The Institute of Public Affairs has written to the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to share analysis about the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) report Maximising the Realisation of Human Rights: Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws.
The ALRC report contains recommendations to repeal section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to scrap exceptions for faith-based schools in relation to staffing and student enrolment, which are necessary to preserve their religious character.
The IPA’s research shows that the ALRC’s recommendations have three major flaws:
- They will provide the means for political activism to ravage faith-based schools.
- The cost to implement necessary risk mitigation measures to protect faith-based schools will be borne by the schools themselves and, in turn, by families through higher school fees.
- The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) will be given control over what a faith-based school can do and say, including how the school imparts religious values and doctrine.
