Religious Freedom in Australia

The Australian government is active in safeguarding citizens’ religious freedom and Australian society is largely respectful of religious tolerance, though antagonism against ethnic and religious minorities occasionally surfaces, fueled by traditional sensibilities of Australian Anglo-Christian identity. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and federal and state laws safeguard the free practice of religion. While the Constitution bars the federal government from establishing an official religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, and implementing religious tests for federal offices, these restrictions do not apply to the country’s state governments. However, state governments have enshrined these same principles in their own constitutions and legal codes. Religious minorities, whose numbers have grown since the 1970s, have generally coexisted peacefully with the Christian-majority population. Still, racial and religious tensions sometimes flare. Racially motivated riots broke out in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla in December 2005 after a violent confrontation between volunteer lifeguards and a group of men of Middle Eastern descent. White Australians held a racially charged rally the following week that led to violence against bystanders who appeared to be Arab or Muslim. This, in turn, led to violent reprisals back and forth lasting several days and spreading into other areas until police quelled the riots and arrested some of the violent perpetrators. A series of attacks beginning in 2009 in Melbourne against Indian students, mostly Hindu in religious orientation, has also caused concern. Though the proportion of attacks motivated by racism is a matter of debate, the incidents have cut the number of Indians choosing to study in Australia in half.