The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has turned down a request for it to look into “unjustifiable discrimination” against non-religious Australians in public institutions and in the public sphere.

In a letter to the AHRC last month, the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) highlighted a number of examples of discrimination against non-religious people and asked that the commission investigate or conduct further research.

RSA Executive Director Si Gladman also sought the AHRC’s assistance as the RSA prepares to raise these concerns in a submission to the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle) into Australia’s human rights.

Joanna Maxwell, Director of the Human Rights Team, told Mr Gladman that the AHRC would not take action. 

“While we are not in a position to take specific action at this time, it is always most useful to our research and advocacy when we hear from stakeholders,” she said.

In his letter to the AHRC, Mr Gladman outlined a number of examples in which non-religious people continued to be discriminated against.

These included the failure of the Australian Army and Air Force to provide a non-religious option of wellbeing support/pastoral care to their majority non-religious workforces, and ongoing discrimination in government-funded chaplaincy roles in public schools.

Mr Gladman also said that parliaments across Australia, along with local governments, imposed religious worship in their formal proceedings, despite the calls for change from many elected representatives.

He also noted that the federal government provided special treatment to religious people by recognising ‘Advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose while denying the same treatment to people of non-religious worldviews.

“Australia’s population is becoming increasingly non-religious. Based on the trends, Australians identifying as not religious will overtake those marking ‘Christianity’ on the next Census in 2026 – rising well above 40 per cent. Yet, non-religious Australians continue to face unjustifiable discrimination in a number of government institutions,” Mr Gladman told the AHRC.

Speaking today, Mr Gladman said the RSA was disappointed with the response from the AHRC, but added that it would not deter his organisation’s work in advocating for the rights of non-religious people on these matters.

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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.

Letter to the Australian Human Rights Commission, 20 November 2024

Dear Commissioner,

I’m writing to you on behalf of the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA), which is Australia’s oldest freethought organisation promoting reason, secularism and evidence-based policy.

We wish to raise with you our concerns about discrimination against non-religious Australians in public institutions and the public sphere. We ask that the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) take these concerns seriously and investigate or conduct further research into this matter.

Australia’s population is becoming increasingly non-religious. Based on the trends, Australians identifying as not religious will overtake those marking ‘Christianity’ on the next Census in 2026 – rising well above 40 per cent. Yet, non-religious Australians continue to face unjustifiable discrimination in a number of government institutions.

Here are some examples of discrimination against non-religious Australians:

• The Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force do not provide for their service personnel the option of non-religious frontline pastoral care, even though a majority of personnel (about 60 per cent) are not religious. While the Navy provides a handful of secular pastoral carers, Army and Air Force provide only religious-based chaplaincy.
• In the National Student Wellbeing Program, third-party providers of youth worker positions – often called ‘chaplains’ – in public schools require applicants to have religious credentials, even though the program guidelines say the program is not a religious program.
• As part of formal proceedings, parliaments and local governments across Australia ask elected representatives to observe exclusively Christian worship at the opening of each parliamentary sitting day or council meeting. Many elected representatives have called for change – such as the atheist President of the Senate, Sue Lines, in 2022 – but have been ignored.
• In the charities system, the federal government gives special treatment to religious people by recognising ‘Advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose in and of itself, while denying the same treatment for non-religious people (such as atheists, humanists, rationalists and secularists) in advancing their worldviews.
• On Anzac Day at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra – and in many other capital cities across the country – Dawn Services are dominated by Christianity, with exclusively Christian prayers, rites and traditions overseen by Christian chaplains, leading non-religious veterans and members of the public to feel excluded.
• State governments have established religious advisory councils – such as the Faith Affairs Council in New South Wales – for religious leaders to advise government on policy making, while excluding non-religious people from having an equal opportunity to advise government on matters of faith and belief.

We believe the AHCR should investigate the extent of discrimination against non-religious Australians. We would be happy to work with you to provide more detail about these cases of discrimination.

We note that the AHRC has itself promoted the importance of the right not to have a religion in a promotional video, published last year.

Australia is a signatory to the International Convent of Civil and Political Rights, with Article 18(1) recognising: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice…”

We intend to raise these concerns about discrimination against non-religious Australians in a submission to the upcoming UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle). We would appreciate the AHRC’s support and guidance in undertaking that process. We note that the stakeholders’ submissions are – “tentatively”, according to the UN Human Rights Council website – due by mid next year. 

We look forward to hearing from the AHRC.

Regards,

Si Gladman

Executive Director,

Rationalist Society of Australia