Australia @ a glance includes stories of interest from frontline organisations and individuals.
SA: URGENT ACTION needed on Steph Key’s Euthanasia Bill
Message from Family Voice | This is an urgent call to prayer and action over Steph Key’s euthanasia bill. Its full name is the
Criminal Law Consolidation (Medical Defences – End of Life Arrangements) Amendment Bill.
Doctors and lawyers have spoken out strongly against the bill, but a majority of MPs apparently
want to vote for it.
The bill would allow a doctor to intentionally kill a patient if the patient asks to die
Will Christ be cut from the school curriculum?
VoxAlert |You may have heard about the latest attempt to try to erase our Christian heritage – this time by discarding the terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini – “in the year of our Lord”) from the planned national history curriculum
The Hon Elaine Nile
The Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC and family, the Management Committee and the NSW State Council of the Christian Democratic Party are saddened to announce the death of the Hon Elaine Nile at 8.15 pm on Monday 17th October, 2011
Govt must find new money for secular school workers, not dilute chaplaincy money
ACL | Funding for new secular welfare workers in schools announced today by School Education Minister Peter Garrett must come from a separate program, not from the same pool of money funding chaplains, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.
ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had given an election commitment that the National School Chaplaincy Program would not be secularised.
“There is no problem with the Federal Government offering schools the choice between a secular worker and a faith-based chaplain but the Government’s commitment before the election was that the chaplaincy program would retain its unique faith-based pastoral care emphasis,” Mr Wallace said.
West is winning the long game: Howard on 9/11
08/09/11 Doug Conway, The Canberra Times| The West is winning the war on terrorism, former prime minister John Howard has declared. Mr Howard's message for Australians on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is that ''the terrorists have not succeeded''.
Mr Howard acknowledged the tragedy of the 2002 Bali bombings, which claimed 88 Australian lives among the 202 killed.
Overwhelming support for marriage to stay the same
Managing Director Jim Wallace said of the 29 MPs who spoke, 16 said an extraordinary in their electorates supported retaining the current definition of marriage, six said they favoured changed and five didn’t indicate the numbers in their electorate.
“The numbers in support of the traditional definition of marriage were overwhelming,” said Mr Wallace.
“For example, in the Federal seat of Hinkler Paul Neville reported support for marriage staying the same was 595 to 14; in the seat of Dawson George Christiansen reported 456 to 78; in the seat of O’Connor the member Tony Crook reported 523 to 115; in Deakin the member Mike Symon reported 1015 to 65, in Blaire the member Shayne Neumann reported 580 to 115;; in Cook Scott Morrison reported 850 to 50; in the seat of Cowan the member Luke Simpkins reported 903 to 103 and in Fowler the member Chris Hayes said 90 per cent of his electorate supported marriage.
John Howard looks back on 9-11
9 News |Ten years on from the September 11 attacks and for former Prime Minister John Howard, it seems like it was yesterday.
In Washington to meet President George W Bush, Mr Howard recalls a happy meeting — one day later, that happiness drained away as the world changed forever.
In an interview with Nine News, Mr Howard shares how he felt, how the secret service whisked him to a safe basement, how he knew immediately that military action would be the response and Australia would be right alongside American forces.
US credit rating downgrade could be a blessing in disguise
It may just be the catalyst to shock the public and spur leaders into action.
Peter Costello for SMH.com.au | President Barack Obama was furious: "No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple-A country."
I know how he feels. For over a decade as treasurer I would get an annual visit from the various ratings agencies, which would ask their standard questions. Their analysts were neither original nor especially bright. After a perfunctory review they would give a credit rating - a kind of exam mark - to the economy. There was little scrutiny of the people who were doing the review. They have extraordinary power but very little accountability
Institution of Marriage is linked to Children for the Sake of Children
In an extraordinary show of unity, more than 50 Australian national leaders of Christian Churches endorsed a document on the importance of marriage as a legal institution because it promotes and protects the identity of children and their internationally recognised right to know, have access to and be nurtured by both their mother and father.
The leaders note that the law has adapted in many ways to accommodate relationships other than marriage including making provisions for persons in de facto and same-sex relationships to have access to the same services that are available to married couples. However marriage remains different and the legal recognition of marriage is needed for the purpose of securing that relationship and the children's relationship within the family unit to both a mother and a father. Children have a right to the complementary experiences of mothering and fathering as far as possible.
