RSA Weekly For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia
Saturday 18 October 2025 Hi , In recent days, we've reported on the response that we received from the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to our concerns about the human rights impact of the biased and
coercive Census religion question. David Gruen rejected the suggestions that the question was discriminatory and breached Australia's international human rights commitments (see our top article). Also, we've kept an eye on Senate Estimates hearings, where the Albanese government was asked whether it still desired bipartisan support before acting on religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws (see the video). 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 ABS chief rejects claim Census religion question is
discriminatory for assuming every Australian has a religion14 Oct: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has rejected concerns that the continued use of a coercive and biased religion question in the Census is discriminatory and breaches the country’s international human rights commitments. In a letter to the Rationalist Society of Australia last month, the head of the ABS, Dr David Gruen, said his agency “does not accept” that the wording
of the 2026 Census question on religious affiliation is discriminatory. Read the full article |
| ABC NT government's anti-discrimination law changes to 'restore' free speech pass parliament 17 Oct: Amendments to the Northern Territory's
anti-discrimination laws that have passed the parliament will provide for "an exemption for religious educational institutions to discriminate" by allowing them to preference employees based on their shared religious beliefs. The Country Liberal Party government claims the amendments to the territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act will "restore" freedom of speech and religion. Religious lobbyists had wanted the amendments to go further and allow schools to legally sanction staff whose actions
conflicted with their religious values. Read the full article |
| THE AGE These academics defend white nationalism. Their college says that’s ‘freedom of speech’ 17 Oct: An Australian college has defended the “freedom of
speech” of two of its senior academics, who promote white nationalism online and in speeches, even as the institution “unequivocally rejects” many of the pair’s public statements. Campion, a small but influential Catholic higher education college in Sydney, boasts donors such as mining magnate Gina Rinehart and a board including former Liberal minister Zed Seselja. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN King Charles to be first reigning English monarch in 500 years to pray publicly with pope 17 Oct: King Charles will become the first reigning
English monarch since Henry VIII split from Rome in 1534 to pray publicly with a pope during his state visit to the Holy See next week. The king will join Pope Leo XIV at an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel during his visit with the queen to the Vatican on 22-23 October. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN US ‘on a trajectory’ toward authoritarian rule, ex-officials warn 17 Oct: The United States is “on a trajectory” toward authoritarian rule,
according to a sobering new intelligence-style assessment by former US intelligence and national security officials, who warn that democratic backsliding is accelerating under the Trump administration – and may soon become entrenched without organized resistance. Read the full
article |
| THE GUARDIAN NSW anti-protest law ruled unconstitutional 16 Oct: The New South Wales supreme court has struck down a law that had given police expanded
powers to prevent protests near places of worship. Justice Anna Mitchelmore ruled on Thursday that the police powers impermissibly burdened the freedom of political communication implied in Australia’s constitution. Read the full article |
| ABC Victorian inquiry hears from regional cult survivors about their isolation and shame 15 Oct: Clare Heath-McIvor accused the City Builders church of
guiding 24 members to use their superannuation to purchase a historic building in the regional town of Sale, which the church now leases. She also told the inquiry groups like the City Builders avoided paying tax while taking tithe from members. Read the full article |
| NINE NEWS Victoria's overhauled voluntary assisted dying laws give 'dignity' to those suffering, says Premier 14 Oct: The Victorian Government has made
changes to the state's voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws to make the service more accessible to those suffering from terminal illnesses. There have been 13 proposed amendments to the current legislation that was introduced in 2017, including removing a clause that banned doctors from suggesting VAD as a valid option to terminally ill patients wishing to discuss end-of-life options. Read the full article |
| MELBOURNE CATHOLIC Victorian bishops urge faithful to oppose changes to state’s euthanasia laws 14 Oct: Victoria’s bishops have written a pastoral letter
to the community in response to the state government’s plans to amend Victoria’s euthanasia and assisted suicide laws. Read the full article |
| THE AGE The Brethren called the internet a pipeline of filth. Now they have a podcast 14 Oct: The group formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren has
finally succumbed to the manly urge to grab a microphone and talk for long periods of time. The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s podcast series was launched on the “pipeline of filth” – what the church once called the internet – this week. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Liberal MP’s sister says father’s church is a ‘cult’ where ‘gay conversion’ practices may still be happening 13 Oct: The sister of Victorian
