‘Crunch point’ on religious freedom: Catholic schools and hospitals may close, warns Anthony Fisher

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, has raised the prospect of withdrawing educational services as happened in the landmark 1962 Goulburn school strike.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher. Picture: Nikki Short

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, has warned the church will be forced to consider closing religious schools if the government strips them of the ability to preference the employment of teachers supportive of Christian teachings.

Archbishop Fisher, one of the nation’s most senior Catholic leaders, declared more radical ­actions could be needed in ­response to the infringement of religious liberties, and raised the prospect of withdrawing educational services as happened in the landmark 1962 Goulburn school strike.

He told The Weekend Australian on Friday the closure of Catholic schools should be considered “if we were told we were not allowed to take religion into account in who we employ, or in the ethos of our schools, which is quite a push at the moment”.

“So there’s an example of, I think, a crunch point that would force us to consider withdrawal from a ministry,” Archbishop Fisher said.

Catholic school closures would risk overwhelming the public system, with National Catholic Eduction Commission figures showing there were more than 800,000 students being educated at more than 1750 Catholic schools across the country.

Archbishop Fisher also suggested that Catholic hospitals could be forced to consider similar ­action if they were required to ­perform abortions or other procedures that were “deeply troubling ethically”. He noted the Church had “pulled out of adoption in many countries because they weren’t allowed to choose a married couple as the parents”. But he made clear he was not supporting such an approach for the time being, acknowledging it was risky and could “easily backfire.”

The threshold point for more radical moves would be triggered if the government removed the ­protections for religious schools around the hiring of teachers, with Labor facing warnings its draft ­religious discrimination reforms would do exactly this.

Faith-based educators are in open revolt against draft laws that would remove section 38 of the Sex Discrimination Act which contains exemptions allowing schools to preference teachers who share the same spiritual ethos as the school. New protections would be ­inserted into a separate Religious Discrimination Act but faith-based educators say they are ­insufficient. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference this week warned that, under Labor’s draft package, “we would go a long way backwards.”

The government is struggling to establish a bipartisan consensus around its reforms, with negotiations this week breaking down ­between Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, and opposition legal ­affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash. Senator Cash has requested that the draft legislation, part of an election commitment by Anthony Albanese, be released publicly, amid growing expectations the issue will be shelved indefinitely given the impasse.

Speaking earlier this year, the Prime Minister said the government wanted to amend the Sex Discrimination Act and introduce legislation about religious discrimination. He said the government wanted to ensure “respect for ­people, regardless of who they are (and) their sexuality, but also ­respect for people to be able to have religious liberty and to express their faith.”

Mr Albanese said the reform needed bipartisan support, because “I don’t want this to be an issue in which we go through the old culture wars.”

Archbishop Fisher told The Weekend Australian on Friday that school closures would need to be seen as an “ultimate” or “last-resort” option if Catholic educators lost their protections on staff hiring decisions. But he vowed that any moves by the government in this direction would certainly lead the church to embark on a “big campaign of one kind or another”.

In an address to the Sydney Catholic Business Network on Friday, Archbishop Fisher revealed he was hearing suggestions the church should “do another Goulburn” – a reference to the closure in 1962 of six Catholic schools in the Goulburn area that resulted in the public system being flooded. This was the pivotal factor in the Menzies government’s adoption of state aid for independent schools. While Archbishop Fisher was not “in favour of fleeing to the caves, at least not yet”, he said that “sometimes strategic withdrawal is in order, especially to repair and regroup”.

“Some have suggested we should ‘do another Goulburn’ and close our ministries in protest against cultural, legal and governmental interference,” he said. “But you don’t get to play that card too often, and the strategy can easily backfire. It would also rob the community of needed services.”

Archbishop Fisher said more conventional approaches needed to be exhausted to defend religious protections as being in the best interests of individuals and society. “Australia has never incorporated the provisions of religious freedom into federal domestic law,” he said.

“Many social commentators agree that religion is increasingly under attack in Australia. This slide in the culture may incline us to gloom. But it can also serve as a wake-up call – a reminder that religious freedom cannot be taken for granted and a catalyst for us to do something about it.”

In his address, Archbishop Fisher sketched out a ­future in which a “Greens-teals coalition” helped to abolish faith-based hospitals, remove the charitable status of religious welfare providers and charge bureaucrats with appointing Catholic school principals. While this vision was “exaggerated as a provocation”, he questioned whether it was completely implausible.