The penalty for not participating in politics is to be governed by your inferiors." (Plato)

Good News! Same-sex "marriage" bill defeated

A National Agenda for Religious Freedom

A paper by Professor Patrick Parkinson, University of Sydney - November 2009

People of faith have numerous concerns about threats to religious freedom in Australia, both at state and federal levels, deriving from an attitude of hostility towards religious belief, morals and practice among some in the Australian population. Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. It is guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international instruments in the clearest and strongest terms.

Religious freedom can be further defined by the following five basic freedoms. These freedoms are:

 Freedom to manifest a religion through religious observance and practice

 Freedom to appoint people of faith to organisations run by faith communities

 Freedom to teach and uphold moral standards within faith communities

 Freedom of conscience to discriminate between right and wrong

 Freedom to teach and persuade others.

The Federal Government should protect religious freedom by:

Putting Politics in Perspective

24/02 SA Senator, Cori Bernardi | Election campaigns tend to heighten sensitivities. Every perceived slight is magnified under the intensity of media scrutiny and it is often hard to stand your ground under such relentless pressure.

This was brought home to me recently when I noticed an independent upper house candidate standing on an anti-abortion platform. His campaign posters, featuring a healthy baby, were dotted on stobie poles along Adelaide's major thoroughfares.

It was the first time I can recall seeing a one issue anti-abortion platform used in a political campaign and instinctively I wondered how long before the hate campaign against him would begin.

It didn't take long. By Monday morning Adelaide's talkback radio stations had irate pro-choice advocates decrying the posters as 'humiliating to women'. The Democrats (yes they still exist) candidate said the posters were 'offensive' and needed to be taken down.

It strikes me as ironic that those who preach the most about tolerance, or demand the right to free speech, are often so intolerant of others having a differing view.

The hypocrisy of the left-of-centre political advocates in acceptable campaign techniques is simply breathtaking. By some twisted logic, the left can campaign against seal clubbing and whale harvesting by showing bloodied and distressed animals on television, yet an anti-abortion campaigner can't run for office showing a picture of a healthy baby.

A peaceful political campaign by a committed individual defending the unborn is considered offensive, yet acts of piracy on the high seas in defence of whales is worthy of hero status.

South Australia: Creation banned from Christian school science classrooms

25/2 Australian Christian Lobby | In a disturbing development for Christian schools in South Australia, a new science teaching policy has been introduced which appears to be trying to prevent the inclusion of creationism or intelligent design in the science curriculum in non-government schools
.
The change in policy by the SA Non-Government Schools Registration Board apparently took place in December last year without any genuine consultation with affected school organisations.

Peter Slipper, (Fisher, Liberal Party):

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 is legislation that is supported by both sides of the chamber. It is legislation which, in practice, probably does not have any real effect, because the crime of torture is already a crime under Australia’s laws—particularly state and territory laws—and also, the death penalty does not exist anywhere within the states or territories of Australia. It certainly does not exist at the Commonwealth level.

.... With respect to the death penalty, that is a subject which has occupied a lot of public debate in this country and in other countries around the world. I place on record that I do not support the death penalty, although in the past I have been able to understand how some groups in the community might believe that the death penalty is an appropriate penalty for certain sorts of particularly gross crimes: child murder, maybe murder involving torture and so on. However, I am someone who has always been opposed to abortion, and I am opposed to euthanasia. It occurred to me that to be consistent, if I am opposed to state sanctioned killing I had also to become very strongly opposed to the death penalty. I see that consistency as being very important. You cannot pick and choose; in my view you cannot, with a sense of intellectual honesty, support state sanctioned killing at one level and not support state sanctioned at another level.

I do understand that, particularly after there has been a horrendous crime committed somewhere around the world or in the country, if one did take a plebiscite of the community people would often vote for the death penalty. However, this legislation will mean that the death penalty will not be able to be imposed at state or federal level anywhere in Australia in the future (Full speech)

Luke Simpkins, (Cowan, Liberal Party):

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party)

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009

"In November last year I was in my parliamentary office preparing my speech in support of this important legislation which imports into Australian domestic law the principles contained in the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, an instrument that Australia has been a party to since 1989, and the provisions of the second optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

While I was in the office that day, the mail was delivered. Among the envelopes addressed to me was a handwritten one with stamps indicating that it had been sent from Indonesia. I opened the envelope to find inside a Christmas card. The card was from Scott Rush, one of the young Australians on death row in Indonesia. He wrote:

Kerobokan Prison 18 November 2009

Dear Ms Parke, peace be with you this Christmas. I thank you for all you have done for me again this year. God Bless, Scott Rush.

