growing religious groups, the Hindu community has been the only major faith without its own school -- until now. The federal government has promised the Hindu community $8.5 million in grant funding to launch a new school in western Sydney. Australia’s Hindu population has skyrocketed in the past decade, growing by 55.3 per cent between the 2016 and 2021 census. Like other faith-based schools, Sanatan will integrate a religious education into the standard NSW curriculum, including teaching the basics of the Hindu faith, as well as “reaffirmation in culture, language and sacred texts”. According to HEACC, 20 per cent of the curriculum would be based around Hindu teachings and culture, a similar structure to Muslim or Catholic schools. (3 Jun 2025)
Read more at The Age
Around the Country
QLD: The Rationalist Society of Australia has warned the Queensland government that its decision to fund religious chaplains to operate in its public schools will breach the state’s own anti-discrimination laws. In a letter to Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, the RSA said the funding of chaplains would contravene the provisions against discrimination on the basis of religious belief or religious activity in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld). The Crisafulli government will provide extra funding for chaplains and wellbeing officers as part of a $33 million plan to tackle bullying. (2 Jun 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
NSW: Multiple members of NSW Parliament have cited a flawed US report on the safety of a medical abortion pill during the parliamentary debate on a bill to expand abortion access in the state. The bill, which has passed both houses of parliament, allows nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives to prescribe abortion medication for early-stage pregnancies. The recent paper, which suggested the medical abortion pill mifepristone carried more risk for women than previously thought, was cited by MPs on both sides of the divide — including Liberals, Labor and independents. ABC NEWS Verify contacted Australian experts for help interpreting the report. They variously labelled it "not scientific", "scaremongering" and "misinformation". The document was published by a US-based conservative think tank named the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). (4 Jun 2025)
Read more at ABC News
VIC: In a speech to the Legislative Council last week, Georgie Purcell asked the government to provide an update on the progress that it had made in developing a new practice that would better reflect the Victorian community. “I appreciate that it is important to have a model that is consistent and canvasses the views of both houses, but almost four years have passed since the government committed to making changes, and the government is running out of excuses,” said Ms Purcell, of the Animal Justice Party. “The continued use of the Lord’s Prayer is, clearly, no longer fit for a modern, multicultural Victoria, and that is evidenced by the amount of us standing outside the door at the beginning of the day every single day." (4 Jun 2025)
Read more at the Rationalist Society of Australia
NT: Last month, rising political pressure led the CLP to order the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee to hold an inquiry into a comprehensive VAD report prepared in 2024. The committee has been tasked to prepare a consultation paper, consult with remote communities, evaluate VAD models and safeguards, identify Territory-specific challenges, and provide drafting instructions for laws if it recommends VAD be adopted. The large body of work is due in four months. (6 Jun 2025)
Read more at CathNews (originally published by NT News)
NSW/VIC: A pro-Palestine political movement that failed to win a seat at the May federal election has vowed to push on and support candidates for the upcoming Victorian and NSW state elections. The Muslim Vote endorsed independent candidates in three Labor-held seats – Watson and Blaxland in western Sydney and Calwell in Melbourne’s north-west. Its greatest success was in Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s seat of Watson, where independent Ziad Basyouny was the second-most popular candidate on a two-candidate preferred basis. Despite failing to win a seat, Muslim Vote convenor Sheikh Wesam Charkawi said the results were a “significant step” that “demonstrated the model works". "We’ve had an avalanche of people reach out to us post-election, either to be candidates or to support our work ... The community isn’t backing down. We all want to continue.” (7 Jun 2025)
Read more at The Age
Commentary and Analysis
Henry Reynolds: Conflation and controversy over antisemitism definition
"The Universities reacted almost instantly to a report of parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights released to the media on 12 February. Its most consequential finding was that there was an “urgent need” for reform to ensure the “safety of Jewish students” and that the universities should adopt a definition of antisemitism in line with the document of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Ten days later, Universities Australia met and decided to do as instructed. All 39 universities were to adopt the definition and embody it within their workplace regulations. ... Israel has two defensive shields. The iron dome provides protection against missiles and drones – antisemitism does the same for criticism and judgment. ... Universities Australia and the 39 vice-chancellors took up the banner of antisemitism to make life easier for Jewish students. In doing so they helped strengthen Israel’s protective walls. Conflation was unavoidable. Collusion perhaps, but more likely political naivety for most, if not all, of those involved. But it leaves our whole university sector complicit in the greatest human rights catastrophe since World War II." (3 Jun 2025)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations
Chip Le Grand: You can’t handle the truth about Victoria’s secret school cuts
"The long-awaited Gonski reforms can only be delivered once the states and Commonwealth together provide government schools sufficient funding to meet the School Resource Standard, a formula that calculates the minimum financial needs of every school based on the advantages and disadvantages of its students. The Victorian government last year played a critical role in getting the Albanese government to agree to a 75/25 funding split. But secretly, the Allan government had already welched on its previous commitment to fully fund its share by 2028. Cabinet-in-confidence documents seen by The Age show that in March 2024, a meeting of the government’s budget and finance committee of cabinet pushed back that commitment until 2031. This means government schools in Victoria will receive $2.4 billion less over the next five years than they otherwise would have." (5 Jun 2025)
Read more at The Age
Michael Bachelard and Max Maddison: ‘Game On’: The minute-long message that unleashed the Brethren’s election machine
"One Sunday in mid-April, two weeks into the federal election campaign, the global leader of the extremist Christian sect formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren recorded a brief audio message to his followers. ... That message gave permission for an unprecedented electoral effort by the church. The following week, thousands of members of what’s now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church began appearing at pre-polling stations throughout the country, handing out election material and swamping booths in signage to try to get Peter Dutton elected. Instead, this mass movement of sect members may have helped turn voters against the then-opposition leader. It has caused deep rifts within the Liberal Party and outrage in Labor, and it’s sparked a push to scrutinise the Brethren’s secretive support of conservative politicians, and whether disclosure requirements have been met." (7 Jun 2025)
Read more at The Age
Events and Campaigns
CURRENT
Go Gentle Australia are fundraising to support a campaign for VAD in the NT. Learn more and donate on their website.
The Victorian Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee is now accepting public submissions for its inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups, examining how they recruit and control people. Submissions are due by 31 July 2025, with the committee set to report back to parliament in late September. Make a submission here.
The NSW Law Reform Commission is reviewing the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) and public submissions are being requested. The closing date for submissions is 15 August 2025. Learn more and make a submission at the LRC website.
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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