A committee of religious clerics appointed to advise the New South Wales government on policy matters considered making a statement urging citizens to “moderate expectations about luxurious living” to address housing affordability, documents reveal.

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws by the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) show that the NSW Faith Affairs Council last year discussed a proposal to address housing affordability that included references to Jesus and Gandhi as examples of humility over greed.

The documents – of agenda papers and minutes from 2024 and early 2025 – also show that the 19-member body, on several occasions, discussed requesting from governments taxpayers’ dollars and tax concessions for faith-based activities.

At a meeting in February 2025, one of the committee’s members proposed that the Faith Affairs Council make a statement in response to all the news about a “housing crisis, rent and mortgages being unaffordable”.

“Might there be an appetite for a statement about moderating our expectations about luxurious living?” said the report presented to the meeting.

“I hope this kind of statement would at least have value within our religious communities in urging (i) landlords/vendors to be generous, not aggressive, in their expectations of rent or purchase price; (ii) renters/purchasers to have humble expectations about the kind of accommodation they need.

“This kind of attitude of mutual generosity and accommodation might take some of the ‘heat’ – the anxiety, resentment, etc – out of the market. I think it was Gandhi who said ‘let us live simply so that others may simply live’?”

The report also cited the Bible in noting that Jesus “had no place to lay his head” and had “warned against greed”.

It was decided that more input would be sought and the proposal discussed at a future meeting.

The documents obtained from Multiculturalism NSW also reveal proposals for the Faith Affairs Council to seek: $100,000 from state and federal governments to hold a national symposium to “counter religious vilification/hate and encouraging social cohesion”; federal tax deductibility for chaplains in schools; and “better and more equitable funding of hospital chaplains”. It was also proposed that the Faith Affairs Council talk to state and federal governments about “funding proposals to do with Education that may relate to faith communities”.

As the Rationalist Society of Australia reported earlier this year, the Albanese government has expressed interest in establishing a national faith advisory committee modelled on the privileged NSW Faith Affairs Council.

The Minns government established the Faith Affairs Council in 2023 to give religious leaders direct access to government ministers and the state bureaucracy so that they could advise on all kinds of policy matters.

When in opposition, the NSW Labor Party had promised religious groups that such a body would allow them to advise on issues including “objections to euthanasia/voluntary assisted dying, and religious discrimination” and “additional funding for chaplaincy”.

Upon launching the Faith Affairs Council, the Minns government rejected a non-religious community leader’s application to be on the committee even as it expanded the membership from 16 to 19 religious clerics.

Since 2023, the RSA has revealed that the Faith Affairs Council has pursued the narrow religious interests of its members and has sought to influence government policy in a number of areas, including voluntary assisted dying, the scripture program in public schools, and equality laws.

The RSA has repeatedly warned the Minns government about the further privileging of religious voices and marginalisation of non-religious voices, given that non-religious representatives have not been provided equal opportunity to participate in such a body and advise on matters of religion and belief.

On several occasions, the RSA has written to the Faith Affairs Council and called on it to advocate for the fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and address issues negatively impacting on the rights of non-religious people. However, it has declined to act on all occasions.

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

Image: Tom Rumble (Unsplash)