Australian Group Exposes Infringements of Non secular Freedom
An Australian Christian advocacy organization has launched a database and released a report exposing infringements on Christians’ religious freedom in the country.
According to Christian Daily International, the group, the Canberra Declaration, “on March 11 launched the Australian Christian Freedom Index (ACFI) with a 40-page report on anti-Christian currents in 2025.”
The site continues:
The launch of the index and the report were part of a webinar in which key Christian leaders and legal experts mapped religious discrimination across Australia….
The leaders intend to build a database of hard evidence and survey results to illustrate how the state restricts Christian freedoms. They plan to present the document to politicians and the media as evidence that Australian Christians face rising discrimination.
A central concern involves the “rule of silence,” in which Christians endure pressure to keep their faith private, especially regarding issues such as gender, parenting and education, said George Christensen, a former member of Parliament representing CitizenGO.
[Kurt] Mahlburg noted that the group is auditing state laws following incidents of the state forcing Christian schools to hire staff members who do not share the institutions’ religious beliefs. He also cited cases of laws compelling medical workers to participate in abortion and euthanasia, alongside restrictions on street preaching near abortion clinics.
Mahlburg and other leaders of the Canberra Declaration intend to use the database to pressure members of Australia’s state-level parliaments to enact more-robust protections of religious freedom. Importantly, Australia lacks strong protections of religious freedom, meaning that little stands in the way of elected officials restricting Christians’ ability to practice their faith freely:
While the United States relies on the First Amendment, Mahlburg observed that Australia offers only small “exemptions” rather than strong rights.
“What strikes me is that in Australia, we really don’t have religious freedom explicitly protected in law, not robustly,” Mahlburg said….
“In the last couple of decades, federal and state governments have brought in anti-discrimination and vilification legislation,” Mahlburg said. “Christian freedom in Australia has become a series of ‘carve-outs’ or exemptions in other laws…. Structurally, the situation in Australia is not good.”
The situation in Australia illustrates the importance of maintaining robust structural protections of limited government and God-given rights. In the United States, for example, the federal Constitution contains multiple “firewalls” that have prevented or limited government infringements on freedom, including federalism, enumerated powers, separation of powers, and a Bill of Rights.
Additionally, this shows the importance of holding elected officials accountable, so they uphold God-given rights, as the ACFI seeks to do. Here in the United States, JP’s Freedom Index holds state and federal legislators accountable to the U.S. Constitution and America’s founding principles. By becoming informed about both those principles and their elected officials’ records, voters can better ensure that those officials protect their rights and uphold limited government.
Saving our Republic starts with “We the People” getting informed and working together vigilantly to advance Americanist principles.
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