Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Lord’s Prayer

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (19:43): (1654) My adjournment matter is for Minister Symes in her capacity as the Leader of the Government, and it relates to the continued usage of the Lord’s Prayer in Parliament. In the last term of Parliament, the then Attorney-General made a clear commitment to this chamber and to the people of Victoria that the government would at the beginning of this term begin a process to replace the Lord’s Prayer with a more inclusive model for opening Parliament, one that is reflective of a modern Victoria. When my colleague Mr Ettershank asked the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council for an update on 7 March 2023, she described it as ‘a matter for this chamber and a matter for the other chamber’. Similarly, when asked again by Mr Ettershank, the then Attorney-General responded that:

… this issue has been well canvassed in the Upper House. Any changes to standing or sessional orders relating to the commencement of the day proceedings are a matter for the House.

I appreciate that it is important to have a model that is consistent and canvasses the views of both houses, but almost four years have passed since the government committed to making changes, and the government is running out of excuses.

At the last census, almost 40 per cent of Victorians reported having no religious affiliations, with a further 13 per cent identifying with a religion other than Christianity. In 2021 a range of community and faith groups came together to sign an open letter in support of removing the Lord’s Prayer from parliamentary proceedings. These included the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the Victorian Council of Churches and the Buddhist Council of Victoria. The continued use of the Lord’s Prayer is clearly no longer fit for a modern, multicultural Victoria, and that is evidenced by the amount of us standing outside the door at the beginning of the day every single day. The action that I seek is for the Leader of the Government to update us all on the progress being made to work with the Leader of the Government in the other house on developing a replacement for the Lord’s Prayer for both chambers of this Parliament before the term is over.