Freedom of Religion

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Comments on the Exposure Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2019 and the Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Freedom of Religion) Bill 2019

PDF version available here. Executive summary ICS believes that the Religious Discrimination Bill (RD Bill) has much to commend it. However, there are a number of amendments and improvements that should be made in order to bolster the protection of freedom of religion and to meet Australia’s obligations under Article 18 of the International Covenant on

By Mark Sneddon| September 25th, 2019|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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Protecting Freedom of Religion and Belief in Anti-Discrimination Law – A First Look at the Religious Discrimination Bill

Mark Sneddon recently delivered a conference presentation on the newly proposed Religious Discrimination Bill. A PDF of the presentation is available here.

By Mark Sneddon| September 6th, 2019|Uncategorized|

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Policy and Drafting Issues in a Religious Discrimination Bill

Revised 24 July 2019 PDF version here. This paper raises and makes recommendations concerning some key policy and drafting issues for a Religious Discrimination Act (RDA). It is recognised that an RDA is only the first step in implementing the government’s election commitments in relation to the Ruddock report and its response to broader concerns about

By Mark Sneddon| August 27th, 2019|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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Advancing an Agenda to Protect Freedom of Religion and Belief

A PDF version of this paper is available here. On 13 December 2018 the Prime Minister released the government’s response to the Ruddock review – see here. His media release said[1]: “Our response to the Religious Freedom Review includes: establishing religion as a protected attribute in a new Religious Discrimination Act, rendering discrimination on this

By Mark Sneddon| June 27th, 2019|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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Australians Want Protection for Freedom of Religion and Conscience

Prof. Mark Sneddon, ICS Executive Director, discusses the Galaxy poll on freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, and the importance of these issues for the 2019 Federal Election. A new poll, conducted by YouGov Galaxy and published by the Institute for Civil Society on Wednesday shows a vast majority of Australians think freedom of conscience

By Simon Kennedy| May 17th, 2019|Featured, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Conscience and Religion, News|

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Poll Shows Strong Support for Protecting Freedoms of Thought, Conscience, Belief

A new YouGov Galaxy opinion survey shows that Australians strongly support the need for legal protections for freedoms of thought, conscience and belief (including religious belief) and that support has risen sharply in the last two years. 75% of those surveyed agreed that freedom of thought, conscience and belief in public through speech, practice and teaching

By Mark Sneddon| May 14th, 2019|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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ICS Urges Tasmania’s Parliament Not to Create Legal Warfare Over Gender-Neutral Pronouns

SUBMISSION TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF THE PARLIAMENT OF TASMANIA JUSTICE AND RELATED LEGISLATION (MARRIAGE AMENDMENTS) BILL 2018 20 March 2019 We oppose the new concept of “gender expression” being included in “gender identity” as a new basis for unlawful discrimination and for insulting or offending unlawful conduct - Clause 9 amendments (a) and (b).

By Mark Sneddon| March 25th, 2019|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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ICS’s responses to Senate Committee’s Questions on the Sex Discrimination Amendment Bill

On February 7, 2019, the Institute for Civil Society's Prof. Mark Sneddon and Dr Simon Kennedy appeared before the Senate Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to further contribute to their inquiry into the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Removing Discrimination Against Students) Bill 2018. The Committee was appreciative of ICS's contribution to the inquiry and asked a

By Simon Kennedy| February 15th, 2019|Freedom of Association, Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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Submission: Inquiry into the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Removing Discrimination Against Students) Bill 2018

This is a submission prepared for the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. On 6 December 2018, the Senate referred the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Removing Discrimination Against Students) Bill 2018 and all circulated amendments to the bill to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. A PDF of the submission can be found here. Executive

By Simon Kennedy| January 21st, 2019|Featured, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Conscience and Religion|

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ALP’s Bill to Severely Limit Freedom of Religious Schools and Colleges and Religious Education in Churches, Mosques, Temples

The Labor Party’s proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, currently before the Senate, will severely limit the freedom of religious schools and religious adult education institutions which train chaplains, missionaries and in Australia. Summary Contrary to the recommendations of the Ruddock Panel on Religious Freedom, the ALP (Senator Wong) has introduced a Bill into the Senate to amend

By Mark Sneddon| November 30th, 2018|Freedom of Conscience and Religion|