Liberal MP Renee Heath has described their father’s church as a “cult” and told an inquiry that so-called “gay conversion” practices may still be occurring in the state. Appearing at the parliamentary inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups, Clare Heath-McIvor, daughter of City Builders church pastor Brian Heath, said that leaders of some churches in the New Apostolic Reformation movement, of which her father’s church is a part, believe “God’s law” overrides the state’s. Read the full article |
| BBC Man who burned Quran wins free speech appeal 10 Oct: A man who was fined for burning a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London has
won his appeal against his conviction. At Southwark Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Bennathan said that while burning a Quran might be something "many Muslims find desperately upsetting and offensive", the right to freedom of expression "must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb". Read the full article |
Facing questions in the Senate last week, a government minister pledged to ask Prime Minister Anthony Albanese whether he still wanted bipartisan support before tackling the issue of discrimination against staff and students in faith schools. What do you think? Email your comments to: editor@rationalist.com.au
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| RATIONALE How to survive in these interesting – and
difficult – times Elizabeth Dangerfield: When I sit down to contemplate the existential threats we face … I am overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the tragedy our actions are going to cause. So many things, including a better future for our children, will perish in a terrible and wholly preventable way. I feel unhinged by the enormity and relentlessness of it all. But life goes on. Read the full article |
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| RATIONALE Steven Pinker’s insights on how ‘common knowledge’
shapes our individual lives and societies Jamie Roberts: Common knowledge is not exactly knowledge in the sense of established and widely accepted facts. Pinker is not talking about Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity or other well-established truths, like calculus or maybe even the law of supply and demand, though such truths do come into it. Rather, common knowledge refers to beliefs that are commonly held,
and that people know to be commonly held. Sometimes these beliefs are true, sometimes not. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Critical thinking is one of the most important aspects of being human, according to Stoicism. So why are we handing it over to a machine? Brigid Delaney: By exercising rational thinking, and thinking for ourselves, we are able to judge and make choices in a way that best serves our own interests and those of others. Handing over our critical thinking to a machine is to also hand over one of the few things that is within our control – the ability to think for ourselves. Read the full article |
| SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA Britain’s unofficial blasphemy laws have been decades in the making Clarissa Hard: Backdoor blasphemy laws have no place in
twenty-first-century Britain, even if they come dolled up in the language of public order. But despite this ruling, people are still scared to blaspheme against Islam. We already live under unofficial blasphemy laws enforced by fear. Read the full
article |
| PEARLS & IRRITATIONS Charlie Kirk, Andrew Hastie and the 'Christian' West: Some Christian pushback Geoff Thompson: Just as Kirk’s Christian
Nationalism was hotly contested by many Christians, so too should Hastie’s reading of the “Christian West” be contested for explicitly Christian reasons. Some of us will be asking: Who is included in the “we” of his Western culture? and: What idols are lurking within his conflation of Christianity and the West? Read the full article |
| ABC RADIO How will Archbishop Mullally unite her church? Sarah Mullally may be a historic choice as the new Archbishop of Canterbury but how will she
deal with the chasm that has opened in the world-wide Anglican Church in recent years? The church of 85 million followers is deeply divided over sexuality and gender. Is there also a lingering opposition to women as bishops and even priests? Listen to the
episode |
| THE FREETHINKER US feeling cross: a review of ‘Cross Purposes’ Nicholas E. Meyer: The United States stands among the countries where religion
weighs heavily in public life. It goes beyond matters of governance; the US, Rauch notes, "has traditionally relied on religion for so much of its cultural and spiritual infrastructure." Quite so. But isn’t it time to grow up—or, to state it in terms the backsliders would better relate to, to put away childish things? Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN The antichrist has long haunted American politics. Now it’s rearing its head again Matthew Avery Sutton: The antichrist is clearly
back. But perhaps he has never really left. As a historian of American apocalypticism, I’ve traced how this symbol – a protean figure cobbled together from obscure biblical passages – has repeatedly migrated from pulpits to politics and back again. Read the full
article |
| THE CONVERSATION Academic freedom: how to defend ‘the very condition of a living democracy’ Stéphanie Balme: Behind the rhetoric of “restoring
excellence” lies a new stage in the institutionalisation of “sciento-populism”: mistrust of science is being strategically exploited to flatter populist sentiments and turn academics into scapegoats, held responsible for the “decline” of US civilisational hegemony. This phenomenon, although exaggerated, is not isolated. Read the full article |
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