You Can Make A Difference Just
a few of the issues, from around Australia,
needing Prayer or Action
May 2007
LATEST
AUSTRALIAN NEWS:
QLD
Boswell
says no to human/animal hybrids
"“During
the debate on the cloning legislation
last year, my warnings that the Lockhart
Review had recommended the creation
of human/animal hybrids were dismissed
by many as inflammatory and hysteria,
and yet just 6 months after its passage,
we are seeing these first moves toward
that outcome,” Senator Boswell said.
Media
Release
Cloning
Vote soon for Queensland
"When
the Qld parliament votes on cloning
later this year, they will not just
be voting on whether Qld researchers
will be allowed to create a human
embryo to destroy it for its stem
cells. They could literally be voting
on whether or not to give the world
the technology for reproductive human
cloning," said Senator Boswell, Leader
of The Nationals in the Senate, at
a breakfast function in Toowoomba
on Saturday. Media
Release
All
States
Citizenship
Test on the Mark to Acknowledge Judeo-Christian
Heritage
"Australia’s
Judeo-Christian heritage has played
a key role in the development of Australian
society and government, and it is
only right that this be acknowledged
in the proposed new citizenship test,
according to the Australian Christian
Lobby (ACL). Media
Release
Labor's
Supports Same Sex Register at National
Conference
Labor
Party votes to support relationship
registers The national conference
of the Australian Labor Party, held
last weekend, passed a motion to
support the establishment of relationship
registers for homosexual and heterosexual
couples. Homosexual lobby groups
wanted the ALP to promise to actually
establish a national register, but
the Party only agreed to support
the establishment of state-based
registers.
Saltshakers
Paper on Same Sex Relationship
Regiser Open
PDF file
Australian
Government directs Cricket Australia
not to tour Zimbabwe
Under
the disastrous rule of the Mugabe
regime, ordinary Zimbabweans have
borne the brunt of famine and near-total
economic collapse brought on by the
regime's destructive and callous policies.
President Mugabe has trashed Zimbabwean
democracy, enriched himself and his
cronies, subverted the rule of law
and presided over the systematic and
brutal oppression of that country's
civil society and political opposition
Prime
Ministerial Media Alert
VIC
Victorian
Parliament passes cloning legislation
The
Victorian government has approved
legislation to allow the creation
of embryos by 'therapeutic cloning'.
The Legislative Council voted 23 to
16 to approve the INFERTILITY TREATMENT
AMENDMENT BILL. [The Victorian Legislative
Assembly voted 58-25 in mid-April
to pass the Bill.]
The
Victorian government has approved
legislation to allow the creation
of embryos by 'therapeutic
cloning'.
The Legislative Council voted
23 to 16 to approve the INFERTILITY
TREATMENT AMENDMENT BILL.
[The Victorian Legislative
Assembly voted 58-25 in mid-April
to pass the Bill.]
Some
amendments were moved by those
opposing the legislation.
In particular, Mrs Inga Peulich
(Liberal) moved the amendments
- these would have restricted
the law by refining the definition
of an embryo, banning the
use of cells form an aborted
baby, stopping the creation
of a hybrid embryo, providing
more information to potential
donors and creating an 'Adverse
Events register'. All these
amendments were defeated.
The vote was a conscience
vote - some members of Labor
voted agains the Bill, whilst
some members of the Coalition
voted for the Bill. All three
Greens (Barber, Pennicuik
and Hartland) voted for the
Bill.
Link
to the Hansard document here
(The
third reading (final) vote
for the Bill is on Page 83)
ACTION:
You might like
to write a short note and
THANK those who voted
against this legislation.
If you have personal contact
with, say, your own MPs you
may want to personalise the
letter
The vote:
Ayes,
23
Barber, Mr
Broad, Ms
Coote, Mrs
Darveniza, Ms
Davis, Mr
D. Davis, Mr
P. Eideh, Mr (Teller)
Hartland, Ms
Jennings, Mr
Leane, Mr (Teller)
Lovell, Ms
Madden, Mr
Pakula, Mr
Pennicuik, Ms
Petrovich, Mrs
Pulford, Ms
Rich-Phillips, Mr
Scheffer, Mr
Tee, Mr
Theophanous, Mr
Thornley, Mr
Tierney, Ms
Viney, Mr
The
national conference of the
Australian Labor Party, held
last weekend, passed a motion
to support the establishment
of relationship registers
for homosexual and heterosexual
couples.
Homosexual
lobby groups wanted the ALP
to promise to actually establish
a national register, but the
Party only agreed to support
the establishment of state-based
registers.
The
wording of the new Labor position
says: Labor will ensure that
all couples who have a mutual
commitment to a shared life
do not suffer discrimination
because they are not married.
“Labor will take action
to ensure the development
of nationally consistent,
state-based relationship
recognition legislation
that will include the opportunity
for couples who have a mutual
commitment to a shared life
to have those relationships
registered and certified.
“This legislation will:
- be based on the scheme
that has existed in Tasmania
since 2004 and that the
Victorian Government has
announced its intention
to introduce; - not create
schemes that mimic marriage
or undermine existing laws
that define marriage as
being between a man and
a woman.”
Homosexual
groups have been applauding
this development, even though
they would like more - some
wanted the ability to have
a 'ceremony', other groups
wanted civil unions and some
groups want full marriage.
