Weekend Wrap for 9 May 2026
Welcome to the NSL Weekend Wrap for 9 May 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 Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has held its first week of public hearings in Sydney, and the testimony was both specific and systemic. Holocaust survivors afraid to wear the Star of David. A Jewish teacher who feared for his life at the Sydney Mardi Gras. Children asking their school psychologist, "Why do they hate us?" These are not abstract statistics; they are the human cost of vilification being treated as a matter of robust debate rather than a concrete harm.
The commission's establishment, following the December 2025 Bondi Hanukkah attack that killed 15 people, was always going to be significant. What this week demonstrated is that the problem is not merely one of spectacular violence but of normalised, ambient hostility — in schools, in workplaces, on sporting fields, and in the streets. The commission still has much ground to cover, including the conduct of security agencies in the lead-up to the Bondi attack.
Meanwhile, a separate and persistent form of institutional obstruction was documented this week in the aged care sector. Go Gentle Australia's national report found that 73% of major aged care providers either block Voluntary Assisted Dying or fail to disclose their position to residents, and that 66% publish no information at all about availability of VAD despite it being legal in every Australian state. Religiously operated facilities are disproportionately represented among the obstructers. The framing is polite ("values-aligned providers") but the practical effect is that dying Australians are being transported to hospitals in their final weeks, or assessed for VAD in car parks, because the facilities housing them have decided their religious principles outrank the resident's legal rights. The ACL, for its part, is already mobilising to use Tasmania's upcoming VAD statutory review to limit the Act's reach.
On LGBTQI+ rights, this week delivered both progress and exposure. New South Wales passed landmark hate crime legislation expanding protections for LGBTQIA+ people, the Latham vilification ruling continued to generate parliamentary fallout, and a 47-year-old Western Australian man was charged with distributing thousands of anti-LGBTQ+ flyers across Perth — in a state that still has no vilification laws protecting LGBTQIA+ people. That gap is not an oversight; it's a choice.
News this week
National: RSA urges MPs to safeguard ABS’ process from political interference (3 May 2026)
The Rationalist Society of Australia has written to independent MPs and crossbench senators urging them to safeguard the Australian Bureau of Statistics' census question-development process from political and religious interference. At issue is the ABS's cancellation of a large-scale test for a redesigned religion question ("Does the person have a religion?") intended to replace the existing leading question "What is the person's religion?" FOI documents obtained by the RSA confirm the ABS had itself concluded the existing question "may lead respondents to a particular response," a finding that was subsequently redacted. The RSA alleges the test's cancellation followed direct lobbying by the Catholic Church to Prime Minister Albanese. The existing question inflates religious affiliation data, with real consequences for evidence-based policymaking in education, healthcare, and social services.
➧ READ MORE:
Rationalist Society of Australia
SA: South Australian government sued for $250,000 over wayward sex education session (3 May 2026)
The South Australian government has admitted a breach of duty of care after students at Renmark High School were subjected to a third-party sex education session in 2024 that allegedly included claims that LGBTIQA+ communities "embrace incest and bestiality." The session was run through Headspace via local licensee FocusOne without adequate teacher supervision. Parent Nicki Gaylard, who withdrew her daughter, is suing the government for $250,000 — alleging negligence and misfeasance in public office. The case carries significant religious dimension: Gaylard is being backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a US-based religiously motivated legal organisation designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns globally. The ADF has a documented history of using school incidents to litigate against inclusive education. The government is contesting elements of the suit while acknowledging the incident was unacceptable.
➧ READ MORE:
OUTinPerth
Victoria: Aged care homes deny terminally ill access to voluntary assisted dying (4 May 2026)
A new national report by Go Gentle Australia has found that the majority of large aged care providers are either blocking Voluntary Assisted Dying or refusing to disclose their position. Of 70 providers assessed, 73% either prohibit VAD or leave their stance opaque; 66% publish no information about VAD access despite it being legal in every Australian state and the ACT. Only 10% provide transparent, comprehensive access. The case of 82-year-old Rosemarie Germano — admitted to her Melbourne facility knowing she was terminal, then barred from VAD and transferred to hospital for three distressing weeks — illustrates the human consequences. Go Gentle CEO Dr Linda Swan called for mandatory disclosure of providers' VAD policies, mirroring existing obligations around fees and meal plans. Religiously operated and "values-aligned" facilities are disproportionately represented among those failing to meet their obligations under the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission's standards.
➧ READ MORE:
The Age
Go Gentle Australia
TAS: Man facing rape charge ordained as deacon in Tasmanian Seventh-day Adventist church (5 May 2026)
A Tasmanian Seventh-day Adventist church ordained Mathew Murray Harrison, 41, as a deacon in March 2026 despite his prior convictions for family violence and an unresolved rape charge before Queensland's District Court. The deacon role involves visiting congregation members including elderly and vulnerable people. The church responded by saying appointments are "congregational" decisions and declined to answer whether Harrison held a Working With Vulnerable People clearance. Child safety advocate Hetty Johnston described the appointment as "immoral and unacceptable," noting that the 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse specifically flagged Seventh-day Adventist organisations as requiring systemic reform. The case is a reminder that the gap between Royal Commission recommendations and religious institutional practice apparently remains very wide.
