The Australian Christian Lobby has warned that a Victorian parliamentary committee inquiry into cults and their coercive practices could impact the “Christian church” and restrict freedom of religion.
In some of the first public comments by a religious group in response to the establishment of the inquiry, Michelle Pearse, Managing Director of the ACL, told Christian radio program 20Twenty this week that the inquiry was an example of how religious freedoms could worsen in Australia.
The Victorian Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee is now accepting public submissions for its inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups, examining how they recruit and control people.
Submissions are due by 31 July 2025, with the committee set to report back to parliament in late September.
Asked on Monday whether the screws would tighten on Christian freedoms following the federal election, Ms Pearse (pictured) highlighted the Victorian inquiry as an example of how the situation could “get worse” for Christians.
“Now, we know that the Christian church isn’t a cult. But with the way that a Labor radically ideologically left-wing government could perceive the Christian church, it could be perceiving it like a cult because we have certain values that aren’t in line with what’s being pushed culturally at the moment with the woke agenda,” she said.
“And so if the Christian church is deemed a cult, then that could mean that we have greater restrictions on our freedom to have our beliefs and share our beliefs in our Bible study groups and from the pulpit.”
The parliamentary committee’s website explains that the aim of the inquiry is to “understand whether current laws are strong enough to deal with groups that use manipulation or control in ways that can seriously hurt people.”
The website says the committee understands ‘cults’ to be groups identified by their behaviours, not their beliefs, and ‘organised fringe groups’ to include groups that employ cult-like tactics but are not necessarily religiously based.
“Cults typically demand excessive loyalty to a leader or cause and employ various harmful coercive techniques that can harm individuals emotionally, psychologically, financially, or even physically,” says the committee.
Such harmful and coercive techniques listed as examples on the inquiry website include: isolating members from friends and family; demanding total obedience; punishing members for perceived disobedience; using guilt or fear to control thinking; and abusive behaviours, including financial, psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse.
The Rationalist Society of Australia has welcomed the opportunity for survivors of cults and high-demand religious groups, and families and friends who have been impacted, to share their experiences through a parliamentary inquiry.
Late last year, the RSA asked all states and territories to prioritise the introduction of coercive control laws that would effectively deal with coercive, harmful and abusive practices within cults and high-demand religious groups.
In response, some states have said they have no intention of expanding coercive control laws to apply to harmful religious cults, while others have pointed to their existing laws that deal with abusive behaviour in the context of intimate partner relationships and domestic and family violence.
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Si Gladman is Executive Director at the Rationalist Society of Australia. You can contact him at sigladman@rationalist.com.au.
Image: Screenshot, ACL – Australian Christian Lobby (YouTube).