Religion & Ethics Australia Daily

A twice-weekly public affairs review from the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College

No. 008, 9-11 November 2004  ² compiled by Rod Benson

News reports

Aboriginal issues

Sue Gordon, head of the new National Indigenous Council, has backed Noel Pearson’s proposal to send rural Aboriginal children away to city boarding schools to address their “chronic academic underachievement.”

Aust 9 Nov 04

Aboriginal welfare is to be rebuilt from the ground up with the introduction of behavioural “contracts” with black communities in return for healthcare, education, dole money and services, in an attempt to turn around “forty years of failure.” Aust 11 Nov 04

Radical plans by the Howard government for unprecedented intervention in the lives of Aboriginal people have divided indigenous leaders. Aust 11 Nov 04

Smart cards that link welfare payments to the purchase of clothing, electricity or food are being considered by Aboriginal leaders, and could be available within 12 months. Aust 11 Nov 04

Abortion

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello insisted that abortion laws should be determined by the states rather than the Federal Parliament. NSW Premier Bob Carr yesterday foreshadowed a vote in the NSW Parliament to protect abortion rights in NSW if the Federal Government moved to ban or restrict them at a national level. SMH 9 Nov 04; Aust 9 Nov 04

The Australian publishes nine more letters to the editor on abortion. Aust 9 Nov 04

The federal government would not sponsor legislation restricting women’s access to abortions but would allow its MPs a conscience vote on any private member’s bill dealing with the issue, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday. He rejected suggestions that the debate should not be reopened because state laws regulating the practice had been in place for 20 years. Labor would also allow a conscience vote on such a bill. AFR 11 Nov 04

John Howard has supported a parliamentary debate on abortion as conservative MPs push for a public inquiry into the number and timing of pregnancy terminations. He dismissed as “absurd” suggestions of a trade-off between abortion and other policies such as the full sale of Telstra. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that “tampering with the existing law [on abortion] is tampering with fire.” Aust 11 Nov 04

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott, whose son was adopted out after he was born out of wedlock when Mr Abbott was 19, has called for an end to the stigma attached to women who give a child up for adoption, and urged society to consider adoption as an alternative to abortion. Aust 11 Nov 04

Australians should work toward eliminating all abortion rather than complacently accepting the loss of “precious unborn life” and the harm to women, representatives of three Australian Catholic Archdioceses said.

Press release 11 Nov 04

Alcohol

The Virgin and Sanity music stores face state government bans on a compact disc promotion that is pushing Smirnoff vodka “ready to drink” products at young consumers. SMH 10 Nov 04

Animal rights

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has called for an end to “mulesing,” the practice of cutting wool-bearing skin away from a sheep’s backside to prevent flystrike. Woolgrowers pledged to phase out the practice by 2010 and fast-track research into alternatives. AFR 10 Nov 04

Censorship

Some ABC journalists and program-makers are perturbed by the corporation’s controversial move to subject its news and current affairs programs to intensified external monitoring, warning that increased vetting by hired firms risks inhibiting ABC political reporting, to the detriment of public trust in its credibility. Aust 11 Nov 04

Corporal punishment

Hazel Edwards, author of the children’s book There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, advises that she has not refused to alter a line referring to smacking for the book’s reissue by Penguin. “Precise wordings do matter and, as a responsible author with a responsible publisher, we are discussing it,” she said. Email to READ.

Divorce & remarriage

Couples seeking divorce will be compelled to visit one of the federal government’s 65 relationship centres as part of a push to encourage people facing relationship difficulties to avoid litigation. Aust 11 Nov 04

Ethics – business – Australia

Australia’s business chiefs have scored a bare pass in a new survey of their social responsibility. The only corporation to gain a AAA RepuTex rating was Westpac Bank. “Social responsibility and managing social risk are becoming firmly established on the corporate agenda,” RepuTex chairman Graeme Lee said. AFR 9 Nov 04

There is no epidemic of unethical business behaviour in Australia that might justify sweeping law reforms, and imposing new duties on directors because of the misconduct of one company would be premature, extreme and counterproductive. AFR 11 Nov 04

Euthanasia

Elderly people will meet across Australia to make their own suicide pills, defying state and territory legislation outlawing euthanasia, according to euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke. Existing laws provide penalties of up to life imprisonment for advising, counselling or helping a person to kill themselves, although suicide is not a crime in Australia. SMH 9 Nov 04

Evangelism

Billy Graham celebrated his 86th birthday on 7 November, while making final preparations for his Greater Los Angeles Crusade at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, set for 18-21 November. ChurchCentral.com 9 Nov 04

Executive salaries

The AFR publishes an extensive special report on executive salaries. AFR 9 Nov 04

Fraud

Phishing websites are being shut down as major credit card companies step up their battle against internet fraud. AFR 9 Nov 04

