A leaflet advertising the Athena School in Newtown has been referred to the state's consumer watchdog for allegedly obscuring the school's link to Scientology.
The NSW Greens yesterday lodged a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, claiming the leaflet represented false advertising and a potential breach of the Trade Practices Act.
The Applied Scholastics logo, the education arm of Scientology, appears in the bottom corner of the leaflet, which includes the words "education services and materials based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard".
Hubbard was the founder of Dianetics and Scientology, and the author of Scientology scripture. The Church of Scientology's Sydney website says his works cover subjects including drug rehabilitation, education, marriage and family.
In a letter to the ACCC, a NSW Greens MP, John Kaye, said the Scientology website referred to Hubbard's The Way to Happiness, which the Athena School uses as its moral code. He also states the school uses Applied Scholastics as its approach to education.
"The flyer being handed out by Athena School and its website fail to clearly identify that the education at the school is based on Scientology beliefs," he said.
"The use of the term 'Applied Scholastics' without direct reference to Scientology potentially misleads or deceives parents as to the basis of the model of education being used at the school.
"All published materials, including the website of the school, should clearly identify that their philosophy and practices are informed by the approach of Scientology."
Fiona Milne, the principal of the school, said the Applied Scholastics study method did not teach Scientology as a religion.
"We follow the Board of Studies curriculum. We use the study method of Ron Hubbard. It is a method of study, it is not teaching Scientology," she said. "The religion is something different to that."
Ms Milne said "some" of the school's 70 students and four teachers were Scientologists, "but not all of them".
"Our primary focus is the education of the children, it is not the church," she said.