Despite all this young man is going through, he had the presence of mind and the kindness to write this lovely card. This Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Bill 2009 is for Scott and for those imprisoned with him on death row, whatever their nationality and whatever their crime. This bill is for all those who have gone before them for whom it is too late.

Queensland: Bligh misleads Parliament on surrogacy for singles and homosexuals

18/2 Australian Christian Lobby | "... We have been trolling through the Hansard looking at the speeches of those Labor MPs who voted to rob some children of a mother and a father by extending surrogacy to singles and homosexuals.

A speech every Queenslander should read is Premier Anna Bligh’s. Breathtaking in its disdain for the rights of the child, it also misleads the Parliament.

“Queensland would be the only state in Australia that would prohibit single people from accessing surrogacy arrangements or discriminate against people on the basis of same-sex relationships,” Ms Bligh told Parliament.

This is untrue.

PM under pressure on the wrongs of human rights

17/02 Paul Kelly, The Australian | The Prime Minister will likely fall into a trap if he tries to woo both sides on this issue

THE Rudd government is now overdue to respond to Frank Brennan's 2009 report seeking new policy and legal entrenchments of human rights: a "true believers" agenda largely deserted by the Australian people.

The long-run strategy of the Brennan report is the transformation of Australia's political culture. It seeks a culture where people see themselves and others as "rights-holding entities" and operate on this basis, where the rights culture is entrenched in the school curriculum and where the public service, from Centrelink to the police station, is re-educated and compelled by law to take a series of human rights into account in all decision-making.

Passage of a human rights act is the core recommendation. But Brennan's report, critically, recommends a series of administrative and legislative changes short of a human rights act that gets the cultural change immediately rolling. The key to Brennan's report is to see its incremental steps as part of a long journey to a different Australia. It is the opening chapter in a minority campaign by lawyers, the human rights lobby and advocacy groups to change the way Australia is governed.

Since its release last October, the report has attracted almost a dead silence, evidence it is not a priority for most Australians.

Guess what Julia, nurses are worse off under your award “modernisation”

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Shadow Minister for Ageing | The reports of nurses working in aged care facilities losing up to $250 to $300 a week under Julia Gillard’s Fair Work Laws will only worsen the shortage of aged care nurses and is another blow to the aged care sector, says the Shadow Minister for Ageing, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

“The only advice Ms Gillard could give to aged care nurses when asked on radio 2UE this morning was to ‘get onto Fair Work Australia or talk to their union’.

Clearly, Julia Gillard is not listening to the NSW Nurses Association which has revealed that under Labor’s Award “Modernisation”, 15,000 aged care nurses in Queensland and NSW will face a $300 a week pay cut.

Islamic Finance

Austrade Media Release | Trade Minister Simon Crean today launched the Australian Government’s first-ever comprehensive publication on Islamic finance.

The booklet Islamic Finance provides a detailed explanation of the opportunities that booming Shariah-compliant investment and banking offers Australia’s financial services sector.

Australia is well positioned to service almost 1 billion Muslims who live in the Asia-Pacific region and to tap into petrodollar liquidity.

“Islamic financing is a crucial plank in the Government’s strategy to make Australia a financial hub in the Asia Pacific region,” Mr Crean said.

The purpose of this publication is to raise public awareness of Islamic finance in Australia and to promote opportunities for
Islamic finance in Australia. This publication does not seek to examine potential tax issues and legislation relating to Shariahcompliant
financial products

View the Islamic Finance PDF

Read Also: Westpac to embrace Islamic finance market - Westpac Banking Corporation plans to boost its exposure to the rapidly expanding Islamic finance market, by offering a commodity trading facility intended for overseas investors operating under the Sharia principles of Islamic law, The Age reported.

Islamic Banking – Reality and Myth

Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli* | "... Islamic economic institutions claim to operate on the basis of "zero interest." However, critics of Islamic banking argue that the fundamental practice of charging interest (e.g., charging a premium on the principal amount of the loan, for the time value of the loaned money) is not truly eliminated in Islamic banking, but is merely relabeled and disguised using various legal tricks. The Financial Times, drawing on the book Islamic Banking - A $300 billion Deception by a former adviser to Islamic banks, Mohammad Salim, referred to these practices as "financial smoke and mirrors." Arab and Muslim critics have likened them to "contractum trinius," a method devised by European bankers in the Middle Ages to circumvent the church laws against charging interest on borrowed money.

