5 June: The Australian Capital Territory has passed voluntary assisted dying legislation, becoming one of the last Australian jurisdictions to do so after the federal parliament lifted a 25-year ban on the territories legislating for VAD in 2022. Read the full article

5 June: Consultations with religious groups will help to inform whether the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reformulates the religion question at the 2026 Census, a Senate estimates hearing has heard. Head statistician Dr David Gruen told estimates that the ABS would make a decision on the religion question later in the year “on the basis of the evidence that we get from the test and from consultations that we have with religious groups”. Read the full article

3 June: Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has warned the Church will be forced to consider closing religious schools if the government strips them of the ability to preference the employment of teachers supportive of Christian teachings. Archbishop Fisher said more radical actions could be needed in response to the infringement of religious liberties, and raised the prospect of withdrawing educational services as happened in the landmark 1962 Goulburn school strike. Read the full article

3 June: A prominent lobbyist for scripture in New South Wales’ public schools is leading efforts to influence education policies through his position on the state government’s Faith Affairs Council. Documents obtained by the RSA under freedom of information laws show that Murray Norman put himself forward to head the Education Working Group on the state’s Faith Affairs Council, billed as a “solutions warehouse” for matters involving religion. Read the full article

2 June: The 'Census21 – Not Religious?' campaign has raised concerns with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Catholic Church’s calls for the government to interfere in the work of reformulating the Census religion question. In a letter to Mr Albanese and Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh, spokesperson Michael Dove said the Census21 campaign supported the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ testing of an alternative that would “undoubtedly increase the accuracy and meaningfulness of Census data”. Read the full article

31 May: Catholic Church leaders have put forward a proposal to the Albanese Government to address concerns about its draft religious discrimination laws, warning that as the legislation stands faith groups “would go a long way backwards”. The three-pronged proposal, obtained by The Australian, was sent to the Government and the Opposition earlier this month before major party negotiations on the draft laws broke down. Read the full article

27 May: A battle is brewing between Catholic Church leaders and secular groups over the religion question in the Australian census. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is currently testing whether it would be better to ask “Does the person have a religion?” rather than “What is the person’s religion?”, after 9.8 million people (approximately 40% of responses) indicated in the 2021 count that they had no faith..Read the full article

Gary Edmond and David Hamer: The conviction of Robert Farquharson for the murder of his three sons on Father’s Day 2005 is being questioned in the media, with doubts raised about the reliability of prosecution’s medical, traffic reconstruction and sinking vehicle evidence. This case has echoes of Henry Keogh, David Eastman and Lindy Chamberlain. Their murder convictions were overturned when scientific and medical testimony from their trials was eventually found to be unreliable. Read the full article

Ken Dyer: I want to share some observations about the video and the impact of wind and solar farms on the environment that was implied in that video (RSA Daily, 30 May 2024). The video has been produced by an environmental activist organisation in Far North Queensland called Rainforest Reserves, which is vehemently opposed to the Chalumbin and Kalan wind farms, as well as several others. Unfortunately, they let themselves down with loose use of language. Read the full article

Sonia Nigar: Six years ago, I embarked on a journey that marked the end of my age of ignorance and blindness. This transformation did not occur overnight, nor did it take a matter of days, weeks, or even months. It took years for me to evolve into the person I am today. Up until early 2018, I was a staunch believer in Islam, accepting everything that was imposed on me without question. However, my journey towards enlightenment began when I enrolled in a BS English Literature program for my higher studies. Read the full article

Anna Halafoff: Spirituality is increasingly popular with young Australians: recent research shows 38 per cent of Gen Z Australians identify as spiritual. It also reports 50 per cent of them believe in karma, 29 per cent in reincarnation and 20 per cent in astrology. When it comes to activities equated with spirituality, 28 per cent of Gen Z Australians practise meditation and 22 per cent practise yoga. Read the full article