A parliamentary inquiry will examine whether ethics classes in NSW schools should be abolished. The General Purpose Standing Committee N.2 comprises a majority of conservative MPs, including the Liberal right winger David Clarke, Marie Ficarra (Opus Dei member), Fred Nile’s colleague Paul Green, Sarah Mitchell (NP), Jan Barham (Greens) and ALP members Shaquette Moselmane and Helen Westwood. It will examine the objectives and effectiveness of the classes, the curriculum and whether the legislation that allows them to be taught as an alternative to special religious education should be repealed. The need for this inquiry is highly questionable. The committee has been given this task at the initiative of the Rev Fred Nile who has expressed the most bizarre objections against ethics classes. The overwhelming majority of parents support ethics classes. There has been ample public debate about this issue. The classes have been well received. The Premier made an electoral commitment that the ethics classes would continue. If the classes are discontinued, that would strengthen the belief of the electorate that most politicians need ethics classes even more than school children do. The teaching of ethics at all levels of education is of paramount importance. As an editor of an academic text on business ethics, I suggest that the need for ethics teaching, separate from religious doctrines and values, is beyond question. Giving the committee this task (it will report in June) is reportedly part of a Government deal to get Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic party support for other legislation.
Klaas Woldring,
Pearl Beach
