RSA Weekly: Saturday 6 December 2025

Published: Sat, 12/06/25

Updated: Sat, 12/06/25

RSA Weekly

Saturday 6 December 2025

Hi ,

Earlier this year, after the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that it would be re-using the biased religion question for the 2026 Census, we submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request for documents to help us understand how the ABS came to its decision. Well, this week we reported on some of what we have found among the documents.

It turns out that the ABS, in a briefing to the Albanese government in 2024, made a compelling case for changing the question to remove the bias and rejected the concerns of religious lobbyists. You may remember that, upon discovering that the ABS was proposing to remove the bias from the Census question, the Catholic hierarchy launched a public campaign calling on the government to intervene. Stay tuned! We'll be reporting more on what's in the FOI documents.

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

News from the RSA

RSA

Exclusive: ABS criticised biased Census religion question, rejected church’s concerns about change
6 Dec: The Australian Bureau of Statistics will ask Australians completing next year’s Census to answer a religion question that it criticised and made a compelling case against in a private briefing with the Albanese government, documents obtained under freedom of information laws show. The Rationalist Society of Australia can reveal that, in a four-page briefing paper to Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh on 3 May 2024, the ABS comprehensively rejected the concerns from religious lobbyists about proposed changes to the question, including to remove the biased wording. Read the full article

RSA

RSA calls on Victorian Liberals to be clear on scripture policy
2 Dec: The Rationalist Society of Australia is seeking clarity from the Victorian Liberal Party on whether it is planning to return religious indoctrination to class time in public schools if it wins the state election next year. RSA Executive Director Si Gladman has written to new Opposition Leader Jess Wilson this week, having not received a reply to his previous letter to her earlier this year when she was the Liberal Party’s education spokesperson. Read the full article

News from elsewhere

THE SATURDAY PAPER

PM’s office directs lobbyists to use encrypted, disappearing messages

6 Dec: The Albanese government is privately urging industry groups, peak bodies and major lobbyists to move sensitive reform proposals off official channels and into disappearing messages on encrypted messaging platforms – a practice that places key policy documents beyond the reach of freedom of information laws and that may be unlawful. Read the full article

THE AGE

Liberal moderate speaks out on Indigenous acknowledgments at events

5 Dec: Moderate Liberal Andrew Bragg, who defied Peter Dutton to support the Voice to parliament, will reignite a culture war when he calls for a major change to acknowledgments of country to also include Australia’s British and migrant history. Read the full article

ABC

Survivors of child sexual abuse face growing National Redress Scheme wait times

4 Dec: The latest audit of the National Redress Scheme found people applying for compensation after being sexually abused as children were waiting an average of 16 months for a decision. The Australian National Audit Office said administration of the scheme by the government was only "partly effective". Read the full article

THE GUARDIAN

Global group accused of attacking gay rights backs South Australian woman over school presentation

4 Dec: A powerful global organisation accused of peddling anti-gay hate has thrown its support behind a South Australian woman who says her daughter was exposed to inappropriate sexual content at school. ADF International is the global arm of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is based in the US. Read the full article

THE AGE

Brisbane 2032 Olympics adopts church slogan as ‘Games vision’

4 Dec: They say sport is a religion but organisers of the Brisbane Olympic Games have taken it to another level. The “Games vision” they landed on after paying an agency and conducting 40 workshops is incredibly similar to one already widely used by churches. Read the full article

THE GUARDIAN

Brisbane Olympics motto panned as ‘lazy and weirdly evangelical’

4 Dec: Advertising director Dee Madigan, a regular panellist on Gruen Planet, has described the Brisbane Olympic Games slogan – Believe. Belong. Become. – as “strange and Christian schooley”. “People are gonna come here and think we’re all holy baby Jesus people,” she says. Read the full article

NEWS

Documents reveal new details about Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s meeting with ISIS bride advocates

4 Dec: Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has come under fire from the Coalition after new documents revealed he held closed-door talks with advocates lobbying to repatriate so-called ISIS brides to Australia. Read the full article