In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, titled "The Non-Usury Deception," Kuwaiti banker Ahmad Al-Sarraf maintains that dealing with conventional banks is less costly than dealing with the Islamic banks. Founded on principles and practices developed over centuries, the conventional banks know their way around, while the Islamic banks have yet to find their bearings, in the absence of traditions to guide their activity. Citing fundamentalist cleric Professor Hamid Al-'Ali, who teaches Islamic culture in a college in Kuwait, Al-Sarraf explains that the Islamic banks disguise usury by inventing documents that appear on the surface as sales documents, but that are actually interest-bearing loans. Therefore, anyone who distinguishes between traditional and Islamic banks is ignorant, he says. Al-Sarraf adds that most of the Islamic banks are guided by well-paid clerics who are employed by the bank, and issue rulings according to the bank's needs. The entire corpus of paperwork created by these Islamic banks, Al-Sarraf concludes, is in violation of the rules of the shari'a and is inherently deceptive ..."

Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli is Senior Analyst (emeritus) at MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute)

R18+ Games Inquiry - submissions due soon!

The Inquiry into R18+ rated computer games is still on - submissions are due by February 28, 2010.

If you haven't sent your submission yet - now is the time to ACT!

Currently R18+ rated computer games - which contain high levels of sex and violence - are BANNED in Australia. This includes the very violent game Manhunt and BMX XXX which features topless riders and video clips of strippers.

However the Rudd government is considering whether the R18+ classification category should be extended to include computer games.

Visit the Saltshakers Campaign page to find out more

Labor feels the heat for denying kids a mum and a dad

Australian Christian Lobby | Thousands of people have expressed their outrage at a government bill denying children their right to a mum and a dad.

A Queensland Parliament E-Petition sponsored by Independent MP Chris Foley has attracted 2000 signatures since Monday while hundreds of people have used the ACL’s Makeastand.org website today to e-mail their Member of Parliament directly.

One thousand people signed the E-Petition today.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said grassroots opposition was building fast but would be sadly cut short because the Government had brought the vote on quickly before the ramifications of the Surrogacy Bill registered with the community.

Bligh’s law will be a blight on party’s re-election chances

Australian Christian Lobby | Today’s passing of Queensland legislation which, among other things, will enable two men, two women or a single person to “order” a baby via surrogacy, is a blight on the State and will have ramifications on sections of all future generations of Queenslanders, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the Queensland Government had displayed a distinct lack of moral courage in bowing to the political agenda of the gay and lesbian rights lobby to obtain children and had blatantly disregarded the most basic rights of children to at least begin life with both a mother and a father.

“Each MP who voted for the Qld surrogacy bill has failed to meet their most sacred duty to uphold the best interests of the child,” Mr Wallace said.

“We will be looking at ways to ensure that Christian disappointment and disgust at what has been done can be fully expressed during the next election period.”.

QLD: Labor MPs to cross the floor on surrogacy Bill

11/02 Courier Mail | TWO Labor MPs have crossed the floor to vote against the Bligh Government's plan to allow gay couples and single parents to have children through surrogacy.

But it was not enough to scuttle the Bill which was passed at 8pm, 45 votes to 36 following a marathon debate. Seven MPs did not cast a final vote on the Bill.

... Former Minister Margaret Keech and Capalaba MP Michael Choi told Parliament they could not support the entire Bill that decriminalises altruistic surrogacy without severely compromising their consciences.

"It is never easy to disagree with colleagues...(but) at times even the best of friends disagree," Mr Choi said. He revealed he had concerns about the practice of surrogacy because there was a pre-meditated intention to separate a child from their birth mother. But Mr Choi added that he may have been persuaded to support it as a last resort for infertile heterosexual couples but he could not back a Bill which also "pre-destined" a child to grow up in a family with just one parent or with two parents of the same sex.

Jim Wallace on same-sex surrogacy

ACL | “It seems that we are increasingly faced with a blatant disregard for what is right these days.

At the time of writing we have the Queensland Government about to legislate for access to surrogacy for homosexuals and singles in defiance not only of Christian opinion, but nature itself.

As with Victoria before it, we have a State Attorney-General, and in this case Premier, determined to pass this legislation – whatever we, the people, think.

QLD: New controversial surrogacy laws debated in parliament

Courier Mail | DEBATE is continuing into the night on controversial laws that will enable gay couples and single people to have a baby through altruistic surrogacy.

