Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

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

No. 041, 15-21 July 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Aboriginal & indigenous issues

A report to federal and state governments shows that, with a few exceptions, we are not making much progress on overcoming indigenous disadvantage. Aust 14 Jul 05

Abortion

An anti-abortion group has been filming women as they enter a Melbourne clinic, on the eve of the anniversary of the murder of a security guard at the same site. The Age 15 Jul 05

The startling extent of WA’s abortion record has been revealed for the first time, with the release of figures showing that one in four pregnancies was terminated last year. The west Australian 20 Jul 05

Aid & development

Ahead of the G8 conference in Scotland, the world’s richest nations forgave billions in debt to the world’s poorest. Great news, right? Not necessarily, write Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke. Spiegel Online 4 Jul 05

Bioethics – cloning

The Sydney Archdiocese Life Office is calling on Catholics across Australia to take action to prevent changes in cloning legislation which could allow embryos to be created specifically for scientific research before being destroyed. More…

Bioethics – conception

The pill and abortion laws produced the same economic benefits and feelings of wellbeing for women as gaining a university degree or getting a $2000 increase in salary, a UK study found. Aust 18 Jul 05

Bioethics – IVF

Couples may be postponing childbirth in the mistaken belief that IVF technology will bail them out of family planning troubles.
Aust 21 Jul 05

The push for the perfect designer baby could soon eliminate the occurrence of children with extreme behavioural and mental problems, Victoria’s leading IVF expert has predicted. Herald Sun 21 Jul 05

Censorship

An intense American drama about two teenagers who were molested by a pedophile when they were eight has become the centre of a censorship controversy. SMH 19 Jul 05

Energy

The Northern Territory will host a nuclear waste dump after the Government overturned an earlier commitment to ship highly toxic radioactive material offshore. Aust 17 Jul 05

Environment

Those with entrenched environmental beliefs are being left behind, writes Tim Flannery. SMH 18 Jul 05

Ethics – business

Steve Vizard faces the Federal Court on Thursday to answer civil charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that he used confidential information to trade shares in three public companies that did deals with Telstra.
SMH 16 Jul 05

Our laws are the creation of parliament and the courts rather than directives from God, and there are many examples of laws that exist without adequate justification. The prohibition on insider trading is one such law, and should be repealed, argues James McConville. Aust 21 Jul 05

Ethics – medical

A foreign-trained GP who inappropriately touched female patients has blamed a communication breakdown and cultural differences. Herald Sun 20 Jul 05

Euthanasia

Almost a year has passed since Steve Guest learned he has cancer of the oesophagus. His body, once fit from bush walks in Victoria’s high country, has faded to a feathery 27kg. All he wishes for, if miracles are off the menu, is “the magic bullet” that would give him some control over his goodbyes.
Aust 16 Jul 05

Genocide

Wild Swans author Jung Chan has just published Mao: The Unknown Story, in which she describes the Chinese leader as “possibly the worst ever genocidal despot,” responsible for the deaths of over 70 million of his people. SMH 21 Jul 05

Illness – mental

Leading psychiatrists have admitted that a 20-year policy of treating mental patients in the community has failed. Aust 16 Jul 05

Police around Australia are applying a zero-tolerance approach to mentally ill people, often laying “inappropriate” charges to get them off the streets because health workers will not take responsibility. Aust 18 Jul 05

While it is true that many patients with psychotic illnesses can live productive, or at least functional, lives in the community, many others require full-time care in a hospital. Aust 18 Jul 05

Pluralism

It is the Australian way to accommodate new cultures. It is the Australian way to take people for who they are, not what they wear, or where they come from. But it is also the Australian way to abhor those who demand to live their lives as they wish and to practise their religion as they choose, but reject the right of everybody else to do the same. This is what a handful of Muslim zealots in Australia do. And it is time for them to stop. Aust 20 Jul 05

Kowtowing to the unreasonable demands of intolerant minorities trying to impose their will on the majority is not going to safeguard Australia from “fanatical religious hate, exclusion, death and terror”, writes Miranda Devine. SMH 21 Jul 05

Politics & faith – Australia

Government policies on industrial relations, mandatory detention and the Iraq war are not incompatible with Christian or Catholic principles, says federal Health Minister Tony Abbott. Aust 20 Jul 05

Population

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates 28 per cent of women of childbearing age will remain childless, and Dr Nick Parr, a demographer from Macquarie University’s department of business, said his results indicated Australia’s birthrate would continue to decline. SMH 17 Jul 05

Pornography

The reason we avoid looking at pornography is the same reason we should avoid going to the casino, because we know they represent unreal worlds that are dangerous because they appeal to universal appetites, writes Peter Sellick. More…

Privacy

A proposal for a national identity card is being examined by the Howard Government as a way of improving border security and countering the threat of terrorism.
Aust 15 Jul 05

The benefits of national ID cards are grossly overstated and their potential negative impacts on our freedom and way of life remain unacceptable, writes Chris Puplick. Aust 18 Jul 05

The push for a national identity card threatens to cause more splits in the Government than the mandatory detention brawl after the Prime Minister, John Howard, said the card could be a new weapon against terrorism. SMH 18 Jul 05

An internal campaign within the Government aimed at heading off moves to introduce a national identity card is set to confront the Prime Minister, John Howard, when he returns from overseas next week.
SMH 19 Jul 05

Racism

Macquarie University is standing by a senior academic who opposes non-white immigration, arguing that academics must be free to say what they wish, while also distancing itself from his views and declaring racism abhorrent. SMH 16 Jul 05
Refugees & asylum seekers

John Howard has made an official apology to Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez and flagged a shake-up of the Immigration Department after evidence of systemic failure in the organisation. Aust 15 Jul 05

