On Thursday, 23 May at 7:30 for 8 pm, Dr Ken Harvey, public health physician, will speak on

Complimentary medicines:

rational choice or regulatory failure

to the Humanist Society of Victoria meeting at the Balwyn Library, 336 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, (Melway map ref 46 E 8), 7:30 pm (chat, tea and biscuits) for 8 pm start.

Enquiries: ph. (03) 9857 8318. Entry by donation … HG

Editorial: Predators on the biosphere

Tom Burgess: Engaging kids in their community, reported by Jennie Stuart

Harry Gardner: The priest and the Humanist

Halina Strnad: The fourth estate

On Thursday, 25 April at 8 pm, Dr Paul Tonson of the Nunawading Uniting Church spoke on

Equal Marriage:

Statistics and Sexuality

to the Humanist Society of Victoria meeting at the Balwyn Library, 336 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn, (Melway map ref 46 E 8), 7:30 pm (chat, tea and biscuits) for 8 pm start. More …

Enquiries: ph. (03) 9857 8318. Entry by donation … HG

The 2013 Convention meets in Sydney, 3 – 6 May; For programme and contact details see What’s On!

Today the Victorian Supreme Court Court of Appeals has dismissed our request for an appeal against discrimination being caused by special religious instruction in Victorian Government schools. More and More

The judges comment that

(a) “the public interest element in the case has largely been resolved by changes in departmental policy which have resulted in SRI now being provided on an opt-in basis, [and]

(b) there is no longer any prohibition on offering an ethics course to children who do not participate in SRI”.

For those readers who wish to study the matter further the Case notes by Kaitlyn Gulle on the Human Rights issues are very relevant. – HG and JR

     From the left. Our anti-discrimination case was at VCAT, King Street, Melbourne, before Mr Justice Timothy Ginnane with Ms Melinda Richards, counsel for the complainants, and Ms Rowena Orr, counsel for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (pix from FOI Solutions and Vicbar, respectively).

Timothy Ginnane

Melinda Richards

Rowena Orr

Today, 9 March 2012, concluded the seven-day hearing in which parents took the Department of Education & Early Childhood Development to the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). They claimed their children suffered detriment,

(i)           by being identified as different and separated from their classmates when christian special religious instruction classes took place, and

(ii)           from lack of instruction in the past.

The single judge took evidence from three parents, the principals of the three primary schools involved and seventeen of their teachers, and a spokesperson of the Education Department.

Victorian government schools are nominally secular. Special religious instruction (sri) during school hours was instituted as an exception in 1950. This is the first time that its administration by the Education Department has been challenged in a court of law.

Since sri is not a compulsory subject, parents may withdraw their child. But segregation by religion is incomprehensible to young children. Some are disturbed by being identified as atheist. The activities permitted to non-participating students during sri have been circumscribed by Departmental policy, and some opting-out parents feel cheated. A parent told the Tribunal, “I still don’t know if I made the right decision!” Teachers gave assurance that independent activities like silent reading were meaningful learning.

In July and August 2011, when the case was at an earlier stage, the Education Department suddenly changed its regulations, ordering school principals to make sri an opt-in system and permitting opted-out students to receive ‘non-core’ secular instruction. That was a sensible reform.

However, no new resources for schools are being provided. The new policy still forces parents to make a choice of a religious nature, requires schools to open their doors to any accredited religious provider, and fails to ensure instruction for students who don’t participate in sri.

On the Department’s side it was argued that separation into sri streams was logically necessary, since the subject was not compulsory, and that separation was not necessarily detrimental. The christian provider has recently made its syllabus more attractive with the claim that it ‘builds on’ Victorian Essential Learning Standards, which make up the core curriculum set by Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority.

On the matter of forcing parents to choose sri or not, the Department argued that Equal Opportunity Acts exempted this action from unlawful discrimination, because it was ‘authorized’ under the Education Act, and further that it was no infringement of religion or belief. The judge remarked that it did force parents to declare their choice when they might prefer privacy. When the Department repeated that no freedom had been limited, the judge detected a degree of coercion; the Department disagreed.

The parents submitted that the Education Department should acknowledge the discrimination against the parents’ children and that it should refrain from continuing to discriminate. The parents requested that the Department require instruction to be provided to students who do not attend sri, where sri is conducted during normal school hours.

The parents also raised the possibility of staging sri out of normal school hours, which would solve the problem of discrimination. One principal said that there would then be no need for teacher supervision, because the school’s direct duty of care finished with school hours. The Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission advised the Tribunal that the issue of discrimination would be cured simply by interpreting the Education Act in accordance with human rights.

The judge reserved his judgment. When the judgment is known, the Humanist Society plans to hold a public forum on religion and ethics in State schools.

Stephen Stuart, president

 [HSV mr090312]

 On Friday 25 November, 9:15 am, the ethics of the participants in Banjo Paterson’s song, Waltzing Matilda, was discussed at the regular meeting of the philosophy club, Plato and Biscuits, at The Wattle Club centre, Underwood Street, Ferntree Gully. Little would Paterson have realised the issues that he had raised: squatting on someone else’s land, stealing and eating animals, invoking the law and suicide. And what would people from distant cultures think? It all took two and a half hours of intense discussion initiated by the puppet show and lesson from the Humanist Society of Victoria ethics manual.

All this in a song that many Australian’s wanted to be the national anthem. – HG

 ”There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip.” Greek and English proverb

It was great to read in The Age of two months ago that the National Chaplaincy program was being extended to permit schools to hire secular counsellors who would not proselytise their children, but, since it seemed too good to be true, we wrote to Minister Garrett (left) asking who would administer the program. The reply on 15 October (see Response 1) was not 100% reassuring and now on the grapevine we are hearing that the word ‘secular’ is quietly dropped and that the existing religion providers, ACCESS ministries, Chaplaincy Australia, GenR8 Ministries, Schools Ministry Group, Scripture Union, etc will administer the formerly ‘secular’ program.

Can we find a suitable secular agency to suggest to the Minister before the decision is announced as a fait accompli?

And furthermore do we need to think about what could happen behind the scenes as the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority gets influenced to link ethics with religion in the proposed national curriculum? - HG