RSA Weekly For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia
Saturday 11 October 2025 Hi , The wait goes on for the Albanese government's response to proposed reforms to the charities sector, in particular religious charities. This week, we reported on the Treasurer's
answer to questions in the Senate about why the government is taking so long to respond to the Productivity Commission's recommendations from almost a year and a half ago. It's still "considering" the recommendations. Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Representatives doesn't appear to be considering our concerns about the human rights impact of imposing daily Christian prayers. 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 Speaker Dick deflects questions over human rights
concerns11 Oct: The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Milton Dick, has deflected questions about the human rights implications of the institution’s practice of imposing daily acts of Christian worship. In a letter to the Rationalist Society of Australia, Mr Dick said he did not have the power to change the Standing Orders – which require the reading of two prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer, at the opening of each day. Read the full article |
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| RSA Government still “considering” recommendations regarding
charities sector, says Treasurer8 Oct: The Albanese government says it “continues to consider” the recommendations of an independent research and advisory body regarding reforms to the charities sector, including to religious charities, almost a year and a half since receiving them. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has provided a answer to questions in the Senate on why the government is taking so long to respond to the Productivity Commission’s
recommendations. Read the full article |
| CATH NEWS Catholic bishops call on EU to appoint envoy for religious freedom 10 Oct: The representatives of the Catholic bishops to the European Union
reiterated their call for the bloc to act firmly against anti-Christian persecution around the world by reinstating the position of the special envoy for religious freedom. Read the full article |
| ONE NEWS Leader of secretive church returning to Australia for 'extended break' 10 Oct: The leader of a secretive religious group in New Zealand has
announced he’s stepping back from his role and returning home to Australia for what he describes as “an extended break", citing a “tough year” and “constant pressure". Wayne Dean, who oversees a church commonly referred to as the Two By Twos, has been leading its New Zealand branch for the past three years. The church is currently under investigation by New Zealand police for alleged sexual offending. Read the full article |
| DAILY TELEGRAPH Brethren Church defends its empire as the ATO investigates 10 Oct: Senior members of the Plymouth Brethren – formerly known as the
Exclusive Brethren – have claimed that any concerns that the church seizes money from its members or avoids paying tax are “laughable”. Read the full
article |
| NT NEWS (VIA CATH NEWS) Half of Top End parliamentarians voice support for assisted dying 9 Oct: Half of Northern Territory parliamentarians have voiced
their support for reinstating the rights of Territorians to choose voluntary assisted dying following the release of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee report. Read the full article |
| SENTINEL-TIMES Bass Coast Shire petitioners left without a prayer 8 Oct: The 194 people who signed a petition requesting that the Lord’s Prayer be
reinstated at the start of Bass Coast Shire Council meetings “as soon as possible” got short shrift from the council last Wednesday. However, not only was the proposition rejected on a vote of 8:1, but the lead petitioner was accused of trying to incite community division. Read the full article |
| DAILY TELEGRAPH Plymouth Brethren's $700k donation to lobby group revealed 8 Oct: Members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church donated at least
$700,000 to conservative lobby group Advance during this year’s federal election campaign. Senior church members have further expressed their "disgust" at being labelled a "cult" by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Read the full article |
| DAILY TELEGRAPH Brethren women say they feel ‘respected’ within the church 8 Oct: Senior female members of the secretive Plymouth Brethren Christian Church
feel "respected" and “enjoy their role as women”, saying most of the negative stories about them are untrue. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN US supreme court appears poised to overturn Colorado ban on ‘conversion therapy’ 8 Oct: The US supreme court appeared ready to rule against a
Colorado law that bans “conversion therapy” practices that seek to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity, repeatedly questioning the state over whether the law hindered free speech and whether these practices have been proven harmful. Read the full
article |
| HERALD SUN (VIA CATH NEWS) Victorian MPs call for end to abortion ban at public Catholic-run hospitals 7 Oct: Victoria’s public, Catholic-run hospitals
would lose their ability to object to providing abortion and contraception services at their facilities under a new crossbench proposal. A new report into abortion access, by Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell and Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne, has called to end such policies at publicly funded hospitals. Read the full article |
| HUMANISTS UK First-ever humanist pastoral carer in the UK Armed Forces 7 Oct: The UK Armed Forces has sworn in its first-ever non-religious pastoral carer.
