Current Issues
Freedom for Faith is supporting churches across Australia in campaigns to protect religious freedom.
Western Australian and Federal Elections
We are helping churches run “meet the candidate” forums for both the WA and Federal Elections. These forums are an opportunity for politicians to hear from Christians in their electorate and make commitments on issues we care about.
NSW: Alex Greenwich’s “Equality” Bill
On the evening of October 16th, a heavily changed version of Alex Greenwich’s “Equality” Bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly. The good news is that the vast majority of the Bill has been removed.
Federal: Misinformation / Disinformation Legislation
The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 was introduced in Parliament in September, and immediately referred to a Senate Committee.
Federal: Schools’ Rights
Since 2018, there have been attacks on the right of faith-based schools to hire staff who believe in and live out the faith of the school, and to engage in disciplinary action where staff or students do not live in accordance with that faith.
Federal: Human Rights Act
It has been widely recognised for many years that Australia’s protection of human rights is incomplete and completely misses some areas of international agreements.
Federal: Hate Crimes Amendments
The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 does two main things. Firstly it expands the protected categories for the crime of “urging violence” to include a range of gender and sexuality categories, and it drops the threshold from “intending” violence to “reckless as to whether” violence is caused.
Religious Discrimination Bill
Australia has no Federal legislation to protect from people religious discrimination, or to protect the rights of people of faith to hold, express or live out their faith.
Review into Philanthropy
In November 2023 the Productivity Commission released its draft report. Unfortunately, the report’s recommendations went far beyond the terms of reference, directly targeting religion.
NSW: Anti-Discrimination Review
In September 2023, the NSW Government set the NSW Law Reform Commission the task of reviewing the 1977 Anti-Discrimination Act. The terms of review are very broad, and hold some areas of concern.
Previous Issues
NSW: Conversion Therapy
On March 22, 2024, the NSW Parliament passed the Conversion Practices Ban Act, a week after revealing the legislation. Despite a strong push from faith leaders and communities for improvements and clarifications, the legislation passed unamended…
QLD: Anti-Discrimination Bill
In February 2024, the Queensland Government introduced a complete rewrite of the Anti-Discrimination legislation. The Bill outlined a wide range of categories that it would be illegal to discriminate against, including sexuality, sexual activity and gender identity.
SA: Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2024
The South Australian Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill 2024 was introduced on 11 September 2024, and was passed on the 24 September after a truncated and rushed debate.
QLD: “Respect at Work” Bill
On September 10, 2024 the Queensland Parliament passed the “Respect at Work” bill, without fixing any of the problems we highlighted.
Federal: AHRC Costs Protection
This bill was created to correct a perceived imbalance in sexual harassment cases, which was identified by the Respect@Work Report. However, by extending the bill to cover all anti-discrimination cases before the Federal court, the bill opens up a pandora’s box of vindictive claims against faith-based organisations.
