A very disturbing issue has just arisen in a paper on religious freedom in Australia just released by the Human Rights section of the Federal Attorney generals department.

In summary I quote from the document,

"Australian law offers very little protection for freedom of religion and belief and only limited protection against discrimination on the basis of religion and belief. There are few constitutional constraints on the Commonwealth and none on the States (except Tasmania) to prevent actions which limit or even prohibit the freedom of Australians to profess and practise the religions and beliefs of their choice.

Freedom of religion and belief in Australia largely depends on the goodwill of governments and of the majority of the population and not on legal protections. The rights and freedoms contained in the UN Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (the Declaration) form part of the definition of 'human rights' for the purposes of the work and functions of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (the Commission) but that does not ensure effective remedies."

Australian Pagans have traditionally relied on section 116 of the Australian Constitution to support their religious rights. This paper and opinion shows very clearly that that reliance is seriously flawed.

The full text of the paper may be found here.

This is a must read for all Pagans in Australia and a suggested read for all others.

We have opportunity to provide response to this paper and I invite all interested persons to email me so that the Pagan position can be put.

Leif Njordsson
Warder of the Lore
The Asatru Kindred of Australasia
[email protected]