RSA Weekly For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia
Saturday 7 June 2025 Hi , This week, we've raised questions of the Queensland and Victorian governments in relation to two issues that we've been advocating on for a number of years. In Queensland, we warned
the Attorney-General that the Crisafulli government's new funding of school chaplains would likely breach the state's anti-discrimination laws. In Victoria – following a speech on this issue by an upper house member – we asked the Premier if her government planned to deliver on its promise to replace the parliament’s daily prayers with something more inclusive and reflective of the community. If you'd like to share your thoughts about articles in the RSA Weekly, email me on: sigladman@rationalist.com.au. Si Gladman Executive
Director, Rationalist Society of Australia |
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| RSA Allan govt “running out of excuses” over prayer commitment, says
MP4 Jun: A member of Victoria’s upper house says the Allan government is “running out of excuses” for having not delivered on its promise of four years ago to replace parliament’s daily prayer ritual with a more inclusive practice. In a speech to the Legislative Council, Georgie Purcell asked the government to provide an update on the progress that it had made in developing a new practice that would better reflect the Victorian community.
Read the full article |
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| RSA RSA warns Queensland over religious-based discrimination in
funding of school chaplains2 Jun: The Rationalist Society of Australia has warned the Queensland government that its decision to fund religious chaplains to operate in its public schools will breach the state’s own anti-discrimination laws. In a letter to Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman said the funding of chaplains would contravene provisions against discrimination on the basis of religious belief or
religious activity in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld). Read the full article |
| THE AGE ‘Game On’: The minute-long message that unleashed the Brethren’s election machine 7 Jun: A brief audio message from the global leader of the
extremist Christian sect formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren ignited an “unprecedented electoral effort by the church”. The involvement of the Exclusive Brethren in support of the opposition has caused deep rifts within the Liberal Party, outrage in Labor, and sparked a push to scrutiny of the church. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Outrage after Republican representative disparages Sikh prayer in the US House 7 Jun: A Republican congresswoman is facing widespread backlash
after saying that a Sikh should not have conducted a prayer in the US House. Mary Miller, an Illinois representative, on Friday published – then deleted – a post on X saying that Giani Singh, a Sikh Granthi from southern New Jersey, should not have delivered the House’s morning prayer. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Catholics now make up little more than half Brazil’s population 6 Jun: Thirty years ago, Catholics made up 82.9% of Brazil’s population but
now account for just over half, 56.7%, according to the 2022 census – whose results on religion were only released on Friday. The data also showed an increase in the number of people with no religious affiliation, rising from 4.6% 30 years ago to 9.3%. Read the full
article |
| NT NEWS (VIA CATH NEWS) NT parliamentary committee to issue VAD report in four months 6 Jun: The parliamentary committee inquiring into voluntary assisted
dying in the Northern Territory has been tasked to prepare a consultation paper, consult with remote communities, evaluate VAD models and safeguards, identify Territory-specific challenges, and provide drafting instructions for laws if it recommends VAD be adopted. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN US supreme court backs Catholic charity group in unemployment taxes case 6 Jun: The US supreme court has sided with a Catholic charity group
in a case that tested whether the charity and other religious groups should be exempt from unemployment taxes. Read the full article |
| ABC Homes raided by terror taskforce investigating Adass Israel synagogue fire 6 Jun: Police detectives investigating the firebombing of a Melbourne
synagogue have raided several homes in the city's north. Police revealed officers from the Joint Counter-Terrorism Taskforce executed search warrants at at least three homes in relation to the fire at the Adass Israel synagogue in December last year. Read the full article |
| CATHOLIC WEEKLY Archbishop Fisher declares a “Second Spring” of faith in Sydney and beyond 3 Jun: Archbishop Anthony Fisher has claimed that a
“second spring” of Catholic faith is underway across Sydney and beyond, challenging popular narratives of religious decline. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Man fined after burning Qur’an outside Turkish consulate in London 3 Jun: A man has been fined after he set fire to a Qur’an outside the
Turkish consulate in London, in an act that was deemed “motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims” by a judge. Hamit Coskun, 50, who was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence on Monday, called his prosecution “an assault on free speech”. Read the full article |
| MELBOURNE ANGLICAN Conversion harms override religious freedom fears: Advocates30 May: Survivors of conversion practices say religious groups opposing Australia’s anti-conversion
laws fail to grasp the life-threatening harm these practices cause to LGBTQIA+ people. The criticism comes as religious freedom advocates challenge conversion practice laws across Australia. Read the full article |
