Discrimination by Religious Schools: Views from the Coal Face

Abstract

There is much debate surrounding the application of exemptions from anti-discrimination legislation for religious schools. This article seeks to discover the views of a wide cross-section of religious schools, and organisations which play a role in administering or guiding those schools, with regard to the current state of anti-discrimination laws in Australia. It presents a number of different views on anti-discrimination laws and examines how these attitudes affect policy and decision-making processes in religious schools. The article contributes to the current debate by demonstrating that there is no single cohesive viewpoint held by the religious schools sector. Rather, the sector is shown to be a highly heterogeneous one.

Keywords: anti-discrimination, reglious schools

JEL Classification: K00, K19, K39