The Leftists are "removing that parental choice", and attacking the family: the hallmark of communism.

Whether Australia can avoid full-blown communism is up to voters. But given that our ridiculous preferential voting system has seen an extreme Left government in power with less than a third of the primary vote; the apathetic acceptance of that, and the moribund Opposition, our future freedoms are on the line.

However, parents are more likely to desire escape from wokness and sexual perversions for their children than they are interested in a "higher authority”. Given that the 'authority' is more and more scorned in Australia, any mention of it is like a red rag to a bull to the extreme Leftists making the rules these days.

The more Christians talk about their faith, the harder the Left will come for them. Let concerned parents concentrate on a better education as the reason for escaping the brainwashing factories of the Leftist state.

Softly, softly is the way to go, and prayer for a rout of current politicians.

Support totally, faith schools hiring faith staff. Oppose, them simultaneously getting very similar public funding to non-faith schools.

Which latter can't get massive parent top-ups, have to take all on comers, can't hire and fire staff or students as they please, and so on.

As clear as anything, the organised-religion racket is linked to two-tier education for two-tier outcomes. As clear as anything, they reckon us heathens ought to butt out and look the other way. We never will.

PS: I might have a bit more sympathy, if religious schools didn't brainwash kids with climate change and identity politics. But many do.

Disagree, it's a good thing to remove the brainwashing that many faith-based schools' practise.

And the root cause of much conflict and bloodbaths.

Parents can still inculcate their kids and send them to Sunday school. I see no real issue here.
Alan B.

I believe that one goal of schools should be the encouraging of the ability to reason. I also believe that faith is an enemy to reason and will shrivel and die if subjected to reason. However, in a democratic society, we have the right to reject reason, but students are deprived if they do not have the knowledge that it exists.

Not true Steve S, my lady & I established & ran the text book hire scheme for our nearest state high school P&C association for over a decade. With a lot of help from other parents, but very little from teachers, we put an average of $160.000PA into the schools budget. This was only one of the fund raising efforts by local parents. We have found brainwashing is much more prolific at state schools in our experience.

Interestingly my kids went through that school, requiring considerable home effort & private coaching to make up for the many deficient teachers the education department & union imposed on them.

All of them are now paying for faith based schools for my grand kids, although none of them are members of the faith of the schools they are attending. They are at these schools to avoid the lousy teaching standards they suffered at that state school, & for the better behavior standards these schools insist on. Only someone with no recent experience could prefer state schools for their kids.

Typical dishonest offering re so called faith based "education" and culture altogether.

All "education" whether secular or so called faith based is political in its methods, goals and outcomes.

To claim that "faith" based education is based on appeal to a "higher authority" is a political gambit, especially (perhaps) when the author brings out the usual right-wing religious gambit about the perils of neo-Marxism.

Notice too that the author appeals to this higher authority as a male deity.
Rather than using the manipulative word faith it would be more honest if the proponents of such a gambit used the words religious beliefs, because that is what they are - mere beliefs.
Beliefs about what we are as human beings and the nature of Reality altogether which are quite childish, even infantile. Mommy-daddy beliefs were formulated long ago in the child-hood era of human beings, most of which are no longer tenable, and were (at best) only partially true.

Using the word faith explicitly implies that the proponents of such should enjoy special privileges not available to religious non-believers.

Of course there are many and varied version of religious beliefs which quite often contradict each other even within the same tradition. Beliefs which have historically and now in present-time too been the source of very deadly political conflicts - and very deadly conflicts to come too.
Are the religious beliefs of a Christian compatible with those of a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist etc etc? Which tells us that all mere religious beliefs are culture bound and quite often xenophobic in the nature and political intentions.

I wrote this before I read the other posts.
Quote: The state does not determine what is good and what is evil.
I disagree.
That is exactly what it does.
And it makes laws to prevent the exercise of 'evil'.
By 'evil' we mean actions which seriously harm or disadvantage people?
For there is no naturally occurring good or evil.
There is no naturally occurring right or wrong.
Events are just that. Events.
How they affect us is how we catergorise them.
Something which happens might advantage one, but disadvantage another.
And the effect can change over time.
So it is not fixed.
And we have no rights.
We have needs which must be met if we are to survive.
Some will refer to these needs as 'rights'.
Long ago societies relied on Sun Gods and Stone Statues, and Witches and Spells.
All aimed at controlling the populace, and making use of superstition mixed with fear.
It worked.
And that was faith based living.
But we are wiser now.
Time to rid ourselves of those things.

I could have added that schools are places where children learn the skills necessary to live well in society.
Such as language, the ability to read, write, reason, interact with with others in a positive way, and so on.
They can explore their own strengths and weaknesses intellectually, and in sport too if they so wish.
Everything they are taught should be truthful, logical, and thought provoking.
I don't see it as a place to be fed a diet of religion.
Religion is, by its very nature, a dictatorship, and not open to reason.
That is at variance with the way children should be taught.
It seems to me that religious schools provide a means of indoctrinating young minds with religious ideas, whilst at the same time being paid to do so.
That is a win-win situation for them if ever there was one.
But it is not so good for society at large.

Terry's article claims that the proposed reforms will remove the "faith" from faith-based schools. But if you look at the proposed recommendations in the discussion paper, they actually say the opposite:

"In relation to selection, appointment, and promotion, religious educational institutions should be able to preference staff based on the staff member’s religious belief or activity, where this is justified."

