Religious schools ‘face existential threat’

Faith-based schools say they face an existential threat if their legal protections are removed.

Avril Howard, principal of Lighthouse Christian College in Keysborough, southeast Melbourne: ‘Any form of discrimination (is) evil — it’s ­abhorrent’. Picture: David Geraghty

Faith-based schools say they face an existential threat if their legal protections are removed and are demanding Scott Morrison immediately ­release a long-awaited review into religious freedoms.

Avril Howard, principal of the Lighthouse Christian College in Melbourne, said the removal of key exemptions from the Sex Discrimination Act would put at risk the ability of schools to provide a faith-based education.

The intervention came as a Senate inquiry examined whether the exemptions should be removed because they give religious schools the ability to discriminate against gay students and teachers.

Ms Howard said the exemptions were not used by the Lighthouse Christian College to discriminate against gay students or teachers, but provided legal certainty for faith-based educators.

She said the government should release the review of religious freedoms led by former ­attorney-general Philip Ruddock.

Moving to Australia in 1989 after growing up as a “so-called coloured girl” in apartheid South Africa, Ms Howard said removal of exemptions in the Sex Discrimin­ation Act could see faith-based edu­cators “taken to task” for their values and beliefs.

She said she would “have to say ‘yes’ to the existing exemptions remaining in the absence of anything else” because faith-based educators could be legally exposed for having a “respectful conversation” about their religious ethos and values.

“Having faced what I did in South Africa, I would hate to experience on religious grounds anything similar … Not only is any form of discrimination evil — it’s ­abhorrent. And I’d hate to see … that we would have to face any form of discrimination on ­religious grounds.”

Erik Hofsink, principal of ­Emmaus Christian School in Canberra, said the consequences of removing the exemptions could leave educators to their “own de­vices to defend ourselves against activists that may have sinister agendas with schools like ours”.

He said the exemptions were problematic because they were framed in a “negative way” that ­allowed schools the ability to discriminate in some circumstances instead of upholding the ability of faith-based educators to employ staff who “fit our school’s beliefs and religious convictions best”.

“With the loss of religious freedom in this context, there will not be a reason for Christian schools to exist any further … In fact, we have to change our faith for the sake of culture. That’s going to be a hard one to swallow.”

Annette Pereira, executive officer of the Australian Association of Christian Schools, told yesterday’s hearing she was “concerned about the impact legislative changes may have on the viability of faith-based schools … Hurried legislation in response to media coverage of false claims about the expulsion of students from faith-based schools could compromise the ability of our schools to continue being the unique educational option they are.”

Mark Spencer, executive officer policy at Christian Schools Australia, told the hearing: “Fundamentally we are here because of a lie — a claim faith-based schools are expelling gay students and that the government wants to expand that right. This is simply not true.”