The constitutional prohibition on religious tests

Section 116 of the Australian Constitution sets out four important guarantees of
religious freedom. The fourth clause of that section provides that ‘no religious
test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the
Commonwealth’. During the Convention Debates, the religious tests clause was
described as being the least necessary clause of s 116 on the basis, first, that
there were no remaining religious tests in the Australian colonies and, second,
that it was outlandish to think that the Commonwealth would ever impose one.
This article seeks to explore the meaning of the religious tests clause and refute
those two suggestions. It seeks to show that at the time of Federation religious
tests remained in the Australian colonies. It also seeks to show that the
Commonwealth today, albeit unconstitutionally, requires the satisfaction of
religious tests for certain public positions.