THE AGE

Neo-Nazis’ chilling threats as government investigates homeschooling network

2 Dec: The newly freed leader of Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group has vowed violent revenge, and one of his chief lieutenants has threatened a state MP, as the Victorian government investigates concerns the group is running an illegal homeschooling network. Read the full article

DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Texas families sue to block all school districts from displaying Ten Commandments

2 Dec: A group of Texas families filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday to stop all Texas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The new state law requiring the classroom displays has faced multiple legal challenges, with two federal judges finding it unconstitutional and blocking 25 school districts across the state from implementing it. Read the full article

DAILY MAIL (UK)

British army chiefs spark new ‘woke’ row by giving troops first-ever ‘non-religious’ chaplain

30 Nov: British army chiefs have sparked a new ‘woke’ row by giving the troops their first-ever ‘non-religious’ chaplain. The top brass were accused of falling victim to political correctness by appointing ex-major Neil Weddell as their first humanist padre. Read the full article

Opinion / Analysis

RATIONALE

Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories: How experience shapes extraordinary beliefs

Eli Elster: Human brains evolved to form accurate models of the world. Most of the time, we do a pretty good job. So why do people also often adopt and develop beliefs that lack strong supporting evidence? I propose a simple answer. People come to believe in flat Earth, spirits and microchipped vaccines for the same reasons they come to believe in anything else. Their experiences lead them to think those beliefs are true. Read the full article

RATIONALE

Letters to the Editor: What motivated the ‘cruel’ assisted dying bill?

Richard Mills: A varied collection of New South Wales’ Legislative Council members wanted to allow religious aged-care providers to force dying residents from their homes if they chose to access voluntary assisted dying. What was motivating these politicians? Certainly not the wishes of those residents affected. And not the doctors. Read the full article

THE GUARDIAN

Teens hoping to get around Australia’s social media ban are rushing to smaller apps

Matilda Boseley: As Australia prepares to block under-16s from accessing 10 of its largest social media platforms, less prominent companies have begun courting the teen market – in some cases paying underaged influencers to promote them. Read the full article

ABC RADIO

How stressed are Catholic clergy right now?

Australia’s Catholic priests are deeply involved in their local communities and have a strong sense of purpose. But many are also lonely, at times ashamed of their church, and sometimes turn to alcohol to handle stress. They’re the findings of a major study into the lives of Catholic clergy, conducted by the church’s National Centre for Pastoral Research. Listen to the full episode

THE GUARDIAN

Gay ‘conversion therapy’ should be consigned to history. In the US, it could make a comeback

David Kirp: Until recently, this medieval practice seemed destined for the dustbin of discredited psychological theories. Now, however, it is making a comeback. This term, the US supreme court will decide whether a law prohibiting conversion practices infringes on constitutionally protected free speech. Read the full article

ABC

The ‘quiet American’: What should we make of Pope Leo’s improbable first six months?

Miles Pattenden: So far Leo has governed through pastoral warmth, quiet competence and careful incrementalism. Whether that approach actually heals the Catholic Church’s deep, perennial divisions or merely postpones a necessary reckoning of them is the question that will define his papacy. Read the full article

THE CONVERSATION

Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet

Michelle Lynn Kahn: Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances. Read the full article

THE CONVERSATION

‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans

Matthew Blanton: Beneath this Catholic dominance, the region’s religious landscape is changing. First, Protestant and Pentecostal groups have experienced dramatic growth. But even as Protestant ranks swelled, another trend was quietly gaining ground: a growing share of Latin Americans abandoning institutional faith altogether. Read the full article

THE CONVERSATION
3 states are challenging precedent against posting the Ten Commandments in public schools

Charles J. Russo and Lydia Artz: Today’s challenge is to find the balance in public life. We believe the courts and legislatures must avoid sending the message that religion has no place in a free and open society – just as they must not permit one set of values to dominate, as the bills in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas seem to aspire to do. Read the full article

THE CONVERSATION
Maga explained: how personality and context shape radical movements

Magnus Linden et al: The rise of Maga has marked an important political shift in America that has many liberal-minded people scratching their heads. Psychology studies can offer insights that can help explain the Maga movement’s motivations. Read the full article

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