Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

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

No. 039, 27 May-2 Jun 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Aboriginal & indigenous issues

Fr Ted Kennedy, former parish priest of St Vincent’s Catholic Church in Redfern who died last week, will be remembered as one of the most fearless advocates for Aboriginal rights in Australian church history. More.

John Howard yesterday pledged to “meet the indigenous people of this country more than halfway if necessary” to unite black and white Australia, and acknowledged that indigenous Australians were “the most disadvantaged people in the country”. Aust 31 May 05

All the apologies in the world will not end glaucoma and malnutrition among indigenous children in remote communities. The answer is for indigenous communities to be given the means to improve their own circumstances. Aust 31 May 05

Labor has moved to crack down on Aboriginal itinerants in the Northern Territory, with an extraordinary election pitch by Chief Minister Clare Martin yesterday to jail “habitual drunks” who refuse treatment. Aust 2 Jun 05

Abortion

The Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, yesterday blamed the country’s “collective half-heartedness” for an abortion epidemic. SMH 30 May 05

Abuse – sexual

Rape is not confined to the battleground that sees evident resistance overborne by brute force. It also embraces far more nuanced scenarios where shades of belief by a perpetrator can be prompted by subtle responses from the victim or, indeed, no response at all. SMH 27 May 05

Bioethics – IVF

A decision to ban Australians selecting the sex of their babies through IVF is causing growing animosity between the Federal Government regulator and the IVF industry. The Age 1 Jun 05

Bioethics – reproductive technology

In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in Australia, a Victorian woman has lost the fight to have her dead husband’s baby. SMH 28 May 05 Also Aust 28 May 05

Bioethics – stem cells

Scientists working with embryonic stem cells or transgenic organisms are sometimes perceived as evil: modern-day Frankensteins meddling with the building blocks of life. More.

Consumerism

We are richer but unhappier, spending to save and working longer to enjoy less. In a society gripped by the fever of affluence, Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss call for a new politics of wellbeing. The Age 29 May 05

Clive Hamilton claims that Westfield Bondi Junction, a “temple of affluenza,” is the ultimate expression of an epidemic of overconsumption, debt and stress that has seen Australian society go to hell in a shopping bag. SMH 29 May 05

Divorce & remarriage

The trauma of divorce can be reduced when parents know their children’s true feelings about the break-up, new research shows. But parents may need to hear the message from a neutral expert. SMH 28 May 05

Drought

Some farmers are suspected of using a fund designed to help them ride out the drought as a tax shelter, prompting the Howard Government to review the scheme.
Aust 28 May 05 Also Aust 31 May 05

I have many friends in deep despair as they watch their sheep weaken and die. They can no longer afford to buy fertiliser or feed and they battle to meet interest payments on money they have borrowed to expand and stock their farms, writes Peter Cullen.
Aust 30 May 05

Drug trafficking

Workers at the nation’s largest airport, including baggage handlers with high-level security clearances, have been involved in drug-smuggling and stealing from passengers, according to a classified Customs report that also suggests staff pose a terrorism threat. Aust 31 May 05

Drugs

Suppose they invent a drug that enables your child to learn to play piano quickly and easily. Would you give your kid the piano pill? We are already well advanced in the enhancement era of neuropharmacology, writes Anjan Chatterjee. More.

Energy

The Howard Government has foreshadowed a dramatic expansion of Australia’s uranium mining industry, identifying Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam as future export markets as South East Asia becomes a player in nuclear energy. Aust 31 May 05

Ethics – business

Village Roadshow managing director Graham Burke has told the Victorian Supreme Court that tax-effective investment schemes which had kept his company’s film production business afloat were a “rort” in which movies were cobbled together so investors could claim deductions. Aust 1 Jun 05

Ethics – political

Is former deputy director of the FBI Mark Felt a hero who defended open government at the risk, at least, of his career, or a snitch spilling privileged information he had obtained as a government official? Aust 2 Jun 05

Gambling

Launching a NSW Government-sponsored gamblers’ help initiative, Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell said he believes gambling can be a “harmless and pleasant exercise”, so long as it brings no harm to the person and their family. CathNews 27 May 05

