Australia: most liveable for whom?

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The Australian city of Melbourne has recently been voted as the world’s most liveable city for the fourth year in a row. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual liveability survey had Melbourne leading the top 10 cities, which also included Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Adelaide, Calgary, Sydney, Helsinki, Perth, and Auckland.
Indeed, Melbourne is certainly an easy city to live in from a material perspective according to the survey’s criteria: healthcare, education, stability, culture and environment and infrastructure. In matters of Christian faith, however, there are a number of challenges which are not considered by the liveability survey.
The Council for Christian Education in Schools, also known as Access Ministries, runs Christian Special Religious Instruction (SRI) on behalf of 12 denominations using volunteer instructors in the state of Victoria’s government schools. In 2011, religious instructors were present in 70 per cent of public primary schools in Victoria. This number has declined in recent years in the face of a relentless campaign – at times resembling a witch-hunt – by lobby groups determined to drive all religious instruction from state schools. Though Christian groups face the greatest challenge in this way, they are not alone among the faiths; other faith communities also participate in parallel religious instruction programs, though to a lesser degree, reflecting their smaller numbers.
Another area of concern for many Christians relates to the abortion debate. Statistics suggest that around one third of Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime. In 2008, the then Victorian State Labor Government passed the Abortion Law Reform Act, decriminalising abortion and opening up abortion clinics in Victoria for women who are up to 24 weeks pregnant. Abortion after 24 weeks is legal, but isn't commonly performed. The incoming conservative coalition government elected in 2010 was divided on the question of abortion and during its term in power anti-abortion activists among its members were unable to wind back the Abortion Law Reform Act.
On 29 November, Victorian State elections were held for both houses, resulting in a strong swing to centre-left parties. The incoming Labor government under Premier-elect Daniel Andrews has signalled that there will be some tough times ahead for people of faith.
During its last term of office, and during the recent electoral campaign, the Victorian Labor Party indicated that it planned to amend equal opportunity legislation if it won back power to make it harder for religious organisations to discriminate against employees on the basis of their faith and sexual orientation. Labor is proposing to remove existing exemptions for Christian and other faith-based schools.
In a recent demonstration of unity, Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Coptic, Lutheran, and Presbyterian leaders expressed strong opposition to Labor’s intended restrictions on employment in religious organisations. This is likely to be the beginning of an ongoing struggle.
Although the incoming Labor government will be able to govern comfortably in its own right, it will be able to count on the support of several members of both lower and upper houses from minor parties as it pursues its policies on religious matters. The Victorian Greens won their first ever seat in the lower house, supplementing their existing three seats in the upper house. One of the latter, Member of the Legislative Council Sue Pennicuik, declared in July 2014: “Public schools are secular and so religious proselytising and distribution of religious material has no place.” The Christian Special Religious Instruction activities in government schools look like being under even more scrutiny and pressure in years to come.
In a development which most Christians in Victoria consider an embarrassment, the recent elections also witnessed success for the Sex Party, which won a seat in the Legislative Council. The elected member, Fiona Patten, called for the abolition of tax breaks for religious organisations, declaring that “Organised religion … runs gambling, bookshops, real estate and other businesses that are exempt from taxation simply because they claim some link to a higher being, encourage people to take up prayer and generally ‘advance religion’.” The party wants to expand age-appropriate sex education in schools, decriminalise cannabis for personal use, strengthen freedom of information laws, and increase people's right to privacy.
The coming years will determine whether Melbourne proves to be as “liveable” for people of faith as it supposedly is for those of no faith.

This article first appeared in "Evangelicals Now", January 2015, p10.




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