Imagine that Kevin Andrews and Gerard Henderson, aggrieved at the lack of representation of Catholic authors on the high school English curriculum, set up a program whereby they visit schools to promote Catholic authors. ‘Why, when 25 per cent of Australians identify as Catholics,’ they say, ‘do we see few books by Catholic authors such as Chesterton, Waugh, and Greene on the reading list?’

The howls of protest, quite rightly, would be heard across the land.