This is our submission to the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review. Find out more about the inquiry here.

27 June 2025

This is a submission on behalf of the Rationalist Society of Australia to the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review. We are Australia’s oldest freethought organisation that promotes reason, secularism and evidence-based policy.

We wish to bring to your attention community concerns about an underlying cause of bullying in government schools that has been overlooked by governments.

At the Rationalist Society of Australia, we have a long history of opposing scripture programs in government schools. As part of these programs, external religious actors enter classrooms to instruct children in the doctrines of religions. Most states and territories offer some form of optional scripture program, including with classes being held outside class time. Two states – New South Wales and Queensland – have particularly egregious scripture policies, mandating that all children have to stop their normal learning to allow some of their peers to learn the dogmas of their families’ religious traditions during class time. These programs are known as Special Religious Education in New South Wales and Religious Instruction in Queensland.

Over the years, a common concern that we have heard from parents is that the intrusion of such programs into government schools leads to religious-based bullying against non-participating children and, also, against children from minority faiths.

Such programs segregate children based on religious lines, making it easy for children to identify who among their peers are, for example, from Christian households, from non-religious households, or from minority religious traditions. For non-participating children, these programs create a sense of alienation. As a result, children are, for example, teased that they are “going to hell” and that they are “not from the right religion”.

Also, we know that the New South Wales’ Department of Education is investigating community complaints alleging that the Hindu scripture program indoctrinates children into caste-based discrimination, including with children being seated according to caste hierarchical order, and that this leads to bullying.

Promoting segregation based on religion is corrosive to social cohesion and is completely at odds with the values of secular public education.

Government schools are being used to engage children in numerous other envangelistic religious activities – such as religious lunchtime activities, religious presentations, and religious camps. We know that some of the external providers of such activities view government schools as “mission fields” for “harvesting” and even encourage participating students to recruit other students into such programs.

We urge the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review to investigate the extent of religious-based bullying in government schools due to the intrusion of scripture programs and other religious activities taking place in schools.

Regards,
Si Gladman
Executive Director,
Rationalist Society of Australia