RSA Weekly Sunday 4 January 2026 Hi , We've received correspondence from the federal Attorney-General ahead of Australia's appearance at the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (fourth cycle) into the
country's human rights later this month. Regrettably, Michelle Rowland has not provided any detail about how the Albanese government will address the ongoing discrimination against non-religious people in government institutions and programs (see top article). If you'd like to share your thoughts about articles in the RSA Weekly, email me via:
sigladman@rationalist.com.au. Si Gladman Executive Director, Rationalist Society of Australia |
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| RSA Attorney-General claims govt “committed” to human rights
obligations, but no detail on removing discrimination against non-religious3 Jan: Australia’s Attorney-General has failed to outline what actions the Albanese government will take to address the ongoing discriminatory treatment of non-religious people in government institutions and programs that is at odds with the country’s international human rights commitments. In a letter to the Rationalist Society of Australia last month, Michelle
Rowland said the government was “committed to its international human rights obligations”. Read the full article |
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| RSA Liberal Party “saved the Lord’s Prayer” in state parliament, says
Victorian MP28 Dec: A senior Victorian Liberal member of parliament has boasted that his party “saved the Lord’s Prayer” from being removed from the state parliament. In a speech to the parliament earlier this month, Evan Mulholland gave credit to the Liberal Party for the Labor government’s failure to deliver on its 2021 commitment to replace the parliament’s daily Christian acts of worship. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN NSW Labor accused of rushing inquiry into banning phrases such as ‘globalise the intifada’ 3 Jan: A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into
banning phrases including “globalise the intifada” will not hold any public hearings and has a matter of days to receive submissions before it produces its final report. Read the full
article |
| SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Hastie, Price and Advance fundraise for their own anti-immigration campaigns 3 Jan: Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie has crowdfunded
$260,000 to launch his own multimedia advertising blitz on immigration in the new year, promising a relentless ad campaign to force the issue onto the national agenda. Conservative campaign group Advance is also preparing to roll out a new campaign against immigration. Read the full article |
| THE AGE Jewish groups warned police about ‘hate preachers’ multiple times before Bondi massacre 2 Jan: Jewish groups repeatedly warned federal and state
law enforcement agencies about radical Islamic hate preachers before last month’s Bondi massacre, but saw little action despite examples of clerics calling jihad the “solution” to the conflict in the Middle East, and describing Jews as “evil” and “cursed”. Read the full article |
| THE AGE ‘Utter darkness’ of antisemitism must be examined, says Melbourne archbishop 2 Jan: One of Australia’s most senior Catholics has stressed that the
church did not want its call for an inquiry into antisemitism in Australia to be politicised, while urging the government to undertake a deeper examination of how the ancient hatred has spread through the nation. Read the full article |
| THE AGE US Congress threatens eSafety commissioner with contempt charges31 Dec: Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant is being threatened with contempt charges by US
Congress if she fails to testify in the next fortnight about online safety laws, as she is accused of harassing American companies following the Albanese government’s world-first under-16 social media ban. Read the full
article |
| THE GUARDIAN (UK) Freemasons seek injunction against Met policy requiring officers to declare membership 29 Dec: Freemasons have demanded an emergency
injunction from the high court to halt the Metropolitan police’s new policy that orders officers to tell their bosses if they are members of the organisation. The Freemasons filed papers in London on Christmas Eve and claim the Met’s policy amounts to “religious discrimination” against Freemasons who are also police officers. Read the full article |
| THE AGE Catholic order fails to disclose sexual misconduct of key witness28 Dec: A prominent Catholic order failed to disclose the sexual misconduct of a key witness during a Supreme
Court trial, which has prompted an appeal and is likely to result in a retrial. Missionaries of the Sacred Heart also failed to provide the court with crucial documents that contained evidence of alleged sexual misconduct concerning former Monivae College teacher Brother John Frith. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN (US) Trump supporters hail US strikes in Nigeria as ‘amazing Christmas present’27 Dec: The Christmas Day strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria have been met
with praise by Donald Trump supporters who for months had been agitating for the president to respond forcefully to the killings of Christians in the country. Attacks on Christians by Islamic extremist groups in Nigeria such as Boko Haram had been drawing increased attention from US Christian groups that are generally aligned with Trump. Read the full article |
| ABC New Madinah College given deadline after principal's comments about Zionism24 Dec: A school in regional New South Wales has been given 28 days to provide evidence that its
principal meets fit and proper requirements, or its registration could be cancelled. The deadline comes 11 months after a federal and state government investigation was launched into comments about Zionism which attracted accusations of antisemitism. Read the
