Recently, the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB) went through the Lower House but was stalled before going to the Senate. Why did this happen? And why is it important that Australia has an RDB? To answer these questions, the Institute for Civil Society has made a three-part explainer video about the RDB: Why Australia needs
A broad based group of faith leaders (Christian, Muslim and Jewish) sent a questionnaire to parties and over 900 candidates in April 2022 to understand their policies on the Religious Discrimination Bill and Religious Schools. Go to the survey page to access the responses received on behalf of most parties and 500+ candidates. You can search for responses by
Translations of a recent update on the Religious Discrimination Bill are now available: Chinese (simplifed) and Arabic.
The Institute for Civil Society supports the Religious Discrimination Bill and accompanying Bills as a long overdue protection of people of faith and their organisations from being discriminated against on the ground of their religious belief or religious activity. In January 2022, ICS made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into
Mark Sneddon and Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker discuss the necessity of protections for religious freedom, the many worrying recent anti-religious legal and political developments and the fundamental importance of religious tolerance in Australian history.
Download fact sheet here.
Discrimination can be good or bad and lawful or unlawful. Victoria’s anti-discrimination laws start with broad rules that discrimination on certain grounds (e.g. sex, age, lawful sexual activity) is unlawful but then apply many “exceptions” so that good discrimination on those grounds is lawful. These “exceptions” protect other human rights and interests in society. For
An all-party NSW Parliamentary Joint Select Committee Report has made detailed recommendations for a NSW Government Bill to protect people and organisations from discrimination based on their religious belief or activity.[1] The Committee’s Report deserves strong support. Federal, State and Territory anti-discrimination laws all prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation and
Victoria set to create the broadest and harshest limits on free speech and access to advice, health care, counselling and prayer for same-sex attracted and gender dysphoric people A PDF version of this brief is available here. Summary The Victorian Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020 started with a good idea of banning coerced
A PDF of this document is available here and a summary here. A. Summary of Issues with the Bill The Bill’s bans are far too broad and make beneficial conduct and practices illegal This Bill has been introduced in response to reports by people of practices they experienced as harmful and traumatic (at the time or later) which were
