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- 15 November 2000
Freedom Of Religion
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Page: 9937
Reverend the Hon. F. J. NILE [6.22 p.m.]: I wish to bring to the attention of the House a serious matter concerning freedom of religion. The Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney has sent me a letter outlining its concerns relating to the Law Reform Commission's proposals for reform of the Anti-Discrimination Act. The commission's report No. 92 contains proposals for the reform of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is concerned that the proposals, if adopted, will result in a substantial erosion of the principle of freedom of religion in New South Wales.
The Standing Committee of the Synod of the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney lodged a submission with the then Attorney General in March this year, expressing the diocese's main concern. I know that some honourable members are unsure about the terminology "diocese" and "synod". The Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney stretches from the Blue Mountains almost to the Central Coast and Gosford, and down to the Illawarra. It is a large regional area and the most heavily populated area of New South Wales, if not Australia. The synod meets with delegates from all the parishes. They represent about one million Anglicans in that diocese—not throughout Australia, but in that diocese. It is the most active diocese in Australia, perhaps in the world.
The diocese held its synod meeting with delegates from all the various parishes on 11 October. During that meeting various resolutions were passed and one resolution, numbered 21/00, was passed unanimously by the 538 members of the synod. None voted against it. I understand it is almost without precedent for a motion to have no dissenting votes.
The Hon. D. J. Gay: Anglicans do not very often agree.
Reverend the Hon. F. J. NILE: That is right. There are usually various points of view. In this case they voted unanimously in favour of that motion as follows:
Synod—
(a) notes with concern the New South Wales Law Reform Commission's proposals for reform of the Anti-Discrimination Act; and
(b) calls on the Premier, the Attorney General and Parliament of New South Wales to respect the principle of 'freedom of religion', and reject those of the Commission's proposals which will detract from the exercise of that freedom in New South Wales; and
(c) requests parish councils, schools, other diocesan organisations and individuals to write to their local Member of Parliament expressing their concern about these proposals.
The diocese has written to all members of Parliament and I trust that by now honourable members have received that correspondence, attached to which was a 13-page detailed submission concerning the New South Wales Law Reform Commission proposals for the reform of the antidiscrimination law in New South Wales. I urge honourable members to carefully study that submission. The submission was based on the advice of lawyers and other very highly qualified legal people, including a number of judges who are Anglicans and members of the synod, who assisted by giving legal advice on these matters.
Some honourable members may consider this an exaggeration, but I believe there is genuine concern that potentially every religious group and religious school will be detrimentally affected by the proposals. Religious groups will lose the ability to discriminate in relation to the provision of religious services. For example, a Christian church will no longer be able to refuse to give Holy Communion to a non-member; churches are likely to stop community groups from using their property; and freedom of association will be detrimentally affected if the proposals are implemented by the Government. We hope the Government will not implement the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission; that it will regard them as being too radical or containing implications that would affect freedom of religion; and that it will reject them. That is the desire of the Anglican Synod and of many other churches in this State. It is certainly the desire of the Christian Democratic Party.
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