The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has recently released its consultation paper on the subject of Religious Education Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws. The paper proposes the near-complete removal of any protections to these organisations. Under these proposals, religious educational institutions will be forced to hire staff, teaching, and non-teaching, who may not share or support the institutions’ beliefs and whose employment could only be terminated if staff actively undermine the ethos of the organisation.

In a broader sense, the ability of organisations to select staff on the basis of their core commitments and values is central to the democratic freedoms of...