The Rationalist Society of Australia is seeking a commitment from the federal Opposition Leader, Sussan Ley, that her party will not push to introduce any religious criteria or test for immigrants entering Australia.

In a letter to Ms Ley, the RSA said it was “deeply alarmed” by comments from Liberal MP Andrew Hastie that he wanted to see “faith” made an ‘Australian value’ that immigrants needed to support.

Mr Hastie’s comments on Sky News on Monday came in the wake of Sunday’s terrorist attack on a Jewish gathering at Bondi Beach.

According to reports in recent weeks, the Liberal-National coalition is exploring how it can toughen screening to make sure new migrants agree with Australian values.

In the letter, RSA Executive Director Si Gladman told Ms Ley that introducing religious tests for immigration or citizenship purposes would be completely at odds with the modern secular values shared by the vast majority of Australians.

He noted that the Australian Values Statement appropriately listed “freedom of religion (including the freedom not to follow a particular religion), freedom of speech, and freedom of association”.

“We ask that you please confirm that the federal Liberal Party of Australia will not, and will never, establish ‘faith’, or any other religious requirement, as a new condition for immigrants to Australia,” wrote Mr Gladman.

“There can be no doubt that many immigrants to Australia are freethinkers who come here to flee oppressive religious societies, and religious-based bigotries and violence.”

Mr Gladman also noted that religion was of declining importance to Australians, pointing to Census data that showed religion as a whole – even with a biased religion question that inflated the religious affiliation data – was on track to fall below 50 per cent of the population at the 2026 Census.

In another appearance on Sky News this week, Mr Hastie said he was concerned about radical Islamic theology and argued that “theology has public consequences”.

Yet, Mr Hastie, since entering politics, has refused to answer media questions about his own Christian beliefs and how they might influence his decision-making, including if he ever became science minister.

On the campaign trail in 2015, after the media noted his father was a leading advocate of young-Earth creationism, Hastie said such questions were “totally unacceptable” and “completely irrelevant to this campaign”.

As revealed by Rationale magazine – a publication of the Rationalist Society of Australia – in October, Hastie has since told a church podcast that he supports intelligent design and that the biblical story of Genesis “answers a few of the big questions upfront”, including about our origins.

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

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Photo: Sussan Ley MP (Facebook)

RSA letter to Sussan Ley, 20 December 2025

Dear Ms Ley,

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

We’re deeply alarmed that, in the wake of the terrorist attack at Bondi, members of the Liberal Party are talking about requiring immigrants to Australia to support ‘faith’ as an ‘Australian value’.

According to reports, Andrew Hastie, the member for Canning, told Sky News on Monday that people coming to Australia should meet criteria that includes ‘faith’:

“I want to see people coming to this country who speak English, who support Australian values, like I said, faith, reason, inquiry, debate, persuasion”.

Ms Ley, there is no religious test for immigrants coming to Australia and for people holding Australian citizenship.

We note that the Australian Values Statement lists “freedom of religion (including the freedom not to follow a particular religion), freedom of speech, and freedom of association”. 

We ask that you please confirm that the federal Liberal Party will not, and will never, establish ‘faith’, or any other religious requirement, as a new condition for immigrants to Australia.

It is worth noting that religion is of declining importance to Australians. Census data shows that the proportion of the population that identifies as religious is on track to fall below 50 per cent at the 2026 Census – even while the results continue to inflate religion because the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses a biased question that presumes every respondent is religious.

There can be no doubt that many immigrants to Australia are freethinkers who come here to flee oppressive religious societies, and religious-based bigotries and violence.

Introducing religious tests for immigration or citizenship purposes would be completely at odds with the modern secular values shared by the vast majority of Australians.

We believe Australians overwhelmingly support political secularism – including the principles that the Australian state should provide equal treatment to people irrespective of religious or non-religious beliefs, should separate the functions of church and state while maintaining state supremacy, be neutral on matters of religion and belief, and uphold international human rights commitments to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Regards,

Si Gladman

Executive Director,

Rationalist Society of Australia