ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Australia and its recent national inquiries on religious freedom to explore issues of faith and toleration in a neoliberal context. While the debate on religious freedom is happening independently from a social and economic assessment, faith-based organisations, as a form of support to a reduced welfare state, are growing and are providing more and more to those in need. This chapter highlights a change of discourse in the Australian public sphere with regard to freedom of religion, from one which is about tolerating and even celebrating all beliefs and religious practices to one which allows religious individuals and groups to discriminate in the name of religion. This, as presented, is more than a simple debate on freedom of expression as it can lead to social consequences against minority groups deemed excluded from welfare provision in the name of religion and, paradoxically, in the name of freedom of expression.
