Pell’s Appeal – The Final Steps
Reading Time: 4 minutesGeorge Pell has one remaining avenue of appeal – the High Court. However, the prerequisites to such an appeal suggest that it is highly unlikely to be heard.
Category: OPINION
To Understand Folau, Understand Christian Beliefs
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe beliefs expressed by Folau are also held by a number of Australian Christian denominations. In particular, there is absolutely no doubt that some Christian beliefs may incite hatred and even violence. However, religious belief does not legally justify the breaking of the law. For that reason, an appreciation of what the expression or exercise of some Christian religious beliefs can entail is required in order to understand why the expression of some religious beliefs needs to be curtailed.
Constitutional Recognition of Australia’s Indigenous People
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Australian constitution should be amended to recognise the historical and current place of our Indigenous people.
Flowing from this recognition of cultures predating European arrival, I propose that Indigenous people should be guaranteed 12 seats in the Senate and every other protection guaranteed to inhabitants of an original Australian State.
No Regret if Choices are Not Intrinsically Right or Wrong
Reading Time: 2 minutesThere is a belief that, when we have a choice to make, there is only one correct decision. Being convinced that it is within our control to make choices that will always prove right, we regret making choices that do not, at some stage, prove to be right.
On the other hand, we can accept that it can never be guaranteed that a choice will prove to be what we want and need. In doing so we will be more likely to not see a choice that is no longer working, as an opportunity to see what it was that stopped it being right, or as a recognition that our needs or circumstances have changed. Dare I say “I wish I had taken this on board many years ago”.
An Own Goal in the Pell Appeal Hearing
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf Pell succeeds in his appeal, he will do so, thanks in part, to the bumbling performance by Chris Bryce S.C.
A Rational Debate of the Freedom of Religious Belief?
Reading Time: 4 minutesUnless we clarify and agree on what it is that we’re discussing, we run the risk of replicating populists’ irrational and dishonest discourse. This means, not allowing facts to stand in the way of your views, by pretending that they’re not there or creating your own alternative facts. You may also pretend that words don’t mean what they mean to most people but rather what you conveniently chose them to mean. Our debate needs to acknowledge and take into account the full context of exempting religions from compliance with a law that seeks to protect others from their harassment and discrimination.
Towards a More Direct Democracy
Reading Time: 7 minutesThe outcome and events leading up to the federal election, when considered alongside the escalating conflict between the US President and Congress, suggest that it’s time to evaluate the nature of our representative democracy. An infusion of direct democracy would provide the means for great involvement by the people, many of whom feel alienated from politics. Direct involvement by the people in place of reliance on disappointing parliamentary representatives has the potential to reinvigorate Australian democracy. Such direct democracy would in particular benefit the initiation of constitutional amendments and enactment of legislation. It also has great potential in resolving deadlocks between the Houses of Parliament and reforming the behaviour of politicians as well as the nature of increasingly undignified and unruly parliamentary procedure.
ALARMED OR JUST GRUMPY?
Reading Time: 8 minutesWhy are we so alarmed by state of the world? Could it be that it’s simply because we’re growing older and grumpier? I certainly hope not, and prefer to think that it’s because the...
Risks to Others Flowing From Chronic Mental Illness
Reading Time: 10 minutesTHE KILLING OF MANMEET ALISHER: AVOIDABLE OR INEVITABLE? In late 2016, Manmeet Alisher, a young Brisbane singer/bus-driver was killed by Francis O’Donohue, a passenger who due to his Chronic...
Juvenile Cyber Bullying
Reading Time: 3 minutesI can’t stop thinking about an article by Megan Lehmann in The Weekend Australian Magazine (14-15 July 2018, pp 14-18). It is titled, ‘Just Go KJS xo’. It is a powerful, particularly well written,...