The longstanding tradition of reciting the Lord's Prayer in Victoria's parliament before each sitting day isn't going anywhere, with the government turning its back on finding a replacement.
On Wednesday night, the upper house debated a petition to retain the Christian prayer in the Legislative Council after it gathered almost than 11,000 signatures.
The petition was sponsored by Liberal MP Evan Mulholland.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes, the government's upper house leader, accused Mr Mulholland of spreading division and suggested his petition was "dog whistling".
She denied the prayer was ever on the chopping block.
"There is no proposal to remove the Lord’s Prayer from the parliament," Ms Symes told the chamber.
"We have not been considering a proposal."
Ms Symes said the government had instead initiated some "minor conversations" about opportunities to "modernise the start of the day".
The prayer was first read to introduce proceedings of the Legislative Council in 1857, with the Legislative Assembly following suit in 1928.
It has since been a mainstay in both houses, accompanied by an Acknowledgement of Country in more recent times.
All other Australian parliaments feature the Lord's Prayer in some form except for the ACT, which replaced it with an invitation to pray or reflect in 1995.
Ms Symes previously promised Labor would workshop a replacement model to the prayer in the next term of parliament if it won the 2022 Victorian election.
The commitment was brokered after crossbencher Fiona Patten pitched a 2021 motion to replace it in the upper house with a moment of silent reflection.
Ms Patten, who is an atheist and no longer in parliament, said the prayer was not relevant to a large section of the community and heaped scorn on the government for changing its tune.
"It's definitely a backdown," she told AAP on Thursday.
"To now say that we can no longer do this is very disappointing from the government, but it's also disappointing from the opposition that they are politicising this issue."
The former Reason Party leader noted most upper house Victorian MPs took an affirmation rather than a religious oath when being sworn in this term.
"From a community perspective, do they really support members of parliament reciting a prayer from one specific religion to start the day?"
The 2021 Census highlighted almost as many Australians have no religious affiliation (38.9 per cent) as those who identify as Christian (43.9 per cent).
It showed Australia is also becoming more religiously diverse, with 10 per cent of people following a faith other than Christianity - up from 8.2 per cent in 2016.
Mr Mulholland argued the Lord's Prayer remained a symbol of importance and acknowledgement of responsible service.
"This place is deeply rooted in traditions and our Christian foundations that have made our democracy so strong."