What the recommendations do propose is to limit the capacity of schools to discriminate against staff, and more particularly students, if their lifestyles do not conform to the school’s interpretation of its religion’s moral code. So they cannot expel a student whose parents are in a same-sex relationship, or ban a trans student from being school captain. They cannot refuse to recruit a teacher because they are gay, but can require them to teach their interpretation of their religion’s take on homosexuality (with some caveats).

I don’t agree with all the recommendations, but in general I think they get the hierarchy of priorities right. The welfare and rights of students are paramount. Staff have almost the same protections against discrimination as employees in other organisations, with some concessions to the unique nature of faith-based schools. Schools can preference recruiting staff of their nominated faith where this is justified.

Where I disagree with the recommendations is that they should allow for some exemptions, but with this caveat. If a school really does want the right to refuse to hire a gay teacher, it should be able to. But it should not receive a skerrick of government funding or other concessions (e.g. grants and local government rates concessions) commonly given to private schools and not-for profit organisations. If it unwilling to conform to society’s basic standards of decency, it should not expect society to subsidise its activities.

If they want to get rid of religious brainwashing then they must also get rid of idealistic Leftist brainwashing.
Fair's fair !

I celebrate the removing of 'faith' from all education. The blind adherence to a mythological being created by man to control others. Let's celebrate and applaud the teaching of logic and science over 'faith'.

As for this little paragraph ...

"... The teachers and staff of faith-based schools embody the essence of their schools. They emulate the philosophy, beliefs and practices of their faith in their schools. They live by its teachings, they pass on the treasures of their faith in their words and by their lives. They are the living embodiment of the faith they teach..."

What an example 'faith' has set. All those wars, hatred, inhumanity to each other, discrimination. A wonderful example and a tradition to be continued indeed ... me definitely thinks not.

Go tell the wolf to stop eating lambs and eat grass instead...

How naive can the author be for asking,
«The Commonwealth should reject the ALRC’s deplorable attempt to destroy Australia’s faith-based schools. In terms of a “fair go”...»

States are there to serve their own interests, not mine, yours or God's.
They will by their very nature try to oppress and prevent any competition to their power. They don't want anyone else, including even God, to influence their subjects/victims.

It may well could be that the state attempts to remove faith from faith-based schools. Should that happen, then these schools will simply move underground, or an open war may ensue, for life or death. That would not be the first time in history when people of faith are tested harshly to prove their dedication to God above all.

We need to remove Communism from western society- this means that we need to work together to support institutions that favour Traditionalist principles against the "Communist evil". Churches need to deny support to harmful organisations and members unless they repent. Libertarian's need to stop selling and buying from organisations and nations that use their relationship to destroy themselves and other Traditionalist organisations. Allied organisations will work better as a fist if they support each other against woke communist organisations reforming them from Communism. The starting point should be universities, schools, media, health. Communist woke organisations have seized the monopoly over virtue- this like the tree is false truth. We need to expose and shame the narcissistic Communists and foreign entities that hijack our public spaces to take back the power that is ours by right in our communities.

We need to explicitly disempower communists as part of the hiring within western institutions- leaf, branch, trunk, and root. But Human Resources/ People And Culture seem to be infested with Communist principles within employment infrastructure.

Often bigotry in hiring seems to use possibility is probability tactics- such as in pro-gay bigotry.

Traditionalist's need to educate, research and make themselves aware of communist woke stratey, tactics and propaganda- and why it works on the hearts and minds of normal local well meaning people. In counter intelligence the best weapon is the truth- but there are many truths and sometimes you need to present your own truth. Your enemies will try to present their own truth as the official authoritarian truth- don't be fooled

The reason the Communists are winning is because we empower them using our power against ourselves- in everything we do we need to think how can we help the communists less- if you don't fight they will come for you and your children- and you will be holding the wheel as your ancestors legacy is wiped from history on your cowardly watch.

God will not forgive you for giving in to Satan. You cannot hide your guilt by putting your head in the sand- because you should know and see the evil taking over the community- and you allowed it to happen! What if the good samaritan gives the sword to the killer?

In my opinion communism is an unreal bogeyman in our society that is used to get people excited. The communists I have met were often idealistic individuals who wanted the world to be a better place. The communists in a communist society are members of the party who are interested in their own advancement. They are the upper class in those societies according to Milovan Djilas. He proposed that the party-state officials formed a class which "uses, enjoys and disposes of nationalised property".

Those who benefit from the unfairness in our society may try to discredit those who protest that unfairness by calling them communists. Those who suffer from the unfairness in our society may be duped into joining in with their oppressors.

Dear Hasbeen,

You said: "All of them are now paying for faith based schools for my grand kids, although none of them are members of the faith of the schools they are attending."

That is the nub of it.

Over a third of our kids are in faith based education now. What is being proposed is that all the teachers must either have or adopt a faith base to teach in them. But it is not a prerequisite for your grandkids. What is it was? What would you do then?

Dear SteeleRedux,

«What is being proposed is that all the teachers must either have or adopt a faith base to teach in them.»

Nobody proposes that.

All private schools should be able to hire their staff as they please,
but it does not mean that most of them actually would.
Schools that will act insensibly or fanatically, will lose both their children and any public funding, so they will go broke.
Most schools, in all likelihood will insist on having religious teachers only for religion classes, also that non-religious teachers will keep their views about religion to themselves and not confuse the students with anti-religious teachings.