The Rationalist Society of Australia has called on the New South Wales government to publicly release the minutes of its Faith Affairs Council in a timely manner to ensure transparency over the advisory body’s activities.
RSA Executive Director Si Gladman made the request in a letter to the Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper (pictured) last week, arguing that the public should not be “kept in the dark” regarding the work of the religious leaders on the Faith Affairs Council.
Having submitted a freedom of information request in early April, the RSA is still waiting for Multiculturalism NSW to provide minutes and agendas for the meetings of the 19-member body between February 2024 and April 2025.
“Minister, for the sake of transparency, we urge you to make all agendas and minutes of the NSW Faith Affairs Council publicly available, in a timely manner, on Multiculturalism NSW’s website,” wrote Mr Gladman.
“There is an overwhelming public interest in these documents being made publicly available. Community organisations like ours should not have to wait long periods of time or pay to see what the Faith Affairs Council is discussing in its meetings. The public should not be kept in the dark regarding the work of the Faith Affairs Council.”
As the RSA has previously reported, the Faith Affairs Council, established by the Minns government, provides religious leaders with direct access to government ministers and decision-makers – a privilege not afforded to non-religious and ex-religious community members.
Documents obtained by the RSA under the state’s Government Information Public Access (GIPA) Act in early 2024 showed that the Faith Affairs Council had made several attempts to influence government policy on all kinds of policy issues – including voluntary assisted dying, the scripture program in public schools, and equality laws.
In 2023, the RSA reported that the Minns government excluded a non-religious community leader from a position on the Faith Affairs Council.
The Faith Affairs Council has also since declined the RSA’s requests for it to advocate for the removal of religious-based discrimination against non-religious citizens in New South Wales government institutions.
While the chair of the Faith Affairs Council, Right Reverend Michael Stead, told the RSA that the scope of the body’s activities was “limited to this consultative role”, the documents obtained in early 2024 showed that the Faith Affairs Council was proactively proposing policy matters for the government to pursue.
At budget estimates in August this year, a member of parliament asked Mr Kamper whether the minutes of meetings were published publicly. In response, Joseph La Posta, the CEO of Multicultural NSW, confirmed that they were not.
“The secretariat function of the Faith Affairs Council is provided by Multicultural NSW, under our legislation, as a subcommittee. And then in terms of the agenda being set, that’s set by Right Reverend Dr Michael Stead, who is an outstanding chair of that group,” he said.
Mr La Posta confirmed that the Faith Affairs Council had met about 13 times since its inception in late 2023.
In July this year, the RSA – supported by another eight pro-secular groups – raised government-appointed faith advisory bodies such as the NSW Faith Affairs Council as an example of discriminatory and unfair treatment of non-religious people in a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (Fourth Cycle) into Australia’s human rights.
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Si Gladman is the Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. You can contact him at sigladman@rationalist.com.au or follow him on Twitter at @si_gladman