Serious deficiencies in the administration of detention policy have prompted a further shake-up in the executive ranks of Immigration Department. Aust 15 Jul 05

Sweeping changes are needed to fix deep-seated problems in the Immigration Department and the detention system, a damning report has found. SMH 15 Jul 05 Also…

The Palmer inquiry lays bare an inept and cruel system. David Marr reports. Part 1 – SMH 18 Jul 05 Part 2 – SMH 19 Jul 05

Mick Palmer, the former Federal Police commissioner, observes in his report that Immigration Department officers “are authorised to exercise exceptional, even extraordinary, powers. That they should be permitted and expected to do so without adequate training, without proper management and oversight, with poor information systems and with no genuine checks and balances on the exercises of these powers is of great concern.”
Aust 21 Jul 05

A family released last night from Villawood detention centre after being locked up for four months had not been illegally in Australia, their lawyer said last night. SMH 21 Jul 05

Terrorism

One of the country’s most fundamental Islamic clerics yesterday warned the federal Government would have only itself to blame if a London-style attack occurred in Australia. Aust 16 Jul 05

“Could it happen here?” is the instinctive question that springs from the chilling news that at least three of the London bombers were the English-born and bred sons of Pakistani immigrants. Such home-grown terrorism challenges the assumption that whatever passions and hates migrants bring with them, they are soon overwhelmed and diffused by the values of their new country. Aust 17 Jul 05

Were the four British-born suicide bombers who blew themselves up on the London Underground and a double-decker bus killing at least 54 people and injuring hundreds really Muslims? Or just alienated youth who fell prey to a murderous ideology that has nothing to do with the Koran? Aust 17 Jul 05

Islamic bookstores face closure and their owners could be charged with terrorism offences as pressure intensifes in the wake of the London bombings to crack down on radical literature sold in Australia.
Aust 19 Jul 05

Suicide bombings have become the world’s most common form of terrorism since the hijackings of September 11, 2001, and by far the most effective apart from weapons of mass destruction, a study shows. Suicide bombings were first used as a terrorist tactic in Sri Lanka and in the Lebanese civil war in the early 1980s. Aust 19 Jul 05

Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, the country’s highest-profile Islamic leader has called for the deportation of clerics who preach violence, as part of a push to rid Australia of the “disease” of fundamentalism. Aust 20 Jul 05

Keith Suter discusses a new book by the American political scientist Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. More…

Uniting Church in Australia

The National Assembly’s Gospel and Gender Working Group is offering ‘A Breathing Space’ as an opportunity to re-connect with the feminine face of God. More…

Vilification – religious

The government needs to understand this Act is very seriously damaging the social and religious fabric of Victoria, argues David Palmer. More…

War

Is war won by bullets or beliefs? The rule of law, not invasion, is the key, writes Alison Broinowski. SMH 19 Jul 05

Water

Sydney’s proposed desalination scheme could be the biggest of its kind in the world. But that makes the problems seem even greater, writes Wendy Frew. SMH 15 Jul 05

Weapons

As it welcomes a member of its international committee on a visit from Brussels, the peace organisation Pax Christi Australia has reaffirmed its opposition to nuclear weapons, ahead of next month’s 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. CathNews 19 Jul 05

Welfare policy

Business leaders, welfare groups and government ministers have met in Melbourne to add the finishing touches to the federal government’s new welfare regime. The Welfare Reform Consultative Forum has been reconvened to help the government roll out its controversial welfare changes. The Age 18 Jul 05

Women – ministry of

The Church of England’s decision to move towards ordaining women bishops is consistent with momentum in the Anglican Church of Australia, its new leader says.
The Age 13 Jul 05

Work

The likelihood of a newcomer to workplace relations being able to negotiate a fair deal is small, writes Emily Maguire. SMH 20 Jul 05

Workplace relations

Religious leaders criticising the Government’s industrial relations changes should decide whose side they are on, the unemployed who will benefit from the reforms, or advocates of the old industrial relations system in the union movement. Aust 16 Jul 05 (scroll down)

The newly appointed Anglican Archbishop of Perth is the first major WA church leader to publicly back the Federal Government’s controversial industrial relations proposals, saying yesterday he believed John Howard’s assurance the laws would be fair and equitable. The West Australian 18 Jul 05

Other items of interest

Sir Ronald Wilson, who died aged 82 on Friday, was best known for a report on the generations of Aborigines forcibly removed from their families. SMH 18 Jul 05 Also…

It is 97 per cent certain God raised Jesus from the dead – based on logic and mathematics, not faith – says an Oxford professor, Richard Swinburne. SMH 19 Jul 05

Perry Anderson reflects on the political philosophy of J ¼rgen Habermas, John Rawls and Norberto Bobbio. More…

Current US megalomania is rooted in the Puritan colonists’ certainties, argues Eric Hobsbawm. More…

Charles T. Rubin revisits the views of J.B.S. Haldane and Bertrand Russell. More…

Grafton has found a new local attraction: a festival of talks and debates on Philosophy, Science and Theology. More…

Rachael Kohn explores the rise and fall of atheism. More…

Peter Breen discusses religious vilification laws with Noel Debien. More…

“We must revise our conception of public office which, in my view, is best understood not as a career or even a profession, but as a vocation,” writes Noel Preston. More…

“An Australian identity card system may be a good idea, but only if it is accompanied by increasing human rights protections,” argues Greg Barns. More…

In his farewell speech in federal Parliament, Senator Brian Harradine referred to his efforts to defend Christian ethical and moral issues. More… [scroll to pages 102-107]

Jim Wallis and others debate “Moral values, politics and the faith factor” at the Brookings Institution. More…

Jeff Nall remembers the humanism of Martin Luther King. More…

Catherine and Andy Crouch review John Polkinghorne’s new book, Science and the Trinity: The Christian Encounter with Reality. 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.