The Editor, The Age, Sir: The refusal of governments to help support with funding a forthcoming atheist global conference in Melbourne while granting over $2 million to a world religious conference, also in Melbourne, reveals a bias that disregards our status as a secular nation.
This is just another example of the blurring of the separation of Church from State.
Prayers before the opening of Parliamentary sessions, and the ongoing, generous grants of government funds to religious orders which are exempt from rates and taxes incurred by non-religious bodies, show an undemocratic trend which is divisive as it marginalises a large section of the population wanting to be true to themselves and on equal terms with other citizens, when they call Australia their home.
– Keith McEwan, CLA member, Bendigo, Victoria