General News
7 June, 2026
In good faith
IN GOOD FAITH: During the last week, a report was tabled in parliament house titled “The Australian Christian Freedom Index 2025”.
Numbering 108 pages and co-authored by the Human Rights Law Alliance, its contents make disturbing reading.
The most striking summary that it presents is that restrictions on Christian freedoms in Australia have tripled in the past five years, with now seventy-four acts of parliament designed to restrict the expression of Christian faith.
I would strongly encourage everyone, especially anyone who is in any way involved in politics, to download and read this report.
It is freely available from www.australianchristianfreedomindex.org.au.
This study into attitudes and incidents was informed by 10,808 survey respondents across the entire of Australia.
The responses, when considered together, paint an unmistakable picture of a nation whose laws and attitudes are marching slowly but surely toward becoming a country that is increasingly persecuting of those who follow the Christian faith and Godly standards.
There seems to have been a universal failure of government at every level to recognise that religion, with worldview, are essential to human existence.
There also seems to be a near complete disregard by our law-makers of article 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Australia is a signatory, which says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance” and in the case of federal government, article 116 of the Australian constitution, “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.”
Currently, the most hostile and restrictive state towards Christianity is Victoria, with the least being the Northern Territory and Western Australia, although all states and territories are, to some degree, guilty of this shift.
The report documented in detail forty cases of Christians being penalised under various state and federal laws for expressing their Christian faith.
Undoubtedly there are many more, as 25%, or 2,700 respondents, reported having experienced being marginalised or treated unfairly because of their faith, and three quarters of respondents reporting having been pressured to ‘keep their faith to themselves’.
It seems that many of the laws currently being misused may have been originally introduced to provide remedies to ‘bona-fide’ misdeeds but are now being abused and misused by certain interest groups for the purpose of intimidating Christians into silence and crushing those who do dare to speak out.
The report graded the incidents using an eight-stage scale called ‘Brobbel’s persecution scale.’
It ranks the stages of persecution from minor to major, being 1-redicule, 2-harassment, 3-discrimination, 4-defamation, 5-attack, 6-arrest/imprisonment, 7-torture and 8-martyrdom. Very sadly, the report identified Australia as having reached stage 5 of the scale.
In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, we read the parable of the vineyard. In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a man who set up a vineyard.
He made it attractive, fully equipped with the necessary buildings and a garden hedge around its perimeter.
He then rented it out have to some people and went away on a journey. At the right time, when the rent was due, he sent his servant to collect what was owing to him. Instead of paying, the occupants of the vineyard beat the servant up and sent him away.
The owner kept sending more servants but with the same result each time, with some being sent back beaten up and others being killed. Finally, he sent his own son.
When the son arrived, he too was murdered. In this parable, Jesus is describing the state of the world prior to His own coming, and how He Himself would be treated.
But the parable also reveals the state of the human heart and the nature of the world within which Christ’s followers find themselves.
Sadly, the state of the world seems not to have changed all that much, and the followers of Christ are still being seen and treated in much the same way.
Major persecution of the Christian Church has become a severe problem in many parts of the world, and we certainly do not want to see Australia going down the same path as China, North Korea, Nigeria, or many such others.
I would encourage everyone to download and read this report and to pray that parliament would seriously consider its information and recommendations. It may well be that the future of our nation, for everyone, will depend upon it.
CONTRIBUTED by David Young