See
a range of these statements
on Rodney Croome's website
- http://www.rodneycroome.id.au/other?id=C0_18_2
Rodney
Croome said he really wanted
a national register as “Same-sex
couples in a tardy or recalcitrant
state shouldn’t have to pay
the price of the state government’s
failure to act”. SSO said
"Croome said he hoped states
would have the option to progress,
such as allowing a ceremony.
This
policy will prove a disaster
if it fosilises relationship
recognition in the year 2003,
the year the Tasmanian Relationship
Act was passed.”
Senator
Joe Ludwig, Labor's Shadow
Attorney General, told the
SSO, a Sydney homosexual paper,
that he realised some groups
wanted civil unions or marriage.
He spoke to a 'Rainbow Labor'
forum after the vote and said
that 'the policy was a necessary
first step and the most
realistic for the gay and
lesbian community'. (bold
added)
Despite
the inclusion of heterosexual
de facto couples and even
caring couples in the proposed
Victorian Relationships Register
and the ALP policy, the fact
remains that it is ONLY the
homosexual activist groups
that are asking for such a
register.
There
is NO de facto groups asking
for recognition - the fact
is that de facto couple who
choose to live together rather
than marry are making a deliberate
choice to do so.
There
is NO activist group for 'caring
couples' wanting recognition.
(By the way, if we are talking
about two widows or spinsters
or 'Vietnam vets' living together
as caring couples, why not
allow THREE or more such caring
people to form relationships
and register them?)
ACTION:
Write to Labor leader Kevin
Rudd to express your concerns
about the establishment of
such registers. Kevin.Rudd.MP@aph.gov.au
Also
write to Joe Ludwig, senator.ludwig@aph.gov.au
As
you may know, Australian Christian
Lobby (ACL) has launched a
new Make
a Stand campaign
against the legalisation
of prostitution in WA.
The Make a Stand website provides
an easy facility where a user
can enter their postcode,
bring up their MLAs & MLCs
names and send an email to
them asking them to vote against
the legalisation of prostitution.
As the Women
Are Worth More
campaign makes clear, legalising
prostitution doesn't dignify
the women involved in the
sex industry; it just dignifies
the industry, its pimps and
madams and the men who buy
sex.
Legalised prostitution leads
to a massive expansion of
the sex industry including
sex slavery and trafficking
in women.
Those living in WA will be
able to email their own state
politicians.
People
living outside WA can send
a message to WA Premier Alan
Carpenter, copied to their
own state premier.
Please
could you promote this campaign
through your own networks,
asking your supporters to
make a stand against the legalisation
of prostitution in WA.
Many
thanks
Beth
Micklethwaite
Senior Research Officer
Australian Christian Lobby
Suite 9,
National Press Club
16 National Circuit
BARTON
ACT 2600
Moral
Values are now OUT
- They are unwanted in WA
(catching up with most other
states?) according to Jim
McGinty.
BUT
government regulation and
encouragement of 'sex for
entertainment' is IN.
Despite
the appalling record of sexual
abuse, drug use, under-age
girls and sex slavery continually
exposed in Victoria since
brothel 'legalisation', the
WA government have decided
to legalise, and thus 'normalise'
the 'sex industry'.
Victoria
has also seen an 800% increase
in ILLEGAL brothels (50 -
400) and the establishment
of at least 100 'legal' ones.
Link
here for a PETITION
(pdf format) for WA
residents ONLY
- please email, print & circulate
as widely as possible.
Attached is a petition for
WA residents ONLY - please
email, print & circulate as
widely as possible.
Gerard
Goiran, CDP State Director
and Senate Candidate stated
today that:
Jim
McGinty’s working group on
Prostitution Law Reform has
now completed its report.
Mr
McGinty has indicated that
a Bill will soon be introduced
into Parliament to implement
the recommendations of the
report.
If the recommendations of
the report are adopted by
Parliament, brothels and escort
agencies will now be certificated
and given an appearance of
respectability that they should
not have.
They will be treated like
any other business and subject
to planning considerations
only.
The
report says that moral objections
should not be taken into account!
Local governments will not
be allowed to prohibit them,
only to regulate them in accordance
with uniform planning legislation
to apply throughout the entire
State. [As is now the case
in Victoria and NSW]
Peter
Stokes
Co
Founder & Executive Officer
Salt Shakers Inc
Ph: 03 9800 2855
Mb: 0413 084 145
Boswell
says no to human/animal hybrids 
"“During
the debate on the cloning legislation
last year, my warnings that the Lockhart
Review had recommended the creation
of human/animal hybrids were dismissed
by many as inflammatory and hysteria,
and yet just 6 months after its passage,
we are seeing these first moves toward
that outcome,” Senator Boswell said.
"Australia’s
Judeo-Christian heritage has played
a key role in the development of Australian
society and government, and it is
only right that this be acknowledged
in the proposed new citizenship test,
according to the Australian Christian
Lobby (ACL). 
Under
the disastrous rule of the Mugabe
regime, ordinary Zimbabweans have
borne the brunt of famine and near-total
economic collapse brought on by the
regime's destructive and callous policies.
President Mugabe has trashed Zimbabwean
democracy, enriched himself and his
cronies, subverted the rule of law
and presided over the systematic and
brutal oppression of that country's
civil society and political opposition
As
you may know, Australian Christian
Lobby (ACL) has launched a
new 
