Australians who regularly practise their religion are in a minority. Those who follow traditional religious practices on matters like sexual ethics, marriage, sanctity of human life, prayer and fasting or religious dress are an unpopular minority in some quarters. Like other minorities, they experience discrimination, but they don’t have the same legal protection. All federal,
ICS believes that the Second Exposure Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill (RDB2) is a considerable improvement on the First Exposure Draft. We welcome the fact that a number of our concerns that were raised in our submission on the First Exposure Draft have been addressed. However, a number of those concerns remain unaddressed and
"The better remedy for views which you think are objectionable is to rebut them. The remedy for bad speech is good speech. The remedy for bad ideas is better arguments on the other side. And that's how a free society operates, and that's how hopefully we get closer to truth while not shutting each other
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
Mark Sneddon recently delivered a conference presentation on the newly proposed Religious Discrimination Bill. A PDF of the presentation is available here.
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
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
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
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
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).
