AHOY 2024: Luke Beck

Professor Luke Beck

Australian Humanist of the Year 2024 has been awarded to Professor Luke Beck, Professor of Constitutional Law at Monash University and Vice President of the Rationalist Society of Australia, in recognition of his tireless efforts in defending the rights of the religious and non-religious against religious discrimination. 

With his expertise in constitutional law, Luke Beck has authored many academic papers and press articles laying out clearly and forcefully the fundamental rights of humanists, rationalists and other non-believers. His submission on the Coalition's retrograde and discriminatory draft Religious Discrimination bill helped shelve the proposed bill. 

He has also been a persuasive voice for humanists in pushing back against the government's discriminatory and religiously-inspired schools chaplaincy program, the public funding of rich private religious schools and the reading of council prayers.

Luke was instrumental in initiating the legal case against the chaplaincy program and in developing the legal argument for its discriminatory nature. 

His contributions to defending the rights of humanists and all other non-believers make this award well-deserved.