Dr Neil Weddell has been appointed a ‘chaplain’ in the Army and started in the role on 23 June. Humanists UK is the endorsing authority. Read the full article |
| ABC Turning Point Australia moves into SA 6 Oct: The Australian affiliate of late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA is moving into South
Australia ahead of next year's state election, but some politicians say the group is "out of step with mainstream values". On Monday, Turning Point Australia announced the appointment of conservative social media personality George-Alexander Mamalis as its new state coordinator. Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE Inquiry versus polemic in grappling with history
and language Paul Monk: Frank Furedi, in The War Against the Past: Why the West Must Fight for Its History (2024), has offered us a trenchant survey of how what he calls ‘presentism’ has come to infect our classrooms and professional institutions over the past generation or two. This is a crucial facet of what is often referred to as ‘the culture wars’. Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE Letters to the Editor: A bridge to
peace Joseph Ting: The safety objections that aborted the pro-Palestinian march across Brisbane’s Story Bridge in August were far-fetched if the previous peacefully enacted Sydney Harbour Bridge march protesting Israel’s hostility in Gaza was any guide. Read the full article |
| THE AGE Hastie’s got the right stuff but one obsession may fast-track or derail his ambitions Peter Hartcher: The same nativist impulse that drove
Brexit and today propels Nigel Farage’s ascendant Reform Party in Britain is also driving Trump’s MAGA movement and the far-right insurrection in many European nations. Hastie intends to be riding the train when it arrives in Australia. Not standing in its way. Read the full article |
| SMH The split in the Right that is reshaping the political landscape James Massola: There hasn’t been a week since Sussan Ley seized the
Coalition’s top job that people haven’t speculated about a leadership challenge. But in the five months since the last election, a new group of conservative MPs within the National Right faction, with a distinctly Trumpian-populist flavour, has emerged to challenge accepted Liberal dogma. Read the full article |
| THE SATURDAY PAPER Abbott ‘disappointed’ by Andrew Hastie as right splinters Karen Barlow: When Tony Abbott looks at the division in the Liberal
Party, he has a small but telling rebuke for Andrew Hastie. It is telling because of the factional power Abbott still wields and because that power would significantly shape the fortunes of Hastie or his chief rival, Angus Taylor. Read
the full article |
| LUCY HAMILTON Andrew Hastie: soldier for an extreme version of governing by Christ It is tricky to determine whether Andrew Hastie’s Fundamentalist
Christianity or his global networking with Trumpist forces should worry Australians more. It is not a coincidence that Hastie has also placed a fight against climate action at the core of his pitch. Fossil fuel disinformation and money have long been central to the Christian Nationalist project. Read the full
article |
| THE GUARDIAN Albanese government risks failure to live up to its own pledges of increased transparency Tom McIlroy: The Albanese government now
finds itself having to live up to its promises on transparency. With surprise changes to freedom of information laws brought forward by the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, it appears to be failing. Read the
full article |
| THE UNADULTERATED The Premier of NSW Is Injecting Christ Back into the Sphere of Politics Paul Gregoire: While the current push to insert faith
back into NSW politics being progressed by senior Minns Labor government ministers appears a lot more subdued, the recent launch of the Christian Alliance Council of NSW at state parliament does tend to hint at the same end goal as Morrison’s crusade, which is the supremacy of the Christian religion in Australian politics. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist Over the past month, Thiel has hosted a series of four
lectures on the downtown waterfront of San Francisco philosophizing about who the antichrist could be and warning that Armageddon is coming. Thiel, who describes himself as a “small-o orthodox Christian”, believes the harbinger of the end of the world could already be in our midst. Read the full article |
| FRIENDLY ATHEIST Trump's NSPM-7 memo casts critics of Christianity as enemies of the state Hemant Mehta: Last week, Donald Trump signed a memo
ostensibly meant to combat “domestic terrorism and organized political violence” in the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk. But the content of that memo is disturbing. It calls on the National Joint Terrorism Task Force—which works under the FBI—to go after particular threats to our nation. Which threats? Oh, you know, just all critics of conservatism. Read the full article |
| HUMANISTS UK Apostasy Conference 2025 spotlights mental health impact of religious abuse Humanists UK’s Faith to Faithless programme hosted the
Apostasy Conference 2025 in Covent Garden in London. This year’s theme focused on the mental health of those who leave high-control groups, exploring how isolation, stigma, and coercively controlling practices such as mandated shunning can have profound psychological effects. Read the full article |
| THE FREETHINKER Abortion and Bodily Autonomy: Restriction, Repression, and Feminist Fightback Maryam Namazie: Across the world, women’s bodies
remain battlegrounds for political, religious, and economic control. Abortion restrictions and bans, like other restrictions on women’s rights and freedoms, serve to police and discipline women, regulate sexuality, and reinforce power. Read the
full article |
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