full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Retribution fears as Australian Muslims see surge in Islamophobic hate since Bondi terror attack 24 Dec: Threats and hate speech against Muslim
Australians have surged in the wake of the Bondi beach attack, with one mosque receiving dozens of offensive phone calls and reports of people being targeted in the street. Read the full
article |
| AFR Council to shut down Islamic preacher’s prayer hall 23 Dec: A Sydney council says it will shut down a notorious Islamic centre in the city, reportedly because
the premises were not approved for use as a place of worship. The City of Canterbury Bankstown issued a “cease use” directive to preacher Wissam Haddad of the Al Madina Dawah Centre late on Monday. Read the full
article |
In speaking up for the rights of non-religious people last month, Councillor Ian Tucker pleaded – ultimately, unsuccessfully – with his colleagues on the Oberon Council in New South Wales to stop imposing acts of religious worship in government meetings. What do you think? Email your comments to: sigladman@rationalist.com.au |
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| RATIONALE Rationale's top reads of
2025 Articles about the Christian Right – whether in Trump's America or here in Australian politics – have generated a lot of traffic to our Rationale magazine over the past 12 months. They feature heavily among our top reads for 2025 (according to our readership data). Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE How Arendt can help us understand this new age of
far-right populism Christopher Finlay: Comparing today’s politics to fully fledged totalitarianism can be illuminating. But if it’s all we do, we risk overlooking Arendt’s subtler lessons about warning signs that can help us gauge threats to democracy. The first is that political catastrophe isn’t always signposted by great causes, but arises when sometimes seemingly trivial developments converge.
Read the full article |
| NOEL TURNBULL BLOG Discrimination against the non-religious Noel Turnbull: A coalition of eight Australian non-religious, ex-religious and
pro-secular groups is raising concerns about discriminatory and unfair treatment against non-religious Australians in breach of Australia’s international human rights commitments. The coalition is also seeking answers from the Albanese government on how it will address ongoing discrimination against non-religious Australians in government institutions and programs. Read the full article |
| THE FREETHINKER What Would Hitchens Think? Zwan Mahmod: Fourteen years to the day after his death, determining what he might have thought is
necessarily speculative. However, by assessing his written and spoken material, educated guesses can be made as to what his views might have been on certain topics. The question is, in what ways would he have maintained his views, and where might he have been forced to alter them in light of new developments? Read the full article |
| ABC RADIO The Pacific priests filling Australia's faith gap Lucy Cooper: Since 1971, the number of Australians who identify as Christian has
halved leaving many communities without church leaders or services. In North Queensland, the diocese has turned to its close neighbour to help fill gaps. Listen to the full episode |
| THE SPECTATOR Quebec is trying to ban Jesus from Christmas Jane Stannus: This Bill is about, supposedly, state neutrality towards religion. But is
it really? Is telling people that Santa and his elves are acceptable in public, but not Jesus Christ, neutral? Is it neutral to insist that Catholicism – which literally built Quebec stone by stone, and named every other street after a saint to prove it – has nothing to do with Quebec’s identity? Read the full article |
| PEARLS & IRRITATIONS Unpacking the systematic conflation of “Antisemitism” and criticism of Israel Refaat Ibrahim: At its core, this is not
a religious issue, but a political and ethical one. It is the issue of a colonial system based on dispossession, discrimination, and violence. Understanding this reality, and distinguishing between Judaism as a diverse religion and Zionism as a political project, is not antisemitism. It is a necessary condition for justice. Read the full article |
| THE AGE There are three kinds of antisemitism – each needs to be dealt with differently Kylie Moore-Gilbert: There is nothing antisemitic about
opposing Israel’s conduct of the war or Israeli government policy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s clumsy attempts to blame Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state for the Bondi terror attack undermined the position of Australia’s Jews. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Islamophobia has surged since the Bondi attack. Australia’s Muslim community should not have to endure this abuse Aftab Malik:
While many Australians remain in a state of anger, grief and reflection due to the devastating Bondi terror attack, Muslim community leaders are in a predicament. What is to be done about the ensuing rise of anti-Muslim sentiment, hatred and racism that their communities face. Read the full article |
| ABC Why it’s wrong to describe terrorism as ‘religiously motivated’ Halim Rane: In the aftermath of violent attacks, public commentary quickly
reaches for a familiar label like “religiously motivated terrorism”. The term sounds intuitive but it is analytically flawed, socially harmful and counter-productive to both national security and social cohesion. Read the full
article |
| THE GUARDIANWhat does ‘globalise the intifada’ mean, and why does NSW want to ban the chant?Sarah Basford Canales: The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has vowed to outlaw the phrase
“globalise the intifada” after linking Bondi’s terror attack to protests in support of Palestine in the state. The proposal has divided opinion, reflecting controversies in the UK and the US over the same phrase. Read the full
article |
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