Recent Events: New Threat to Ethics Classes from Fred Nile

The NSW government has been “persuaded” by Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party to establish a committee to investigate ethics classes. The committee will conduct a formal inquiry to examine “the stated objectives, curriculum, implementation, effectiveness and other related matters pertaining to the current operation of ‘special education in ethics’ being conducted in State schools, and whether the Education Amendment (Ethics) Act 2010 should be repealed.”
Fred Nile has stated proudly that ‘This will be the first time there has been a formal investigation into the ethics classes’ yet the classes were evaluated formally only last year before they were introduced. SRE classes have been running since the 19th century with no formal investigation.
This move is a serious threat to the existence of ethics classes.

What can be done?
It is important that the Committee understands public opinion on this issue. Please take the trouble to make a submission to the Committee to convey your opinions. The submission should address the following key points:

• The investigation applies only to ethics classes. SRE classes have never been formally investigated since their introduction in the 19th Century. Recent research indicates that there is a need to investigate SRE classes. Your submission should draw attention to this fact – while we welcome scrutiny of ethics classes we call for a parallel investigation of SRE.
• If the Education Amendment (Ethics) Act 2010 were repealed, there would no longer be a legal requirement to offer ethics classes as an option for children not attending SRE classes. This move could return us to a situation in which children opting out of SRE are given nothing meaningful to do. Your submission should point out that such a situation would discriminate against those children and would be entirely unacceptable to thousands of parents, children and other members of the NSW community.

In addition to the above points, outline your own experience of ethics or SRE classes (e.g. as a parent, an ethics class teacher, a school Principal, or simply as a member of the community). This should include facts that are known to you and/or more widely known that are relevant to the current investigation, in addition to your own perspective, experiences and opinion.

How to Make Your Submission:
You should write a letter (Word or pdf formats – we understand that a document attachment rather than a text email is the preferred format), attach this to an email and send to:
gpscno2@parliament.nsw.gov.au

If you would like more detailed information on making a submission you can find this at http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/CommitteesLCSubmissionsHowToGuides/$file/Making+a+submission+brochure.pdf

Contact Points

The point of contact for submissions to the enquiry are listed below.

The inquiry is being held by Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 2

Primary contact: Beverly Duffy, phone (02) 9230 3367, gpscno2@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Assistant Council Officer: Angeline Chung, phone (02) 9230 3081, gpscno2@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Address for written correspondence:

The Director
General Purpose Standing Committee No. 2
Parliament House
Macquarie St
Sydney NSW 2000
Fax: (02) 9230 2981

Deadline for Submissions
The deadline has been announced as 10th Feb 2012