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ABC News
National: High-profile witness tells royal commission that antisemitism is a 'virus' (7 May 2026)
The Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion — established in the aftermath of the 14 December 2025 Bondi Hanukkah attack that killed 15 people — held its first full week of public hearings before Commissioner Virginia Bell in Sydney. Dozens of witnesses, many anonymous, gave evidence describing the daily reality of antisemitism in contemporary Australia: Holocaust survivor Peter Halasz OAM testified he is now too afraid to wear his Star of David in public; a Melbourne woman said she was relocating to Israel because "a war zone is a safer place"; Jewish junior footballers reported constant on-field abuse; a NSW Health midwife said she had requested her religion be removed from her health record out of fear. A witness described being told by antisemitic bullies that Jewish identity and LGBTQI+ identity were incompatible — while members of the Jewish LGBTQIA+ group Dayenu were harassed at the 2026 Mardi Gras. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal AO told the commission that antisemitism had become "almost fashionable" among young Australians, driven in part by the conflation of Jewish religious identity with Israeli government policy. The following week's hearings are expected to examine the conduct of security agencies in the lead-up to the Bondi attack.
➧ READ MORE:
ABC News (4 May)
ABC News (7 May)
ABC News (8 May)
SBS News
The Guardian (8 May)
The Guardian (9 May)
NSW: New LGBTQ+ Hate Crime Legislation Passes NSW Legislative Assembly (7 May 2026)
New South Wales has passed new LGBTQ+ hate crime legislation through the Legislative Assembly, expanding "post and boast" offences to cover serious assaults and robberies targeting LGBTQIA+ people, including attacks facilitated via dating app luring, and increasing penalties for publicly threatening or inciting violence on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or intersex status. A new aggravated offence carries up to seven years' imprisonment. The laws were developed in response to a documented pattern of attacks on gay and bisexual men, some attributed to pathways associated with IS sympathisers and far-right influencers. Independent MP Alex Greenwich, who championed the legislation, called it "an important first step." The legislation represents the most significant expansion of LGBTQ+ legal protections in NSW in recent years.
➧ READ MORE:
Star Observer
WA: Man charged over Perth flyer campaign targeting LGBTIQA+ community (7 May 2026)
A 47-year-old man from Gosnells has been charged with five counts of leaving indecent or obscene material in public after an 18-month investigation by WA Police's State Security Investigation Group. Between July 2024 and March 2026, approximately 40 reports were received regarding thousands of anti-LGBTQIA+ flyers distributed across multiple Perth suburbs, including falsely accusing Pride WA board member Gregory Helleren of being a paedophile. The case has reignited calls for Western Australia to introduce LGBTQIA+ vilification laws — something the state still lacks, making it one of the least protected jurisdictions in the country for LGBTQ+ people facing targeted hate campaigns. The accused is due before Perth Magistrates Court on 15 July 2026.
➧ READ MORE:
QNews
National: Read LGBTIQA+ Commissioner Joe Ball’s Powerful Speech On Trans Healthcare & Supporting Trans Youth (8 May 2026)
Victorian LGBTIQA+ Commissioner Joe Ball delivered a keynote address to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Congress — the same congress from which anti-trans-healthcare psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer had earlier been removed — directly challenging conversion practices and religious-inflected approaches to trans youth healthcare. Ball drew on the 1975 case of "Jayne," a trans woman involuntarily committed as a child to a Perth psychiatric facility for "gender disorder" correction, practices he named explicitly as conversion therapy. He warned that ideologically-driven research, developed under coercive and religiously normative conditions, continues to distort clinical practice. Ball called for person-centred, evidence-based care, free from political and religious moralising.
➧ READ MORE:
Star Observer
NSW: NSW ‘good character’ reforms amended in Upper House: what you need to know (8 May 2026)
The NSW Upper House has amended the Minns Labor government's legislation to abolish "good character" as a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing, limiting the change to sexual offences only, rather than all offence types as Labor proposed. The reform, driven by the survivor-led "Your Reference Ain't Relevant" campaign, targets the use of character references from respected community figures — including clergy and religious leaders — to soften sentences for violent and sexual offenders. The amendment passed with Coalition and Greens support over Labor objections. The reform carries direct relevance to religious institution accountability: the use of clerical character evidence to reduce sentences for offenders with links to religious communities has a long history in Australia's courts. Premier Minns indicated the government will accept the amended form for now while continuing to push for broader reform.
