Two Christian lobby groups have pushed back against any new laws to protect vulnerable people from cults, with a Victorian inquiry told of a “palpable fear” they could affect mainstream churches.
The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) and Freedom for Faith were among witnesses to appear before the parliamentary inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups on Tuesday.
The Labor MP Ella George, who is chairing the inquiry, told the ACL that many witnesses had called for laws addressing coercion by “high-control groups” because of “the incredibly harmful impact it has on individuals and their families”.
However, Jasmine Yuen, the ACL’s Victorian director, said existing laws already addressed criminal conduct related to cults. She said any laws targeting “coercive behaviour in faith-based institutions” would be “very dangerous”.
“From a theological perspective, faith and practices are inseparable. Separating the two risk unfairly misclassifying legitimate faith communities – particularly Christian churches – as cults, whether through misunderstanding or deliberate misrepresentation,” Yuen said.
“Such confusion could expose churches to unnecessary litigation or public defamation simply because some individuals disagree with their theology, teaching or discipleship practices.”
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She said the doctrines of some Christian churches – such as marriage being between a man and a woman, and the belief in “both the end of the world and the renewal of creation” – could be wrongly “classified as cultic” because they were not universally accepted.
Instead of new laws, Yuen called for a greater focus on education and prevention measures.
When the Liberal MP Rachel Westaway asked if there was any room for legislation to protect vulnerable people already “lured” into cults and who “don’t have capacity to make an informed decision”, Yuen replied: “No.”
Mike Southon, the executive director of thinktank Freedom for Faith, said he did not believe the inquiry was “set up as a Trojan horse to target faith communities”, but raised concerns previous witnesses had “namechecked some of the biggest churches in Australia” as cults.
Southon said faith communities were particularly concerned about the inquiry’s definition of a cult, with the broad list of behaviours included in its guidance note vulnerable to “significant scope creep”.
“There is palpable fear in our faith communities that we’ll end up with a process where deep devotion to your faith is considered coercion, where personal sacrifice and giving is deemed abuse, that commitment to a single universal truth is labelled intolerance, belief in eternal consequences is coercion, and traditional morality is declared to be harm,” Southon told the inquiry.
“In that environment, any religion could be declared a cult, investigated by a commission or dobbed into a hotline.”
He said it would be “nigh on impossible” to define group coercive control in a way “that would not target religion and other groups”.
Kojo Akomeah, a board member for Freedom for Faith and a pastor with the Seventh-Day Adventist church, referred to the practice of tithing, which several previous witnesses had pointed to as an example of financial exploitation.
He said while tithing – where a portion of a person’s income is donated to a church – was encouraged in his church, it was “not enforced” and members were “not compelled”.
Both Freedom for Faith and the ACL acknowledged there were cults operating in Victoria.
George stressed during the hearing that “religious freedoms have been a top of mind consideration for this committee from the start of our deliberations”.
The inquiry, which on Tuesday also heard from Dr Janja Lalich, an international expert on cultic studies, as well as representatives from The Religious Trauma Collective and Cult Information and Family Support, will continue to hold hearings before reporting to parliament before 30 September 2026.
