Religion & Ethics Australia Digest

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

No. 044, 5-11 Aug 2005  ² edited by Rod Benson

News & opinion

Aboriginal & indigenous affairs

Indigenous support for mutual obligation has nothing to do with the paternalism of the past, argues Noel Pearson.
The Age 5 Aug 05

Abortion

A Sydney doctor accused of inducing a late-term abortion has become the first medical practitioner in NSW to be charged over a termination since 1971. SMH 9 Aug 05

A court case has again stirred up public debate about a heart-wrenching subject, writes Anne Summers. SMH 11 Aug 05

We should not further restrict women’s access to late abortions, writes Leslie Cannold. The Age 11 Aug 05

Abuse – sexual

Exemptions have been granted to 89 sex offenders to work with children, documents from the Commission for Children and Young People show. SMH 8 Aug 05

Aid & development

Almost $600 million earmarked by the Federal Government to help drought-stricken farm families has never been spent because the rules for claiming it were too tough.
SMH 8 Aug 05

The Howard Government is set to appoint an eminent persons group to advise it on how to better assist Papua New Guinea following the scrapping of Australia’s $800 million law-and-order package for PNG. Aust 8 Aug 05

Jeremy Weber reports how 575 suburban teens underwrote a medical clinic, schoolhouse, and a year’s supply of food for a village in Zambia—with money to spare. More…

Alcohol

One or two wouldn’t hurt, especially after the first trimester. Or would it? Jacqueline Maley reports. SMH 8 Aug 05

Older people are drinking at unprecedented rates, research shows – but their bodies may be unable to take the pace. SMH 10 Aug 05

Bioethics – embryos

Betty Rollin explores the moral, ethical and religious choices couples face when dealing with the issue of frozen embryos. Pamela Madsen, whose IVF treatments produced two sons, says the choice of how to deal with excess embryos is not an easy one. More…

Bioethics – stem cells

Kiwi doctors are planning an experimental operation to partially repair paraplegics’ damaged spinal cords, using stem cells extracted from their noses. More…
Bioethics – withdrawal of treatment

A Melbourne woman left in a vegetative state after her husband’s lover tried to kill her, allegedly under instruction from him, has died in hospital after feeding tube was withdrawn 10 days ago. Aust 5 Aug 05

Debt

Families in NSW are much more likely to be racking up debts than the rest of Australia and are much less interested in investing any spare cash in property. SMH 11 Aug 05

Education – religious

Independent schools – including Victoria’s seven Islamic colleges – will be required to teach a curriculum consistent with Australian democratic values under State Government reforms. The Age 7 Aug 05

Energy

Debate on nuclear energy must be influenced by informed realism, writes Leslie Kemeny. The Age 9 Aug 05

Australia will have to start using nuclear power within the next 50 years to help reduce the growth in greenhouse gas emissions, the Minister for Science, Brendan Nelson, says. SMH 11 Aug 05

Environment

The land needs more people and animals, not less, to avoid environmental disaster, writes Paul Sheehan. SMH 8 Aug 05

The Federal Government spent only $1 million of the $70 million it promised to help small businesses in drought-hit areas.
SMH 9 Aug 05

Graphic of NSW’s gradual decline into drought from 2001-2005. SMH 9 Aug 05

Can an environmentalism accustomed to fixing things around the edges come to terms with so central an issue as global climate change? Can it afford not to? More…

Humanity has failed to fulfil God’s will for creation, and we urgently need a global moral transformation to counter the already evident effects of climate change, writes Jane Still. More…

Ethics – business

Inside information is being widely used to drive share prices and force shifts of millions of dollars in the market value of public companies. An investigation in the wake of the Steve Vizard affair amid heightened public perceptions insider trading is widespread, has confirmed behaviour too common to be coincidental. SMH 8 Aug 05

This reporting season could be an especially confusing time for many investors, with about a third of companies reporting for the first time using the new International Financial Reporting Standards.
Aust 8 Aug 05
Ethics education

