The Australian Christian Lobby has urged the Federal Government to ensure faith-based schools are protected in its response to the Ruddock review into religious freedom.
In a statement this week, Martyn Iles, managing director of the ACL, said educators from a range of faith backgrounds were concerned about religious freedom in schools and pointed to a recent letter signed by 34 Anglican principals annd sent to federal MPs, a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison from the head of Australia’s Presbyterian Church, Moderator-General John Wilson, and recent comments from prominent Muslim Keysar Trad as reflective of this “growing concern”.
Morrison said last month that he would move to tighten legislation to ensure gay students could not be expelled on the basis of sexuality while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor would support a bill amending the Sex Discrimination Act to remove exemptions for religious schools which allow them to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Iles said this week that proposals to amend the Sex Discrimination Act would mean removing parts which ensure faith-based schools wouldn’t have to teach content such as the controversial Safe Schools program and described it as “policy on the run”.
“There is also a risk that schools will not be able to uphold their beliefs about sex and gender which go to the heart of their faith,” Iles said. “The integrity of schools who hold to a religious ethos would be compromised, and if this section is removed, we could very well see religious schools forced to teach programs like Safe Schools.”
Noting that almost 20 per cent of Australian children attend a Catholic school and another 14.5 per cent attend independent schools including a range of faith-based schools, Iles said it was important to remember that “parents choose faith-based education for their children because they want their kids to be taught the virtues and principles which religious education provides”.