State Parliament will sit until late tonight to discuss the Bill which decriminalises altruistic surrogacy but it is now not expected to be passed until tomorrow with dozens of MPs still to speak on it.

The Opposition is opposing the Bill while Labor MPs will be given a conscience vote although this is not expected to block it.

LNP MP Rob Messenger compared surrogacy arrangements to the Stolen Generation. "Surrogacy still involves taking away a baby from its birth mother and it is fraught with moral, ethical and physical danger," he said.

ACL urges Labor not to trample children’s rights

Glynis Quinlan, Australian Christian Lobby | With debate about to start today on the Surrogacy Bill 2009, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has written to all Queensland Labor and Independent MPs urging them to do what is right and delay and split the bill so that surrogacy for single adults and same-sex couples is considered separately.

“It is wrong, and an act of little less than deceit, that the Bligh Government is making the pretence of this being a conscience vote, while refusing to split the government bill to allow any real choice on whether to support heterosexual altruistic surrogacy without supporting surrogacy for homosexuals and singles,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace wrote in the letter to Labor MPs.

QLD: More Misinformation from Premier Bligh

Australian Christian Lobby | Queensland Premier Anna Bligh appeared to be suggesting in Parliament this afternoon that Queensland would be out of step with other States if it did not extend surrogacy to homosexuals and singles.

Senate debates: Dr Patricia Giles AM

Louise Pratt, Australian Labor Party Senator for WA | It is my great pleasure tonight to speak about the enormous contribution made by former Senator Pat Giles. Last week, Dr Giles’s contribution was recognised through her inclusion in the Australia Day honours list. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia last Tuesday for services to the community through a number of organisations that promote the interests of women, including the Women’s Electoral Lobby, through the union movement and as a senator for Western Australia for 12 years. As a fellow Western Australian and as someone lucky enough to know Dr Giles, I am delighted that her service to the Australian community and her advocacy on behalf of Australian women has received this recognition.

Pat Giles is part of a powerful network of feminists in the Labor Party who paved the way for the next generation of women, including women parliamentarians like myself. These women were at the forefront of critical campaigns for women’s rights at work, women’s leadership in the trade union movement, abortion law reform, improved education for girls, women-friendly health services, adequate support for single mothers and women’s representation in parliament. I, for one, will never forget that Pat Giles and others like her are behind many of the rights we take for granted today. She is an inspiration to me and a role model. Without her and her sisters in the labour movement, women like me would not be sitting in the chamber today.

...Like many of the women of her generation elected to parliament, Pat Giles brought with her a wealth of life experience. She was over 50 when she arrived in this place. She was a mother of five, a qualified nurse and midwife, a successful mature-age university student and a single parent for the last five years. And like many feminist activists of her generation, her first involvement in public life stemmed from and drew on that life experience as an activist ..."

ACMA out of touch on TV standards

Lyle Shelton , Australian Christian Lobby | The Australian Communication and Media Authority’s (ACMA) assertions in Senate Estimates this afternoon that television standards had not been weakened under the new code of practice defy belief, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.

Free TV Australia’s Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, approved just days before Christmas, removed the requirement for sex and nudity to be “discreetly” implied in MA programs and allows MA rated material to be advertised during children’s viewing times.

Senate Inquiry into Greens' same-sex 'marriage’ Bill

The Senate's Inquiry Committee handed down its report late last year and recommended no change to the marriage Act

Pro homosexual marriage activists organised rallies in November for every capital city. The once again exaggerated the number of people attending. In total, we estimate, from our people and newspaper reports, that there were only around 2,500 protesters across the whole nation. They are now gearing up to increase the pressure on the government to change the marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage.

• Praise God that the Senate Committee rejected the Greens calls for same-sex marriage.

• Pray that the pro same-sex marriage rallies planned for 2010 will be poorly attended

• Pray that those people caught up in same-sex relationships – Pray that they will be set free from the sin and seek new life and freedom in Christ Jesus.

No changes to adoption laws in NSW

The NSW government have deferred any changes to adoption laws in NSW sighting differing opinions in the community.

Praise God for this decision.

The sexualisation and objectification of young women and girls

Amanda Rishworth, Labor Connect |  A recent report by the American Psychological Association has highlighted the reality that the increasing exposure of young girls to content which objectifies women and girls is having a serious effect on their physical and mental health, including an increase in low self esteem, body dissatisfaction, anxiety about appearance and depression.