Committee for Preservation of Marriage c/o PO BOX 4215 Black Rock North VIC 3193 email: djpalmer@pcvic.org.au
Australian Muslim women choose to live by own code
Daily Telegraph |WHEN Australian Muslim Frida Dakiz's marriage dissolved she was granted a divorce by her local imam.
The 33-year-old dress shop manager said it was only after she was officially separated by religious law that she considered secular options.
Ms Dakiz is among thousands of Australian Muslims living by a shadow civil code known as sharia law.And despite the arrests this week of three men who police allege carried out a sharia law punishment, Ms Dakiz and 28-year-old friend Rebecca Kay yesterday said their traditions have a place in Australian society.
The sharia is the code of conduct in Islam and its applications cover marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody of children. The power of an Islamic leader, known as an imam, to settle disputes is not officially sanctioned by the Australian legal system, yet it is happening every day in Sydney's western suburbs.
Tas Labor puts Greens’ priorities ahead of election promises
Labor is increasingly being led by the Greens with the Tasmanian ALP conference voting against key election promises made by the Federal Party, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.
Votes to scrap chaplains and introduce gay marriage at the Tasmanian ALP conference this weekend show that Labor is prepared to put the Greens’ policy agenda ahead of its own election promises .
Jim Wallace & pro-marriage team withdraw from debate over gay activists’ tactics
Australian Christian Lobby |The Australian Christian Lobby’s Managing Director Jim Wallace today joined what would have been fellow debating team members Tasmanian Liberal MP Michael Ferguson and the Australian Family Association’s Terri Kelleher in withdrawing from a debate on gay marriage at the University of Tasmania, in protest at the increasing use of demonisation tactics by gay activists in pursuing their agenda.
Saltshakers News Links: |
Sharia law at work in Australia from The Australian
- SHARIA law has become a shadow legal system within Australia, endorsing polygamous and underage marriages that are outlawed under the Marriage Act.
A system of "legal pluralism" based on sharia law "abounds" in Australia, according to new research by legal academics Ann Black and Kerrie Sadiq.They have found that Australian Muslims have long been complying with the shadow system of religious law as well as mainstream law.
From the Archives - The Sheikh of Melbourne, 2001:
Sheikh Fehmi Iman
It used to be at the time the late Mr Snedden he was the Attorney General. So I had a good meeting with him one day and tried to convince him that it is important for the Muslim to marry their own people. But he used to say to me. Well you know Sheikh Fehmi that you Muslims may marry more than one and when we are not allowed to let anybody here for have only one wife. I said to him, listen to me please you may register the first one and don't worry about the second one. He laughed and said all right we won't have anything to do with the second one
. I stopped at the idea and at the time we had gained recognition from the Attorney General for all our Imams around Australia from that year onward.
Man+Wife4Life
From Make A Stand Website
In Brief | Late last year the Federal Parliament passed a Greens’ motion calling on MPs to consult with their constituents on whether Australia should introduce same-sex marriage. The motion is putting enormous pressure on the Gillard Government to renege on itselection promise to keep marriage between a man and a woman. It is vital we show politicians that there are a large number of people who do not want marriage redefined.
ACTION:
Sign the petition in support of marriage;
Email your member of parliament to say marriage has too many benefits for children and society to be redefined;
Ring your MP's office to voice your concern (contact details are available by clicking here - if you do not know your electorate please click here); and,
Preferably, make an appointment to visit your MP.
Please take action straight away!
'If the Gospel is Preached, Lives Should be Changed!'
The inspiring story of Indigenous Ministry Links Australia
Bev Holmes-Brown | Carl and Gail Musch are the founders of Indigenous Ministry Links Australia (IMLA), a non-denominational networking of aboriginal ministries that is supported by a multi-cultural core team. Carl, himself of English Convict, Austrian and Apache (Native American) decent, has since 1987 been committed to evangelism, discipleship, ministry development, and church planting, among Australian Aboriginal people, with provenfruit in what is recognized as a difficult field.
"Most people will never know what it is really like on the field," says Carl, describing his life as a missionary to the Northern Territory of Australia.
"On summer nights I sleep on the roof of my truck and in winter I put my swag down on the ground close to the car as it is warmer there. I am not always thrilled with my accommodation options and there are very few luxuries in the places I visit," he explained.
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Will Christ be cut from the school curriculum?
Govt must find new money for secular school workers, not dilute chaplaincy money
US credit rating downgrade could be a blessing in disguise 
Jim Wallace & pro-marriage team withdraw from debate over gay activists’ tactics
Saltshakers News Links: | 
'If the Gospel is Preached, Lives Should be Changed!'