Religion & Ethics Australia Digest



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

No. 034, 22-28 April 2005 ² edited by Rod Benson









News & opinion

Aboriginal & indigenous affairs

Indigenous children who drop out of school will be forced to do a TAFE course under a radical Howard Government plan to stop them languishing on Aboriginal work-for-the-dole programs. Aust 22 Apr 05


Abortion

A bill before the US Senate hopes to better inform mothers about diagnosed disabilities, while a study confirms that women feel pressured to terminate their pregnancy if tests find a disability. More.


The election of an unstintingly conservative pope could inject a powerful new force into the intense conflicts in American politics over abortion and other social issues, which put many Catholic elected officials at odds with their church. The New York Times 21 Apr 05


Abuse - sexual


At Bankstown Town Hall last month, just three kilometres from the scene of one of the most horrific of the gang rapes of 2000, Sheik Faiz Mohamad, a young and popular Lebanese Muslim sheik, told an audience of 1000 that rape victims have "no one to blame but themselves".
SMH 24 Apr 05


ANZAC Day

Dr Tom Frame, Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force, delivered the address at the Anzac Day Dawn Service, Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Transcript.


"ANZAC Day opens a space for quiet reflection on the stupid waste and unbearable loss that wars deliver," Rod Benson said, reflecting on the contemporary significance of ANZAC Day. More.


"The characteristic act of men at war is not dying, it is killing." Michael Duffy interviews Joanna Bourke. More.


The Anzacs who fought 90 years ago paid a "terrible price" but had won glory, General Peter Cosgrove, head of the Defence Forces, said at the Gallipoli dawn service yesterday. But his New Zealand counterpart, Vice-Marshal Bruce Ferguson, said "there was no glory 90 years ago"- only a tragic slaughter of young men on all sides. SMH 26 Apr 05 *


War is certainly hellish. It is certainly the last resort. But to say it is futile, as New Zealand Chief of the Defence Force Bruce Ferguson has done, is really very stupid, writes Greg Sheridan. Aust 28 Apr 05 *


Bioethics - AID


A widow is fighting a landmark Supreme Court battle to become pregnant with her dead husband's sperm. The Age 27 Apr 05


Bioethics - IVF


IVF pioneer and Melbourne IVF chairman John McBain has attacked the Howard Government's plans to cut funding of the treatment for older women as discriminatory and dangerous to neo-natal health. Herald Sun 25 Apr 05


A fertility support network today criticised the government's claims IVF was a non-essential treatment, saying the health minister should "stay out of the bedroom" of Australian women.
SMH 27 Apr 05


Liberal Party women have broken ranks to attack the Howard Government's plan to limit IVF treatment for infertile couples. Aust 28 Apr 05


They tried 10 times and each time it failed, leaving them bitterly disappointed, but a determined Gail Humphreys and her husband, Craig, decided to give IVF one last chance. On their 11th and final attempt - three years after they first started the emotionally taxing IVF procedures - Mrs Humphreys fell pregnant. She was 43 and had spent tens of thousands of dollars on medical bills. SMH 28 Apr 05 *


Bioethics - stem cells


Citing a lack of leadership by the federal government, the National Academy of Sciences proposed ethical guidelines yesterday for research with human embryonic stem cells. The New York Times 27 Apr 05 *


Bioethics - withdrawal of treatment

The parents of critically ill baby Charlotte Wyatt today lost the latest round in their continuing battle to keep their daughter alive, following the ruling of a high court judge. The Guardian 21 Apr 05


Capital punishment

An Afghan man killed his daughter for allegedly committing adultery, officials said on Sunday, but denied reports that she was stoned to death. SMH 25 Apr 05


China

There is little sign of any greater political freedom, despite economic reform, writes Peter Hartcher. SMH 22 Apr 05 *


Drug trafficking

This week's arrest of nine Australians in Bali on heroin-trafficking charges is a success for law enforcement. But such would-be narcotics entrepreneurs are also responding to the profit opportunities created by past successes in seizing heroin and arresting key distributors, writes Michael Warby. Aust 22 Apr 05 *


The Australian's leader reflects on what it calls "the just war on drugs."
Aust 23 Apr 05


