Melbourne Royal Show Bans Bible Booth after 108 Years of Tradition
A historic Christian exhibit has been excluded from the Melbourne Royal Show, raising concerns about religious discrimination and free expression in Australia.
Melbourne Royal Show organisers have banned a 108-year-old Christian exhibit from the Victorian event.
Good News Booth was booted without explanation despite the combined church ministry’s long history of attending the show.
Ministry volunteers said their usual booth application was rejected by email, with Melbourne Royal briefly stating they were no longer allowing “religious groups” to participate.
In the email, show organisers offered no clarification other than that they were acting on “patron feedback.”
The sales representative implied that the ruling was final, asking Good News Booth to show “understanding” and respect for the decision to exile the exhibit.
A Melbourne pastor, directly involved in the booth’s ministry for the past eight years, told Caldron Pool and The Daily Declaration that the excuse didn’t match his experience.
To his knowledge, there have never been any formal complaints about the booth. Patrons at the show always seem to give Good News Booth a warm reception, he explained.
The multi-denominational Christian exhibit offers a friendly atmosphere, free Bibles, colouring-in activities for children, and information for anyone curious about the Gospel.
Melbourne Royal’s Actions ‘Outrageous’
In contrast to Melbourne Royal’s apparent assault on freedom of religion, the Good News Booth is non-confrontational and apolitical.
Financial reasons for the Christian booth ban can also be ruled out. Good News Booth explains that their exhibit isn’t free. Like every other exhibitor, Good News Booth volunteers pay the Melbourne Royal Show up to $10,000 just to have a seat at the table.
Good News Booth said that although they were “disappointed by the Melbourne Royal decision, they will be at both the Royal Geelong and Whittlesea Shows.”
Melbourne Royal was contacted for clarification about the new rule, and in particular, why the Bible booth was booted. The one-sentence response reads, “We are in discussions with Good News about how they might participate in the 2025 Show.”
Show organisers may have to prove that the decision does not breach Victoria’s 2010 Equality Act, specifically sections 8 and 9 on direct and indirect discrimination.
According to the state’s equal opportunity law, “direct discrimination occurs if a person treats, or proposes to treat, a person with an attribute unfavourably because of that attribute.”
Appalled at the decision, Victorian Family First Senate candidate Bernie Finn described Melbourne Royal’s actions as an “outrageous attack on freedom of religion in Victoria.”
A Victorian institution banning a traditional Bible booth, he said, is a “wake-up call for every Christian, that the right to express our faith is no longer a given.”
“We have an obligation to tell the Royal Agricultural Society that their anti-Christian attitude is NOT ok!”, he said.
How Christians Can Respond
Church and State founder Dave Pellowe, remarked just as candidly about the decision.
“This is a fresh reminder of the inherent offensiveness of the Gospel itself to those who are perishing,” he explained. “I can’t bring myself to blame a wicked and perverse generation for rejecting the Good News.”
“They weren’t universally commissioned to accept it, unlike the followers of the One True God, who were commissioned by our Lord to preach it,” Pellowe further explained.
Quoting Paul’s words to his younger protégé Timothy (in 2 Timothy 2:4), Pellowe asserted, “Welcome will wax and wane. Yet, the imperative to preach the Gospel to our culture in and out of vogue remains.”
“Good Christians should now — organically and without coordination or organisation — flood the Melbourne Royal Show with old-fashioned, organic street evangelism,” he suggested. “Pray for people and ask them if they know their eternity is secure from the coming judgement. The Good News must still be shared and will not be stopped!”
Backing the Bible booth, Answers in Genesis Australia CEO, Mike Foster called the ban a “disgrace.”
Talking about what appears to be a politically motivated refusal to deny Good News a booth, Foster said Answers in Genesis had set up a petition asking Melbourne Royal to reinstate the exhibit.
“This exclusion signals a worrying trend of Christian voices being pushed out of public spaces across Australia,” Foster remarked.
“This is not just about one booth — it’s about ensuring that all Australians have the right to peacefully express their faith in public venues.”
Thousands have already signed the petition, which went live late Thursday night.
You can join Answers in Genesis’ campaign for the Good News Booth by signing here.
___
Republished with thanks to Caldron Pool. Originally titled ‘Melbourne Royal Show Bans Annual Christian Exhibit, Sparking Religious Freedom Debate’. Image courtesy of Unsplash.
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Given the history of such moves, chances are the Bible booth will be at the Show as usual. Show management will walk back the letter as a ‘bureaucratic error’ which ‘will be looked into and thoroughly investigated.’ And that’s as close as they’ll get to issuing an apology.
We will pray for this !!
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Usual Zoom number
MADNESS!! This is incredibly evil by the VictoriaStan Government and system
This will go down as one of the saddest and shameful decisions in the history for Melbourne, unless it is reversed. I pray it is. It seems there should be a Consititutional right to allow the Bible stall to exist, and to protect it, sicne Australia was built on Judeo-Christian values and the Constitution was written to safe guard the freedom of citizens and to honour God.
I understand the present rallies and turmoil in Melbourne such as the firebombing of a synagogue, and invading a restauarant may have made the show organisers afraid of the mention of ‘religion’ but such acts were from extremists who are taught to hate Jewish people. This has nothing to do with the rest of society or the churches who want peace (as do the Jewish people who came to escape the holocaust prejudice)
May Melbourne Show oragisers see the other r side of the story and realise that they are tampering with the things of God if they refuse to have Bible stall to showcase God’s word.
Jesus said ‘I am the Light of the world’…’He who follows me shall not walk in darkness.’ For that reason God sent the word of God into the world so we could understand God and His ways of truth, and know the One who created us. The Book of John said God sent His word into this world to shine in the darkness sand ‘the darkness would never overcome it’.
May this precious book to shine out in Melbourne and to all bypassers and not be hidden or blacklisted as it contains the words of eternal life and tells why Jesus died on the cross for all mankind and how He rose again and says He will return to earth.
“Good Christians should now — organically and without coordination or organisation — flood the Melbourne Royal Show with old-fashioned, organic street evangelism,” he suggested. “Pray for people and ask them if they know their eternity is secure from the coming judgement. The Good News must still be shared and will not be stopped!” – Dave Pellowe
THIS…1000X THIS.
We don’t need no steenking booth!
“Organised” efforts allow the rest of us to be unorganised & uninvolved. But if you start talking to the guy behind you at the ice cream booth or the Rotary sausage sizzle stand or the coffee cart…suddenly you might find the Spirit working the grounds harder than any booth ever could.
The decision has been overturned and an apology has been issued.
Woohoo thank you Lord