Human rights

Rights to a rudimentary level of care should be enshrined in the Australian constitution to protect people and prices, write Tom Faunce and Warwick Neville. SMH 30 May 05

David Hicks has been held without trial since he was handed to US forces in Afghanistan in December 2001. He has spent nearly half that time in solitary confinement. For at least eight months he was held without any exposure to daylight. SMH 1 Jun 05

Illness – mental

Forced to wait an intolerable time for a hospital bed, many people with a mental illness are leaving emergency departments before being treated, a report by the Auditor-General has found. SMH 27 May 05

Politics – Australia

Social researcher Hugh Mackay told a group of Federal Labor MPs this week that Australians are turning inward to escape John Howard’s “real world”. SMH 28 May 05

The federal Government’s unexpected ability to push through more radical reforms than it previously considered politically possible will also galvanise a coalition of interest groups opposed to those reforms. Aust 30 May 05

Politics & faith – Australia

Transcript of a keynote address by Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson at the Catch the Fire Ministries/Second National Day of Thanksgiving celebrations. More.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says it is not Christianity that drives decision-making in his role as a parliamentarian. “You don’t particularly bring your faith into it, you look at all issues on their political merits, not on their religious merits,” he said. ABC News Online 29 May 05

Tony Abbott said the ALP and the nation’s political life would be a whole lot better if Labor had a few more Christians in it. And Kevin Rudd accused the Howard Government of ignoring basic Christian values in its approach to unfair dismissal and other workplace reforms. Aust 30 May 05

Poverty

Wristbands sold to raise money for a campaign against world poverty are made in Chinese sweatshops in “slave labour” conditions. The conditions are disclosed in confidential “ethical audits” of factories that make the ultra-fashionable white wristbands for the Make Poverty History campaign, started by a coalition of more than 400 charities. SMH 30 May 05

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is to fly to Washington next week armed with the promise of a rock star-led mobilisation of public opinion to urge the US President, George Bush, to lift the debt burdens of Africa. SMH 2 Jun 05

Privacy

The medical records of every person in NSW will be held on a central electronic database – and patients will no longer have the right to choose whether this information is collected or stored – if a new Health Department policy goes ahead. SMH 1 Jun 05

Refugees

It’s time for compassion and accountability in handling asylum seekers, writes federal Liberal MP Petro Georgiou.
The Age 26 May 05

The Australian Political Ministry Network has welcomed moves by federal Liberal MP Petro Georgiou to introduce two private members bills to release long term detainees and women and children from immigration detention and grant permanent protection to refugees. CathNews 27 May 05

The Federal Government yesterday ruled out a royal commission into hundreds of cases of people being detained when they were lawfully in Australia. SMH 27 May 05

The Howard Government is in a mess over its immigration detention policies at last. While the Prime Minister decides how to soften the cruelties he once boasted about, without loss of face or capitulation to the party renegades, the social experiment continues to wreak its terrible toll, writes Adele Horin.
SMH 29 May 05

World Vision Australia CEO Tim Costello has called on Coalition MPs to join renegade Liberals in the push to abolish mandatory detention. Herald Sun 30 May 05

Changes to the Migration Act proposed in two Private Member’s Bills represent a compassionate and welcome change to Australia’s detention policy and deserve the support of all MPs, Bishop Joseph Grech said on Friday. CathNews 30 May 05 Also.

There are 70 children living in detention throughout Australia. Now the AMA has joined the debate, saying these young detainees are being subjected to what is in effect child abuse – and should be released. SMH 31 May 05

Hundreds of immigration detainees have been held without trial in the nation’s toughest prisons to live alongside hardened criminals, some for years at a time.
Aust 1 Jun 05

John Howard will consider a plan by rebel MPs to deliver the “speedier” release of long-term detainees and children in immigration detention centres. Aust 1 Jun 05

“We are detaining refugees as a means to deter further boat arrivals,” West Australian MP Judi Moylan told yesterday’s Coalition party room meeting on detention policy. “At some point we must ask whether this is morally justifiable.” SMH 1 Jun 05

Deputy Liberal leader Peter Costello wants to make it harder for asylum-seekers to appeal as part of a reform push to reduce the number of people held in long-term detention. Aust 2 Jun 05

Smoking

The social and economic cost of smoking, including medical expenses and the impact of tobacco-related diseases on loved ones and the workplace, places a $6.6 billion burden each year on the NSW Government, businesses and families. SMH 30 May 05

Torture

Let’s not be rational about torture, writes Matthew Zagor. More.

