Freedoms taken for granted are being radically re-shaped and most of us are largely oblivious.



If elected on November 29, Victorian Labor is vowing to strip religious schools and organisations of the freedom to select staff who share their ethos.



This is akin to saying a political party should no longer have the right to employ people who share their political philosophy.



It means human rights bureaucrats and courts would determine the employment policies of religious communities.

This is a breach of the human right of religious freedom.



Even the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees religious freedom and the right of parents to educate their children in the religion of their choice.



Many religious schools and organisations value the freedom to require all staff, not just those with religious roles, to be adherents to their religion.



This helps create the environment that gives the school or organisation its distinctive.



Parents value this in schools because they know that their children will be in an environment where everyone from the gardener to the maths teacher share and manifest the values of the home.



This is a precious freedom to so many people and its application hurts no one else in society.



It is not for a government to take away this freedom.



Freedom of religion is closely linked to freedom of association.



Governments should not be dictating the make up of groups who wish to freely associate unless of course there are national security implications.



Requiring the person answering the phone to be a Muslim is the right of an Islamic school in the same way it is the right of a Christian school.



Already 1500 ACL supporters have emailed Mr Andrews and Labor candidates urging them to re-think the policy.

If you live in Victoria and have not yet taken action, please do so.



Still on Victorian politics, it was good to hear the federal Attorney General George Brandis say last week he was "unalterably opposed" to the anti-conscience provisions in Victoria's abortion laws.



Victorian and Tasmanian abortion laws compel a medical practitioner to refer a woman for an abortion, even if they are opposed to the taking of human life in this way.



"It is wrong for the state to violate the conscience of a man or a woman," Senator Brandis told a religious freedom conference organised by Freedom for Faith at the University of Queensland Law School last week.

Kevin Donnelly is a prominent commentator on education issues in Australia.



He has expressed concern about Christianity being undermined by the new national curriculum. This is a concern ACL shares.



We commend this election piece he has written for the Quadrant website. He also has a website for his education think tank, the Education Standards Institute.



In the Quadrant piece, he makes strong criticisms of the Government’s new funding model for schools. Readers should be aware that the model is extremely complex and that there are differing views in the faith-based education sector on whether or not it is better.



The independent Christian school sector is generally happy with the new model and believes its schools will be no worse off than the model it replaces. The decision to fund schools’ additional needs, such as those for disabled students, will make some Christian schools better off under the new model.

One of the groups representing independent Christian schools is Associated Christian Schools in Queensland.



Their executive officer Lynne Doneley has put together a federal election statement which parents of children in Christian schools may be interested to read.



Click here to read the article.



A key question Lynne explores in a very thoughtful way is what is the primary purpose of education? Is just to prepare kids for a job, or is there a high purpose?