ACT proposal to remove religious freedom provisions for schools - gay ideology
Author Neil Foster Reports in the press note that that the ACT Government has announced its intention to “ close a loophole ” in discrimination laws by removing the capacity of religious schools to apply their religious beliefs in staffing decisions. The law is referred to is not a “loophole”, it is part of the fundamental architecture of discrimination law around Australia, with rare exceptions, and removing these provisions would not be a good idea. Background The context of the proposals is the recent debate in Federal Parliament about the leaked recommendations of the Ruddock Report (for comment here see here and succeeding blog posts linked at the bottom of this one.) In particular, concern has been expressed that religious schools may apply their faith-based moral framework (which in many cases includes the view that homosexual activity is not part of God’s purposes for humanity) in dealing with students and staff at the school. The Federal Government has indicated