Providers of ethics classes in NSW primary schools have responded with outrage to a change to the school enrolment form which removes a clear choice between ethics and scripture.
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Bruce Hogan, the chairman of the charity and ethics class provider Primary Ethics, was angered by the change, saying it was a "profound step back".
"We are really disappointed," he said. "This has deliberately eliminated the option for parents to tell the school they would like their child to attend ethics lessons.
"In my view, the Christian lobby group has successfully lobbied Premier Mike Baird. His own personal beliefs and his need to keep Fred Nile on side for the next four years has overridden the rights of parents."
The previous form provided a box that could be ticked by parents who wanted to enrol their children in ethics classes. The new form has removed that box and advises parents of children who do not attend scripture to contact their school about information on alternatives, including ethics.
The government has denied the new enrolment form is part of a political deal with Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile, who opposes ethics classes and whose support the government needed to pass its electricity privatisation legislation last month.
Mr Hogan said the new form made it more difficult for parents to enrol their children in ethics classes and accused the government of making it "as hard as possible for children to do ethics classes".
Parents who want their children to attend ethics classes would need to "intervene personally" by approaching their school principal.
"When you go to scripture, you don't have to do any of that. The form does it all for you," Mr Hogan said.
"The churches will be tickled pink that they have got this up."
Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the new form lists special religious education and ethics classes as options for students.
"Parents who choose not to send their children to SRE are informed they can contact the school to inquire about ethics classes, which are available at some NSW schools," Mr Piccoli said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Piccoli said this was in line with the government's response to an upper house inquiry into ethics classes chaired by Mr Nile in 2012. The government supported the inquiry's recommendation that parents be advised about ethics classes after they had opted out of scripture.
The government had earlier considered the option of stripping any reference to the availability of ethics classes as an alternative to special religious education from school enrolment forms after being lobbied by faith groups.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws by Primary Ethics show faith groups blamed the current enrolment form for falling participation in their classes for the 2015 school year. The form says parents may enrol children in ethics classes where they are available and allows parents to "opt out" of SRE classes by ticking the "no" box.
Religious education advocates have welcomed the change after complaining the form introduced in July last year had created confusion.
Murray Norman, a board member of the Inter-Church Commission on Special Religious Education in Schools (NSW) said one enrolment form is used by primary and high school students and this had caused confusion for parents because ethics classes are only offered in primary school.
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said the government is doing "everything it can get away with to advantage scripture teaching at the expense of ethics classes".
"The Baird government has created a barrier to parents exercising their choice while delivering a massive gift to the scripture providers and their cheer squad in the NSW parliament," he said.
"This has always been a threshold issue for Mr Nile, whose two votes in the Legislative Council are critical to the Baird government's legislative agenda."