The use of torture by the state is not legitimate, let alone morally imperative, because it is just too unreliable to be justified even on consequentialist grounds, writes Christopher Pearson. Aust 28 May 05

Transport

Time is overdue for a long-term solution to the city’s transport needs, writes Ken Dobinson. SMH 31 May 05

War

Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of George W. Bush and The Faith of the American Soldier, says religious belief is critical to the soldier. More.

On Monday, John Howard and his senior ministers will gather around the cabinet table to determine the navy’s war-fighting capability for the next generation.
Aust 28 May 05

President George W. Bush has told US Naval Academy graduates that the military had brought freedom to Afghanistan and Iraq and was winning the war against terrorism.
SMH 29 May 05

Water

Tough water restrictions backed up by fines will be announced midweek to protect Sydney from its worst water crisis since the 1930s, when breweries were forced to stop producing beer. SMH 29 May 05

Welfare reform

All those decrying the federal budget as a missed opportunity have missed the great “reform” it contains. They’ve missed it because it’s not something the Government has wanted to draw attention to. And if I was responsible for it, I wouldn’t want to draw attention to it, either, writes Ross Gittins. SMH 30 May 05

Workplace relations

The Uniting Church has called on the Federal Government to rethink its approach to further deregulation of the Industrial Relations system. UCA media release 26 May 05

More than half of Australia’s 9 million workers will be stripped of unfair dismissal protection, employment contracts will be deregulated and wage-setting powers shifted to a new body under sweeping workplace relations changes unveiled by the Federal Government yesterday. SMH 27 May 05

The Federal Government’s claim that workers’ rights are not affected by its changes to unfair dismissal laws has been rejected by lawyers, who say those who want to fight sackings faced steep hurdles under the common law. SMH 28 May 05

Bob Carr has privately declared he is willing to hand over his state’s industrial relations powers to John Howard, contradicting his Labor counterparts who are considering a High Court challenge to the federal Government’s planned new laws.
Aust 30 May 05

Most Australians believe the Howard Government’s proposed workplace reforms are unfair to workers and a major win for big business, the union movement said yesterday. Aust 30 May 05

The Coalition is facing internal pressure over John Howard’s industrial relations overhaul, with conservatives including Queensland senator-elect Barnaby Joyce joining Labor premiers in questioning the reforms.
Aust 31 May 05

The profound shake-up of wage setting, workplace agreement making and unfair dismissal rules announced last week marks the limit of the Federal Government’s industrial relations reform agenda, says the Minister for Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews. SMH 31 May 05

Other items of interest

Forty percent of Americans with emotional problems choose to seek help from clergy rather than psychotherapists. And although many clergy have historically resisted principles of psychology when counselling parishioners, that is changing. More.

Tom Morton reviews Thomas Walter Laqueur’s new book, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation. More.

Public attention has focused on developments at the beginning of life. But questions about what we ought to do for those near the end of life may be more enduring and are more puzzling, writes Gilbert Meilaender. More.

Cardinal George Pell discusses a Catholic understanding of conscience. More.

David Tacey sees liberalism and fundamentalism as twin dangers for the institutional church. More.

Religion & Ethics Australia Digest is published by the Centre for Christian Ethics, Morling College, 120 Herring Rd, Eastwood NSW 2122 AUSTRALIA. Telephone (02) 9878 0201. Back issues are available at http://www.baptistsocialissues.org.au/review.htm. 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. To view the original article or transcript, click on the blue underlined text at the end of the summary. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. For a free copy of READ by email each week, email and type “subscribe to READ” in the subject line.