Catholic educators fear that a move to introduce ethics into the NSW public school system could be the first “stepping-stone” to removing scripture lessons from the curriculum. More…

Interreligious relations

Young Catholic women are being given a unique opportunity to help break down the fear and tension created by recent terror attacks and world conflicts by taking up an opportunity to be trained and mentored in interfaith relations. More…

Islam

One of Britain’s most radical Muslim converts, Abdur Raheem Green, will visit Australia later this month to lecture on the importance of jihad. Aust 6 Aug 05

Justice – military

Prime Minister John Howard is giving a very good impression of a man more concerned about protecting the good name of the US military justice system than he is about protecting the right to a fair trial of Australian citizen David Hicks. Aust 5 Aug 05

The Australian Government’s support for US military justice has been exposed, writes Richard Ackland. SMH 5 Aug 05

History gives us little hope for real reform in our military justice system, writes Geoffrey Barker. AFR 5 Aug 05

Mining

The Howard Government has seized control of uranium mining in the Northern Territory to give “certainty” to the industry and ensure the expansion of exports to meet growing demands for nuclear energy worldwide.
Aust 5 Aug 05

The Federal Government has seized control of uranium mining, declaring the Northern Territory open for new sites. SMH 5 Aug 05

Multiculturalism

George Megalogenis reflects on two Australian Muslim stereotypes of multiculturalism. Aust 6 Aug 05

The Howard Government will overhaul its policy of multiculturalism, with a new emphasis on shared values and secularism. Aust 6 Aug 05

Parenting

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission yesterday granted workers the right to request an extension of unpaid parental leave from 12 to 24 months.
The Age 9 Aug 05

Politics – Australia

One of the chief strengths of liberal democracies – their ability to build a gradual consensus around incremental change – can become a weakness in a time of crisis.
Aust 8 Aug 05 [scroll down]

There are lamentations on the left today with warning of imminent evils now the new Senate is sitting. According to the critics, with a Coalition majority of one, the Senate cannot fulfil its rightful role as a restraint on the Government. Aust 9 Aug 05

As the Prime Minister faces tricky issues, Kim Beazley’s good work is being ignored, writes Gerard Henderson. SMH 9 Aug 05

Politics & faith – Australia

Until yesterday the popular wisdom around Parliament was that Steve Fielding was John Howard’s plan B for getting his radical agenda through the Senate. SMH 11 Aug 05

Politics & faith – US

Christian social activist and progressive evangelical Jim Wallis is calling on the Democrat Party in the USA to renew its social and political vision, in order to help break the stranglehold of the religious right on moral values. More…

Pornography

Sean Thackray’s addiction to internet pornography began when he was 11 or 12. Ten years later, he was still hooked. “The more I did it, the more I wanted to do it. I tried to stop several times but always failed,” he said. SMH 8 Aug 05

Poverty

Poverty means not having enough; inequality means not having as much as somebody else does. But once “poverty” is defined relatively, this distinction gets horribly blurred, writes Peter Saunders. More…

Refugees & asylum seekers

Much of the razor wire around Sydney’s Villawood detention centre is to be taken down and at least two other immigration facilities could follow suit. Aust 8 Aug 05

Smoking

Drinkers in NSW face new restrictions on where they can smoke in clubs and pubs, with the Premier, Morris Iemma, set to overturn a previous cabinet decision on outdoor smoking. SMH 11 Aug 05

Technology

The podcast is becoming the Godcast. In a phenomenon that has amazed the clergy, thousands of British worshippers are using their iPods to listen to sermons.
SMH 6 Aug 05

Terrorism

The Federal Government will announce a new clampdown on terrorism following a high-level review of Australia’s safety in the wake of the London bombings. SMH 5 Aug 05

The organisation that represents police chiefs around the world has issued guidelines saying that officers who confront a suicide bomber should shoot the suspect in the head. SMH 5 Aug 05
A Melbourne radical Islamic teacher last night described Osama bin Laden as “a great man” and declared he would be betraying his religion if he told students not to train in terrorist camps. The Age 5 Aug 05