| THE AGE Private school with $85 million pool gets all-clear for federal cash30 May: An exclusive Melbourne private school that has just opened an $85 million swimming complex has
been cleared to receive three times as much federal funding as some comparable, high-fee peers. Read the full article |
In a speech to the Victorian Parliament, Georgie Purcell, of the Animal Justice Party, reminded the state government that it had been four years since it promised to replace the parliament’s daily prayer with something more inclusive. What do you think? Email your comments to: sigladman@rationalist.com.au |
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| RATIONALE Reproducibility: A foundation of scientific
credibility Sarah Supp, et al: In today’s world of misinformation and disinformation, healthy skepticism is essential. At the same time, much scientific work is rigorous and trustworthy. How do you reach a healthy balance between trust and skepticism? How can researchers increase the transparency of their work to make it possible to evaluate how much confidence the public should have in any particular study The
concept of reproducibility may offer important answers to these questions. Reproducibility is what it sounds like: reproducing results. Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE Why extremists see gold in the migration
debate Josh Roose: There’s nothing new about debates around immigration in an Australian election campaign and it’s sensible that they happen. There’s also nothing new about politicians weaponising debate around immigration levels, which Australia has seen in the lead-up to the federal election. But 2025 is different in many ways. Read the full article |
| ABC Dollars, distance and political power: Inside the barriers to abortion access Lucy Barbour and Lucy Sweeney: Despite significant progress in
some jurisdictions, abortion has been largely abandoned as a political issue, and stigma remains entrenched in the country's health system. The gap in major reform and dedicated resourcing has left women bearing the cost; navigating lengthy, convoluted and often expensive processes to seek the care they need. Read the full article |
| INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIA Australians resoundingly reject ratbaggery of the religious Right Alan Austin: Most candidates who raised U.S.-style
religious issues – abortion, religious freedom, same-sex marriage, gender identity – have failed badly in recent years. Well-travelled Christian social analyst Rod Benson told IA that the “Christian vote” in Australia has essentially evaporated. Read the full article |
| SBS RADIO It's Australia's third largest religion, but until now there was no plans for a Hindu school Despite Australia becoming more religiously
diverse, there isn't a mainstream Hindu school for 800-thousand people in the country who identify with this faith. Unlike Hinduism, other major faiths including Islam and Greek Orthodox have schools of their own. But that's about to change. Listen to the full episode |
| FREETHINKER Coskun’s conviction is a surrender to Islamic blasphemy codes Stephen Evans: Warnings of a return to blasphemy laws are not
hyperbolic. Just last year, there was widespread revulsion when Labour backbencher Tahir Ali stood up in Parliament and called for “measures to prohibit the desecration of all religious texts and the prophets of the Abrahamic religions”. However, the troubling application of public order laws in Coskun’s case demonstrates how the UK has edged dangerously close to a prohibition on blasphemy. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN IVF is life-changing for infertile families. But the Christian right says it’s not in ‘God’s plan’ Inge Oosterhoff: Few Americans
contemplate the fate of excess embryos until they start the IVF process themselves. Only then do they have to decide whether to freeze any remaining fertilized eggs for future use, as most patients do, before discarding them or donating them to science. Whatever they choose, the decision is usually a deeply personal one. But if the anti-abortion movement has its way, they might not have a choice at all. Read the full article |
| ABC The Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality are wrong — it’s time for them to change Brandon Ambrosino: The moral sense of Christian
people in the United States and around the world leads many of them to support gay relationships. It’s dishonest for the Vatican to pretend that “most good Catholics” condemn homosexuality. But if they admit that a good percentage of parishioners are kinder to gay people than is church teaching, then they’d have a moral crisis on their hands. Read the full article |
| ABC Is Trump the antichrist? — and other hard questions Christians should be asking Robyn Whitaker: There are two things we need to consider
when thinking about the Trump administration and its relationship to Christianity. On the one hand, there are the obvious ways Trump’s team is iconographically presenting him as a Christ-like, saviour figure. The second thing we need to consider is the actions of Trump and his team. Read the full article |
| ABC RADIO Why is there still no Archbishop of Canterbury? Why is it taking so long to choose a new leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans? It took
the Catholic Church about three weeks from the death of Pope Francis to elect his successor, Pope Leo. But it’s almost seven months since Justin Welby resigned, in controversial circumstances, as Archbishop of Canterbury. Listen to the full
episode |
| ABC RADIO Vladimir Putin and Russian Christian nationalism Marlene Laruelle, who specialises in the fusion of religion and global politics, speaks
about Christian nationalism as a driving force behind Vladimir Putin and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Listen to the full episode |
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