Lord's Prayer could be dumped from Victorian parliament

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan hinted the Lord’s Prayer’s days were numbered in state parliament.

Pressure is mounting on the Victorian government to scrap a hundred-year-old tradition to better reflect modern community values.

Each sitting day in Victoria’s parliament is opened with the Lord’s Prayer which has been the case for 106 years.

The prayer is followed by a Welcome to Country.

Premier Jacinta Allan hinted the prayer’s days were numbered, saying there has been cross-party discussions on the issue.

“It’s important that as a parliament we reflect the community that we represent,” she told reporters on Monday.

“Our multicultural community is one of Victoria’s greatest strengths and I’m proud to be part of a parliament that is 50/50 men and women and has a greater cultural diversity.

“Its important to reflect that in parliamentary practices.”

The Labor government, led by Ms Allan’s predecessor Daniel Andrews, made an election promise to workshop a replacement for the Lord’s Prayer at the start of this term.

The commitment was brokered after crossbencher Fiona Patten pitched a motion in 2021 to replace the prayer in the upper house with a moment of silent reflection, a move backed by some religious figures.

If replaced, Victoria won’t be the first parliament to make the move, the ACT lower house replaced the Christian prayer with an invitation to pray or reflect in 1995.

The 2021 Census highlighted Australia is becoming more religiously diverse, with 10 per cent of Australians following a faith other than Christianity – up from 8.2 per cent in 2016.

Almost as many Australians have no religious affiliation (38.9 per cent) as those who identify as Christian (43.9 per cent), and the proportion of Victorians with no religious affiliation (39.3 per cent) is higher than the national average.