A video on Arab television showing a man with an Australian accent threatening terrorist attacks was evidence that al-Qaeda’s reach extended to many nations, the broadcaster said last night. SMH 11 Aug 05

War

Paul W.Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay who dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, has a deeply personal reason for wishing the destruction he witnessed 60 years ago tomorrow never happens again. Aust 5 Aug 05

The discovery of reporter George Weller’s firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan. More…

Sixty years ago today, humanity stole the thunder of the gods by instantaneously wiping life from the face of the earth in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Aust 6 Aug 05

Tens of thousands of people from around the world gathered in Hiroshima yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city and to renew calls for the abolition of nuclear arms. SMH 6 Aug 05

Coalition partners should aim to withdraw their troops from Iraq by the end of next year to remove a key rallying point for the country’s terrorists, recently retired defence chief Peter Cosgrove said yesterday.
The Age 8 Aug 05

For some, bitter memories of atrocities mean the Japanese are forever enemies, but for others, moving on is the only way to rid the demons. SMH 11 Aug 05

Weapons

A crisis with the West is looming after Iran resumed ultra-sensitive nuclear fuel work at its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan despite warnings from the international community. SMH 9 Aug 05

Women’s rights

Women will serve in units in front line combat zones during military operations under a policy the federal government is set to announce. SMH 11 Aug 05

Work

In the age of computers, the art of repairing just about anything seems to be fading fast. The Age 9 Aug 05

Workplace relations

Half of the state’s young workers cannot tell the difference between casual and permanent work and a quarter never receive a pay slip.
The NSW Workplace Relations Minister, John Della Bosca, seized on the findings of a survey of 5000 people aged between 12 and 25 as evidence that under the Federal Government’s proposed workplace changes young people could easily be exploited.
SMH 5 Aug 05

Australia’s two most influential religious conservatives, Cardinal George Pell and Dr Peter Jensen, are worried the Federal Government’s industrial relations changes may hurt family life and the working poor. SMH 6 Aug 05

State industrial relations ministers sat down with their federal counterpart, Kevin Andrews, yesterday to discuss the pending revolution in workplace law for the first time in 18 months. They agreed on nothing.
SMH 6 Aug 05

John Howard’s core failure has been his inability to advance not just an economic case but also a moral case for his much-vaunted industrial relations revolution, argues Kevin Rudd. Aust 8 Aug 05

Unions NSW estimated that more than 30,000 people attended a family protest day at Olympic Park yesterday, as the battle intensifies for the hearts and minds of the senators who will vote on the Government’s proposed changes in industrial relations laws. SMH 8 Aug 05

John Howard will press ahead with changes that would axe extra long service leave for thousands of low-paid workers.
The Age 8 Aug 05

John Howard has dismissed the concerns of two of Australia’s leading religious leaders that the Government’s workplace changes will hurt families. Courier-Mail 8 Aug 05

Parents may lose new leave they won in the Industrial Relations Commission yesterday in as little as two months, after the Prime Minister refused to guarantee to include it in the Government’s planned workplace changes. SMH 9 Aug 05

The Federal Government’s announcements of changes to workplace relations regulation have left many important details unclear, writes Des Moore. More…

Other items of interest

Christianity Today has launched its newest weblog, Life Matters, a weekly roundup of news and commentary on issues of life: creating it, ending it, enhancing it, and treating it properly. More…

Images of the killing fields of Darfur through children’s eyes. More…

The controversial theory of “intelligent design” has won the qualified backing of Education Minister Brendan Nelson.
The Age 11 Aug 05 Also…

The Bruderhof Peacemakers Guide empowers you to work for peace, and arms you with living proof of the power of nonviolence. More… [click on images at left]

Today, 700 women will be raped or assaulted by their partners. And today, 5,000 people will take action to stop the violence. Join them…

What is justice? Neither liberals nor conservatives have it quite right. 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 ethics[at]morling.edu.au and type “subscribe to READ” in the subject line.