NSW religious leaders meet with Deputy Leader
Leaders from the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu communities held a productive meeting with Deputy Leader of the NSW Opposition Prue Car earlier this week.
Leaders with Pru Car
The meeting at NSW Parliament followed a meeting last month with NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns and key members of his leadership team, where faith leaders discussed a number of issues and priorities for their respective communities, and the opportunity for initiatives to address the safety and wellbeing of local communities.
The religious community leaders raised a number of issues such as the inclusion of Special Religious Education (SRE) in the digital enrolment process to support resourcing as well as the need for General Religious Education. Faith leaders also highlighted the importance of nourishing religious identity in our communities and programs to counter religious and racial vilification.
The leaders called on the ALP to support a National Centre of Excellence for Religious Education to help ensure best practice and minimum standards across religious education in government schools.
They also urged the government to hold professional development and training seminars for principals, teachers and students on how to deal with religious vilification and bullying.
“We are grateful to Prue Car MP for meeting with us this week, and for listening to our community’s collective concerns,” NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Chief Executive Officer Darren Bark told J-Wire.
“We look forward to continuing our discussions with NSW Labor on issues of concern to the NSW community.”
ChristianSRE CEO Murray Norman added, “The faith groups are keen to ensure that religious bullying is called out and dealt with appropriately, and also to see positive education campaigns regarding other religions to encourage tolerance and understanding to help prevent bullying in the first place.
“We thank Prue Car MP for her time this week – it was very much appreciated by the faith communities.”
