Sydney Atheists

Dear Sydney Atheists, Picture this: you’re a highly-skilled, well-respected teacher with excellent career prospects, moving up through the ranks of the Catholic education system. Your manager says you’re ready to take up a position as school principal and encourages you to apply for the prestigious position. Feeling excited and proud, you get your paperwork ready for the application. Then you chat to a colleague who you know will have an influential say in selecting the successful candidate. “Don’t bother,” she says. “You’re a divorced woman, living with a new partner. That’s what we call a ‘compromised relationship.’”

This is a true story. It happened in Melbourne recently. As sadly predicted, the highly-qualified teacher didn’t get the principal position despite being eminently suitable. She shared her story with us as a powerful example of how religious discrimination already exists within Australia. If the Religious Discrimination Bill passes, religious organisations including schools and hospitals will have even greater powers to discriminate against those who do not meet or agree with the strict tenets of some particular faith. A religious school could refuse to hire a teacher, gardener, accountant or tuckshop manager unless they produced a reference from the local religious organisation as evidence of their faith. The laws would override all federal, state and territory anti-discrimination laws, as well as work health and safety laws, meaning all laws which currently protect people from discrimination would be compromised. There’s a lot happening in the world at the moment – but these laws are still on the government’s agenda. We need your support to ensure this divisive bill is soundly rejected. Please share this campaign and tell us your story if you have experienced religious discrimination. Thank you for supporting an Australia free from divisive discrimination.