A public meeting on the ethics/philosophy classes in New South Wales has been told the prospects of Labor’s loss in New South Wales will cause a rush of last minute changes to long standing policies.

The Anglican Church League sponsored a meeting last week in the Chapter House addressed by Youthworks CEO Zac Veron and Standing Committee member and former Senator Karin Sowada, as well as Youthworks Executive Janet Simpson and Anglican Media CEO Russell Powell.

Dr Sowada addressed the political background of the current trial of ‘Philosophical Inquiry’ in public schools.

“The current Education Minister has stressed that this special position of SRE will remain unchanged. However, it is clear that there are a range of forces such as the Greens and Sydney Atheists arrayed against SRE who have lined up behind the current trial and see it as a wedge opportunity to eventually eliminate SRE from public schools altogether.”

Referring to the polls which are predicting a landslide loss for labour, the former Senator said “The window of opportunity for progressive change across a number of policy areas is rapidly closing, with less than 35 sitting days of parliament before it rises at the end of the year. I suspect there will be a lot of controversial last minute changes to various policies and programs which have stayed dormant for some time, on the basis that it is "change now or never' in the face of Labor's electoral loss. The introduction of philosophical inquiry in SRE time is one of those.”

The meeting was also told the Church would be taking up the government’s invitation to make a submission to the inquiry into last term’s 10 week trial, which will be conducted by a South Australian academic.

Little detail of the inquiry process been revealed and Dr Sowada said that was insufficient.

“The trial has generated much community interest and debate about the idea of a philosophical complement to SRE but there has been little if any parliamentary debate on the issue.”

“There are many people watching how the government handles this issue. It is time for decisions behind closed doors to stop and we would call on the Government and the Minister to ensure fair dealing with the results of the evaluation and its plans for the future.” Dr Sowada told the meeting.

Other speakers canvassed the many messages of support for SRE and volunteer SRE teachers received by Youthworks.