➧ READ MORE:
QNews
TAS: Tasmania Is Reopening the VAD Debate (8 May 2026)
The Australian Christian Lobby's Tasmanian state director has published a call to arms for "faith communities" to participate in the upcoming independent review of Tasmania's End-of-Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Act 2021, which has been in operation for three years. The ACL's framing invokes concerns about international "slippery slope" trends — expanded eligibility, weakened safeguards — and invites submissions, public consultation attendance, and completion of an upcoming survey. The piece reflects the ACL's standard playbook: using statutory review processes as entry points to roll back or limit secular bioethical reforms. Tasmanian LGBTQ+ advocates are separately concerned about the proposed sale of Hobart Private Hospital to Calvary Health Care, a Catholic organisation whose ethical guidelines preclude gender-affirming and other services, potentially eliminating gender-affirming surgical access across the state entirely.
➧ READ MORE:
Australian Christian Lobby
Commentary and analysis
John Menadue: Australia has waited 21 years for a Human Rights Act – what is Albanese waiting for? (4 May 2025)
John Menadue renews the call for a federal Human Rights Act, arguing that Prime Minister Albanese's failure to act on a 2024 parliamentary joint committee recommendation reflects political cowardice enabled historically by religious and corporate opposition. Menadue recalls Cardinal George Pell personally arguing against an Act in 2009, insisting politicians were more trustworthy than judges — a position widely understood as protecting the capacity of religious institutions to lobby parliamentarians directly. Former Attorney-General Robert McClelland is quoted admitting the Rudd government blocked the Act because News Limited opposed it. With antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-LGBTQ+ hate all featuring in national debate simultaneously, the lack of universal legislative protection is felt across multiple communities. Senate numbers currently exist to pass such legislation; the question is one of political will.
➧ READ MORE:
Pearls & Irritations
Paul Gregoire: Antisemitism Interim Report Finds No Legislative or Systems Gaps, But the Stickler Is Still to Come (6 May 2026)
Analysis from Paul Gregoire of the interim report preceding the royal commission hearings, noting its finding that existing legal frameworks are adequate but implementation and cultural change are the core problems. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion released its interim report on 30 April. Federal and state agencies questioned by the commission identified no gaps in existing legal or regulatory frameworks that contributed to the Bondi attack, and Commissioner Virginia Bell's recommendations focus on operational policing rather than law reform. The wider concern lies in what comes next: Bell has confirmed the inquiry will adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism in its later stages, which critics including the Palestine Action Group warn risks conflating criticism of Israeli state conduct with racial vilification.
➧ READ MORE:
Sydney Criminal Lawyers
George Newhouse: I was afraid to make a submission to the antisemitism royal commission. But silence has consequences too (6 May 2026)
Newhouse, National Justice Project director and a Jewish Australian human rights lawyer, explains why he held back from submitting to the Royal Commission. He describes a public discourse in which the boundaries of acceptable speech have narrowed from both sides: those who hear concern about antisemitism as indifference to Palestinian suffering, and those who hear concern for Palestinian life as betrayal of Jewish community. The piece argues for the capacity to hold both truths at once: that Jews and Palestinians are equally human, and that any politics requiring either to be forgotten has already failed.
➧ READ MORE:
The Guardian
Paddy Gourley: Light rations from the Antisemitism Royal Commission thus far (7 May 2026)
Gourley, a former senior Commonwealth public servant, picks apart the interim report as tentative, lightweight, and largely devoid of supporting analysis. Recommendations are framed in soft "should consider" language, five are not disclosed, and one — that governments finalise the National Gun Buyback Scheme — he describes as "bleedin' obvious". Gourley argues the more serious omission is political: the Prime Minister will not mention Gaza, despite Israeli state violence being the most plausible driver of rising antisemitism in Australia, and the final report will fail unless it grapples with that.
➧ READ MORE:
Pearls & Irritations
Opportunities for action
CURRENT
WA: GRAI (GLBTI Rights in Ageing Inc) is calling on older LGBTI people and their supporters to share their experiences with guardianship and administration laws, as Western Australia launches a parliamentary inquiry into the system. Community members are encouraged to share their experiences by emailing chair@grai.org.au. Submissions to GRAI should be received by Friday 22 May 2026.
TAS: The independent statutory review of Tasmania's End-of-Life Choices (Voluntary Assisted Dying) Act 2021 is underway. Community members, particularly those with experience of the VAD system, are encouraged to make written submissions, with public consultations scheduled at the University of Tasmania Law School (Sandy Bay) and Cygnet Town Hall. The review is also conducting a public survey. Do not leave this space to the ACL alone: secular voices supporting VAD access and adequate safeguards must be heard. Contact VADReview@health.tas.gov.au for submission details. More details about the review can be found at the Tasmanian Department of Health's website.
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.
ONGOING
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.
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.
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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