WA Premier Cook about to scuttle suitable teachers in faith schools

Think about the people who make your child’s school what it is, or the school your grandchildren, nieces, and nephews attend. The teacher who leads the morning prayer. The coach who stays late on a Friday because one of the boys needs someone to talk to.

Parents in Western Australia choose faith schools because of people like these, and now Premier Roger Cook wants to hand the decision about who they are to a government tribunal.

Twice in the past two months, his government has confirmed it will rewrite the law WA’s faith schools were built on. Under the plan, a Christian school that wants Christian teachers would have to convince a tribunal that faith is “inherently required” for each particular job: the maths teacher, the coach, even the receptionist. A panel of strangers would sit in judgment on what your faith requires. I wish I could tell you I was exaggerating.

Sign our petition now and tell Premier Cook and Attorney-General Tony Buti: rule out stripping WA’s faith schools of their freedom.

And it gets worse. When the government was asked in Parliament on 9 June whether Christians would be protected under the changes, it refused to give an answer. Not one word of reassurance, just a promise of “balance,” the word governments reach for when they have already decided who will lose.

Meanwhile, families are being asked to trust a plan they are not allowed to see. No bill has been published and no consultation has been offered, yet the changes would reach every faith school in the state, Christian, Islamic and Jewish alike. And it goes beyond hiring: a school could weigh a family’s faith once, at the point of admission, and at no point in the child’s school life after that.

Think about what that means. From day two, no family would have to support the school’s ethos, and the school could do nothing about it. The very thing parents chose the school for becomes the one thing it is forbidden to protect.

Premier Cook wants a government tribunal to decide whether your child’s faith-based school can hire teachers who share its faith.

When asked in Parliament whether people of faith would be protected, his government refused to answer,  and it won’t show anyone the bill.

Parliament returns on 11 August. The bill isn’t written yet, so pressure now can still stop it. Sign today.

If the Cook government won’t show parents the bill, make sure it hears from them — sign now.

Here is the good news, this fight is winnable, and recent history proves it.

Last month, the federal government refused United Nations demands to strip these same freedoms from Australia’s faith schools: every one of those demands was declined, following the CitizenGO petition that you signed. Ordinary Australians would not look away, and the political cost climbed too high to pay. And Premier Cook himself shelved this very reform in 2023, when the backlash grew too fierce. Governments back down when enough ordinary people stand up.

That moment is now. Parliament returns on 11 August, and the bill has not yet been written. The pressure that lands in the next four weeks will shape what the government dares to introduce, or whether it touches the schools at all. Once a bill is tabled, Labor and the Greens have the votes to pass it. Before it is tabled, you have the power to stop it.

So I am asking Premier Cook and Attorney-General Buti to rule out these changes, publish any draft for genuine consultation with WA’s faith communities, and guarantee that parents keep the right to choose a school that truly lives their faith.

Add your name now, before Parliament returns on 11 August — tell Premier Cook to leave WA’s faith schools alone.

Add your name now, before Parliament returns on 11 August – tell Premier Cook to leave WA’s faith alone.

With hope and determination,

Christopher Yates and the entire team at CitizenGO

P.S. The bill has not been written yet. That is the good news — and the deadline. What lands in Parliament on 11 August depends on the pressure that arrives before then.Click here to sign the petition now!

P.P.S. Do you know a family with children at a WA faith school? Forward them this email — this fight is theirs most of all.