The 21-year-old alleged godfather of the Bali heroin syndicate told his Australian smugglers to follow his orders or he would kill their families. SMH 22 Apr 05


Catholic Cardinal George Pell says he will appeal for clemency if any of the nine Australians arrested in Bali for drug smuggling are convicted and given the death penalty. He also said he would be prepared to take their case to new Pope Benedict XVI. SMH 22 Apr 05


Education - tertiary


Student debt is set to soar, with a new forecast revealing that fee-paying university students will borrow $825 million a year by 2008 to pay for degrees costing up to $200,000. SMH 22 Apr 05


Employment


Being sacked can set people on a slippery slope, writes Matt O'Sullivan.
SMH 26 Apr 05


Reinstating a worker meant providing them with a job, not just a pay cheque, Australia's High Court has ruled. The court found an Australian Industrial Relations Commission order for reinstatement of an employee required the employer to provide actual work to the employee. SMH 27 Apr 05 *


Environment


A day's work in the garden nearly three years ago has proved an expensive exercise for Anthony Tauszik. His decision in June 2002 to illegally cut down two Norfolk Island pines standing between his Pearl Beach weekender and the ocean has cost him a $25,000 fine and several hundred thousand dollars in legal fees. SMH 23 Apr 05


The owner of Kurnell's last significant dune has vowed to remove it and use it for concrete after the State Government rejected its mining application. SMH 28 Apr 05


Ethics - business


Corporate regulators are considering a crackdown on the use of share derivatives in takeover targets amid concerns that the practice could become a means of circumventing disclosure rules.
Aust 25 Apr 05


Coles Myer has been hit with one of the biggest fines imposed on an Australian company for anti-competitive behaviour after the retail giant admitted trying to out-muscle smaller pub and bottleshop owners. Aust 27 Apr 05


Ethics - medical


Geoff Dob clearly remembers the exhaustion of his first six months as a junior doctor: expected to work 128 hours a week and 36-hour shifts. Aust 23 Apr 05


The senior nurse who blew the whistle on the Dr Death scandal attacked Premier Peter Beattie's inquiry as "lacking independence" amid a furore over the appointment of Sir Llew Edwards, whose PR company provides crisis management and media spin for the Medical Board of Queensland, as deputy royal commissioner. The Courier-Mail 26 Apr 05


The University of NSW was heading for a "train wreck" from the moment it set up its first inquiry into allegations of research misconduct against the transplant immunologist Professor Bruce Hall. SMH 27 Apr 05 Also Aust 27 Apr 05


Plastic surgeons today condemned a Channel 5 programme which shows live cosmetic surgery as "voyeuristic and pornographic". The Guardian 27 Apr 05


Foreign affairs


Malaysia's leader, Abdullah Badawi, has rebuked the Prime Minister for Australia's reluctance to sign a friendship treaty with South-East Asia. SMH 25 Apr 05


Health policy

Victorian doctors could get away with murder under the state's honour system for certifying deaths. This worst-case scenario is presented in a parliamentary discussion paper. Sunday Age 24 Apr 05


HIV/AIDS

People exposed to HIV are being denied access to a lifesaving treatment that acts like a "morning-after" pill and can prevent infection by the virus. The Times 21 Apr 05


Homosexual rights


Spanish deputies have approved a government bill allowing homosexuals to marry and adopt children. If, as expected, the bill is endorsed by the Spanish parliament's upper house, it will make Spain only the third European country to allow gay marriages. Aust 23 Apr 05


Elton John intends to "marry" his long-time partner, David Furnish, before the end of the year in a civil ceremony. gay marriages are not permitted in Britain. However, after December 5, homosexual couples will be able to have "civil partnerships" recognised under law, allowing them some of the same tax and inheritance benefits enjoyed under marriage. SMH 26 Apr 05 *


Housing

Public housing tenants in NSW will lose the right to life-long government housing and many will face substantial rent increases this year, the NSW Government has warned. SMH 27 Apr 05


Parenting


TV's super nanny Jo Frost is a "devil version of Mary Poppins" whose child-rearing methods are likely to cause long-term damage, say two Australian child-development experts. SMH 24 Apr 05