This finding only reinforces what most people already accept as the logical connection between the increased exposure of our youth to content that objectifies women and the growth in mental health issues related to self-esteem and body image. It also presents an opportunity to discuss the need for a cultural shift which is based on health concerns as opposed to moral objection.

At the heart of the issue is the reality that sex sells. This cardinal rule of advertising can be seen on the earliest tobacco advertising which featured stylised drawings of starlets inserted in cigarette packs. Today, sexy images of women are being used to sell everything, from cars to spring water and internet access. Many such ads are targeted at men, but ads for products aimed at women are often similar. 

 

More than a statistic

Australian Christian Lobby | A few weeks ago we highlighted the absurd situation where the death of an unborn child (after 20 weeks) is recognised in the Victorian road toll, but it is not a crime to cause the death. If the mother is injured charges may follow, but the death of the unborn is considered just as a statistic.

Well now you have the chance to do something about this “anomaly”. Nancy Asani, whose baby was killed at 37 weeks gestation, has launched a petition to Victoria’s Attorney-General.

Please click here to add your voice to recognise the reality of life in the womb being more than a statistic.

Service of Prayer and Worship Mark the Opening of the 2010 Parliamentary Year

Praise God that our leaders are willing to organise, attend and participate in this service.

The hymns ‘How Great Thou Art’, ‘The God of All Eternity’ and ‘Lord of Earth and All Creation’ were sung with conviction.

Prayers of thanksgiving, confession and forgiveness as well as the Lord’s prayer were made by our leaders, members of the clergy, diplomats, leaders of the armed forces and community representatives.

In the sermon encouragement was given to approach the task of leadership with humility and an attitude of service by descending into greatness, as Jesus did.

The following scriptures were read.

Prime Minister – Mr Kevin Rudd – Psalm 8

Leader of the Opposition – Mr Tony Abbott – Philippians 1: 12-20

New Members

Launch of Labor Connect

This week we launched Australian Labor’s new website and online social hub Labor Connect. Labor Connect is a new place for Labor supporters and the wider community to connect with each other and participate in current progressive policy debates.
 
Creating a vibrant and active online community fulfils an important resolution from the Party's National Conference last year but also reflects the ongoing tradition of Australian Labor as the people's Party.  Through Labor Connect we’ve made it easy to participate and be heard.

Time to scrap Rudd climate plan - academics

Their call comes as a Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers today, shows Australians prefer the federal coalition's climate action policy..

Dad AND mum matter: please act today for Qld kids

Australian Christian Lobby | Some children will be deliberately denied a mother AND a father if a bill before the Queensland Parliament to make surrogacy available to homosexuals and singles is passed.

While the desires of adults are important, they should never trump the rights of a child which all governments are bound to uphold.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) has already signalled its opposition to homosexual surrogacy and many Labor MPs are known to be uncomfortable with this radical social engineering, which has profound impacts for the lives of children.

ACL is urging all Queensland supporters to urgently contact their local Member of Parliament and express opposition to the idea of depriving a child of its mother or father.

More information is available at our Wanted: Mum AND Dad campaign on the www.makeastand.org.au website.

The Surrogacy Bill 2009 is due to be debated when Parliament resumes on February 9, having been delayed before Christmas.
The move comes as the NSW Labor Government recently said no to allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples because it deprived them of a mother and father figure, something the Bligh Government also did last year when it reformed adoption laws.
It makes no sense for the Queensland Government to be violating a parenting principle it upheld in its adoption law.

Parliamentary year gets underway in church

Australian Christian Lobby | The new Federal parliamentary year began on Tuesday in the best way possible – at church.

The annual service to mark the opening of parliament, was held at the Presbyterian Church of St Andrew in Forrest this year, with the sermon given by the Anglican Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Rt Rev Stuart Robinson

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and a range of MPs from both sides of politics were among those who attended the service, which is arranged each year by the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and the ACT Churches’ Council.

In an inspiring address, Rt Rev Robinson spoke on descending into greatness and challenged elected Members of Parliament that they have been called by Christ to public service.

This is a good message for politicians to take with them as they begin a big election year.

My School

Julia Gillard, Labor Connect | Last week, for the first time ever, parents and the broader community were able to access rich, comprehensive information about every one of Australia’s 10,000 schools; primary and secondary, government and non-government. 

On My School parents are able to find out about their child's school including the number of students at the school, the number of teachers at the school and how the school is performing in national literacy and numeracy testing. The website will show parents how their school is performing against the national average as well as compared to similar schools across the country.

The penalty for not participating in politics is to be governed by your inferiors." (Plato)