On 19 August 2026, a Tasmanian parliamentary committee tabled its report into discrimination and bullying in schools, after a two-year inquiry that produced 55 findings and 33 recommendations.

An inquiry set up to address bullying turned much of its attention to a different question: whether Christian schools should be free to run according to Christian belief.

The committee heard extensively from Equality Tasmania and built its findings around the experiences of LGBTIQA+ students and staff. Concerns about freedom of religion and the right of parents to choose a faith-based education for their children were largely set aside.

Faith-based organisations like the Australian Christian Lobby were given far less space than the advocacy groups on the other side.

That imbalance is revealed by what the report recommends. One of the committee’s findings declares that Catholic Education Tasmania has discriminated against staff over sexual orientation and marital status, and that this appears to breach Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Act.

The committee then admits that Catholic Education Tasmania says it is complying with Commonwealth law, and that no court has ever ruled on the question.

The dissenting statement from Michael Ferguson and Mark Shelton articulates important issues with the committee’s inquiry.

The report, they wrote, “too often treats one set of rights, together with contested cultural beliefs about sex and gender, as requiring greater legislative or regulatory protection without giving equal weight to other lawful rights, beliefs and freedoms that Tasmanians value”.

The recommendations would turn that imbalance into law. The committee wants Tasmania’s anti-discrimination laws reviewed and stronger requirements for non-government schools to implement pro-transgender policies, tying this to school registration.

For a Christian school, these recommendations threaten the very heart of what it is permitted to teach and how it is permitted to operate.

Australia has no general legal protection for religious freedom. Where that protection is missing, a Christian school's freedom to remain Christian rests entirely on how a state parliament decides to write its laws.

An inquiry into bullying is not the place to decide what a Christian school is allowed to believe.

HRLA will continue to advocate for the rights of Christian schools to teach and operate according to their faith.