It is clear from the extraordinary success of Channel Nine's Monday-night program Supernanny that Australian parents are suffering a crisis of confidence in their child-rearing skills, writes Miranda Devine. SMH 28 Apr 05


Pharmaceuticals


Australian Federal Police executed search warrants in Perth yesterday as part of a global swoop on "rogue" internet pharmacies illegally selling prescription drugs. SMH 22 Apr 05


Policing


Five senior NSW police officers, including Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden, are to be investigated by the Police Integrity Commission amid claims over the police promotions system. SMH 23 Apr 05


Politics - Australia


Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who died today at age 94, occupies a unique place in Australian political history. No other premier inspired such deep affection and equally great loathing among his own constituency and the nation. SMH 23 Apr 05 *


The end finally came for former Queensland Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen last night, after a week in which he should have departed but instead proved himself stubborn to the end. SMH 24 Apr 05


Memorable quotes from Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's political career. SMH 23 Apr 05


Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's passing provides no reason to forget, or forgive, the way he governed Queensland and his disdain for the core values of our political culture, declares The Australian. Aust 25 Apr 05 *


Joh Bjelke-Petersen was one of the first television politicians in Australia, Allen Callaghan writes. Aust 28 Apr 05 *


Popular culture


Dan Brown's blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code is about to sell its 1 millionth copy in Australia. SMH 24 Apr 05


Population


Sydney's increasing transport congestion and chronic housing shortage have forced desperate planners to target Newcastle and other Hunter Valley towns to squeeze in an extra 300,000 people in the next 25 years. SMH 25 Apr 05


Pornography


Almost one in six children as young as eight who use the internet have been exposed to online pornography. Aust 23 Apr 05 *


Refugees


The Western left was not only naive, it turned its back on Vietnamese asylum seekers in the late 1970s, writes Gerard Henderson. SMH 26 Apr 05


Taxation


A single tax rate could set Australia up for another burst of economic growth, writes Mike Steketee. Aust 28 Apr 05 *
Tourism


Tua Koin has become a weekend getaway for Dili residents and a destination for divers drawn to the waters and reefs around East Timor. It is also home to an eco village: simple, beachside huts built and owned by the local community that have become something of a template for plans to develop "ethical tourism." SMH 23 Apr 05


Trade


Using the trade practices of the Yir Yoront Aborigines living at the mouth of the Coleman River on the Cape York Peninsula as an example, Ross Gittins expounds the law of comparative advantage. SMH 25 Apr 05


Vilification - religious


Robin Fletcher, a 49-year-old bisexual witch serving a 10-year sentence for drugging, enslaving, sexually assaulting and prostituting two 15-year-old girls, is using Victoria's controversial religious tolerance laws to sue the Salvation Army, Corrections Victoria and others. Herald Sun 27 Apr 05 *


War


Anzac Day became the launch-pad for Australia's military mission to southern Iraq. Aust 26 Apr 05


Workplace safety


Employers are preparing to attack workplace safety laws following a High Court decision they say places more responsibility on workers to avoid accidents. SMH 22 Apr 05
















Other items of interest


Russell Thirgood, National President of Amnesty International, addressed a Major Issues and Theology meeting in Sydney on issues of Guantanamo Bay and the International Criminal Court. More.


Many churches today seem to be ecclesiastical versions of 'Who Wants to be Millionaire?' How does their and our message stack up against the biblical message about poverty and prosperity? asks Gordon Preece. More.


Ted Olson writes on what the new pope believes about the papacy, and whether he might change it. More.


Christians are sounding the alarm about the ethics of the US retail giant Walmart. Are the worries justified? More.


Are there limits to the capacity of stories to provide answers to complex moral problems? Philosopher Raimond Gaita and storyteller Arnold Zable attempt to understand our relationship to both these traditions. 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. Abbreviations: AFR=The Australian Financial Review; Aust=The Australian; SMH=The Sydney Morning Herald. An asterisc (*) following an entry indicates that the article contains significant new information. To receive a free copy of READ by email each week, email and type "subscribe to READ" in the subject line.