Gender

Compared with the sentence given to former tennis coach Gavin Hopper, the decision not to jail convicted child sex offender and teacher Karen Ellis has sparked claims she was treated more leniently because she was a woman. Daily Telegraph 11 Nov 04

Homosexual rights

US President George W. Bush will seek a nationwide ban on gay marriage in his second term, according to senior political advisor Karl Rove. SMH 9 Nov 04

Internet

John Mark Ministries website, which boasts over 13,600 pages, was ranked No. 1 in the world on JCSM’s Top 1000 Christian Sites. http://www.jcsm.org/top1000/ 11 Nov 04

Politics – Australia

Businesses and community groups are being advised to lobby bureaucrats before legislation appears, and play to divisions within the Liberal-National coalition, if they wish to influence policy in the new era of government control of the Senate. AFR 11 Nov 04

Politics & faith – Australia

In the light of the emergence of Family First Party, Brian Edgar, the Australian Evangelical Alliance’s Director of Public Theology, examines who the emerging Christian conservatives are, and whether fears of an Australian version of the fundamentalist US Religious Right are warranted. Press release

Politics & faith – US

Gerard Wright reports on a new American gospel and the nation’s growing religious divide. SMH 9 Nov 04

Pornography

Andrew James Wilson-Brown, the first person to be jailed as part of the nation’s biggest child pornography raid, paid a US website just $58 to download 1500 images of children on his home computer. His lawyer said he had sought help since being arrested and had the support of his extended family, who were active members of Perth’s Baptist community. Aust 10 Nov 04

Sales of Australian adult magazines continue to look decidedly flaccid, dropping from 7.6 million in the first half of 1994 to 4.3 million in the same period this year, according to the latest NDD Circulation Audit report.

Aust 11 Nov 04

Privacy

Australians are deeply concerned about the misuse of personal genetic data and, unless steps are taken to ensure genetic privacy, people may avoid genetic testing for treatable illnesses such as inherited breast or bowel cancer. Aust 10 Nov 04

Racism

Australian soldiers dressed as Ku Klux Klan members to intimidate “dark-skinned” recruits weeks before they were sent to East Timor and Iraq. Daily Telegraph 11 Nov 04

Sunday trading

NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca has yielded to union lobbying for a Christmas Day-Boxing Day retail moratorium, but the ban applies only this year and only on large stores in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. SMH 9 Nov 04

The Victorian government has bowed to union pressure and infuriated retailers by declaring Boxing Day and New Year’s Day public holidays, both of which fall on weekends, allowing stores to open but forcing employers to pay salary loadings to any staff they roster on those days. AFR 10 Nov 04

The Western Australian government declared it would hold a referendum on “antiquated” retail trading-hour laws. Liberal MPs will oppose the bill to enable the referendum, but it is expected to be passed with the support of the five WA Greens MLCs. Aust 10 Nov 04

Wages & salaries

An increase in the minimum wage of $26.60 a week sought by the ACTU threatened to lock many low-paid workers out of jobs, the Howard government warns.

Aust 9 Nov 04

War crimes

A US-led attack on the Iraqi Sunni-stronghold will breach the Geneva conventions, writes Tony Kevin. SMH 9 Nov 04

Women’s rights

Only one of the 44 judges appointed to the High Court of Australia has been a woman. Justice Mary Gaudron joined the court in 1987 and retired in February 2003. Justice Michael McHugh, who will retire from the High Court next year after 16 years, has issued a blunt warning to the Howard government, arguing “unless we redress the present gender imbalance in judicial appointments, there is an ever-increasing risk . that the public support on which the legitimacy of the judiciary rests will be eroded.” AFR 10 Nov 04; SMH 11 Nov 04

Workplace safety

The Victorian government plans to quadruple maximum fines for workplace safety breaches. AFR 11 Nov 04

Other items of interest

Christianity Today writers ponder what it means for “moral values” to have topped voter concerns in the recent US presidential poll. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/144/42.0.html

“Did George W. Bush’s re-election have roots in a statement signed by 40 conservative Protestant and Catholic leaders ten years ago?” asks Bob Allen.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=4949

Christopher D. Marshall writes in the current issue of Vision journal on “The wisdom of knowing nothing: Pauline perspectives on leadership, ministry, and power.” http://www.mennovision.org/Vol%205%20No%202/Marshall,%20The%20wisdom%20of%20knowing%20nothing.pdf

Keith Suter, Consultant for Social Policy with Sydney’s Wesley Mission, comments on gambling in the light of Australia’s love affair with the Melbourne Cup. http://www.wesleymission.org.au/ministry/suter/041105.asp

READ is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood NSW 2122 AUSTRALIA. Telephone (02) 9878 0201. The content of READ and the views expressed in articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College or the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. Subscription is free. To subscribe, email with the words “subscribe to READ” in the subject line. Use the same email address to request more information. Copies of original articles are available on request. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald.