The Coalition is defending religious freedom in schools and pinning soaring private school fees on the Albanese Government’s inflationary public spending. Source: The Australian.
Unveiling the Coalition’s private schooling policy last night, Opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser defended the right of religious schools to discriminate on the grounds of religious belief.
Criticising Labor and the Greens for “consistently attacking religious freedom and religious schools’’, Mr Leeser backed legal rights for private schools to hire and fire teachers and enrol students based on religious doctrine.
“Unlike Labor we will never indulge the fantasies of the Law Reform Commission who wanted to attack your very identity as Christian schools,” Mr Leeser said in a speech to Christian Schools Australia last night.
“We believe in parental choice, institutional autonomy, freedom of religion, and that schools with a faith mission should be able to remain genuinely faithful to that mission.
“Religious freedom … is about allowing schools not just to teach but to model the doctrines of their faith, without the threat of litigation. Religious schools want to educate, not litigate.”
The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended in 2024 that religious schools lose their Sex Discrimination Act exemption, which allows them to expel LGBTI students or sack teachers on the grounds of their sexuality, gender identity or marital status.
Teachers can be dismissed for being divorced or living with an unmarried partner, or if they are transgender or homosexual.
The commission had advised the federal government to amend the Fair Work Act to permit faith-based schools to give preference to hiring teachers who share their faith.
The Albanese Government shelved the changes after failing to reach bipartisan agreement with the Coalition.
Mr Leeser told the gathering that the Coalition “will fight for parents to have the right to choose authentic, caring Christian communities where students can learn and experience the marriage of faith and reason in accordance with the faith of their family”.
He also defended tax deductions for donations to school building funds.
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Coalition defends religious schools and pins soaring fees on Labor spending (By Natasha Bita, The Australian)
