Christians Against Terrorism walk free and acquitted!

Free at last. Ruddock’s rotten rules couldn’t hold them. Read all about it here.Congratulations one and all. Miss Eagle is glad that your ordeal is over. God go with you into a new day!

Rudd - and a report card

On Kevin Rudd's way to the Prime Ministership, Miss Eagle was hopeful - but with many reservations. The reservations had their genesis in too much me-too-ism. Memories of the worst of the Goss Labor Government in Queensland for which Rudd was the right hand man. These reservations led to a few posts with this picture:

While Kevin 07 performed the necessary gymnastics on the way to The Lodge, Miss Eagle wondered out loud what it was that Kevin Rudd would stand for, would not resile from.

We are now at the end end of the first parliamentary sitting week of the new Labor government. Michelle Grattan has published her review of the performance so far. Miss Eagle's report card is in the form of an edited version of the picture.

Miss Eagle remains unhappy with Rudd's decision to keep the full impact of changes to industrial relations until 2010. Similarly, she does not favour delaying changes in the excesses of private school funding until 2010. All this makes as much sense to Miss E as saying to Kevin Rudd on election night that he had been elected but John Howard would remain in power for another three years. Corporations - whether they are major employers or classy corporate schools - don't think twice about delaying their impositions on others. They - if they were bright enough, flexible enough - would have factored in their risks from a change of government. So there would have been no shocks and few surprises. But still they received the soft end of the wedge.

However - and Miss E does wince slightly at the "however" - after Wednesday's superb and visionary and inclusive performance Miss Eagle can forgive much. It is undergirded by Rudd's very first call on business - to deal with homelessness. If Rudd continues to prioritise justice in this way, Miss Eagle will be able to wear the other stuff. Miss Eagle must also comment on the manner in which Rudd is setting the pace: business-like in his attention to the tasks at hand; informed by the hallmarks of Labor in government; intent on setting fresh standards of civility and vision. And all this in a down to earth manner with few, if any signs, of pretension of office.

Miss Eagle looks forward to more of that which has made such a great beginning.

ARCHBISHOP PHILIP FREIER'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Prophets of a future not our own....

Simon Barrow

Simon Barrow has to be one of the busiest - and most talented - people around. He is Co-Director of Ekklesia (who has long been linked from this blog). I am indebted to Simon and his blog, faithinsociety, for referring me to the wonderful thoughts of Oscar Romero expressed below. His thoughts seem so fitting for the sort of work this blog tries to do. The thoughts expressed here are frequently uncomfortable for mainstream people - including mainstream Christians. But seeking justice where there is none is never comfortable. Speaking out for the marginalised is never welcome when people are seeking only to make themselves and their own comfortable.

Long ago, a journalist named Finley Peter Dunne referred to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Miss Eagle thinks that this is what Christians are - or should be - about. In fact, it should be what thinking people who care about humanity are about. This blog tries - but, as Romero points out, the job is never done. What is being built here is not the work of a master builder. Only the Master Builder can complete it.

Ab. Oscar Romeo, Martyr

A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

A prayer/poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero(martyred, 14 March 1980)

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

THE CAMPAIGNER'S PRAYER

I spent a good few hours letterboxing to-day. As I plodded along one foot in front of the other, I decided something more was needed, so some words came in rhythm with my steps:

May this house vote for justice at this election

May this house lobby for justice after this election

May this house have a heart for justice.

In Jesus Name

Amen

The Centre for an Ethical Society has conducted a survey of the political parties. For details of the questions by the CES, the responses, and the analysis go here.

But, dear Reader, there is more to ethics than questions to political parties. If you are going promote ethics and preach ethics then you need to live ethically too. This goes for individuals like your correspondent (and I'm sure there are holes in my personal ethical framework) and for organisations.

When you go here and look at the people listed as Boards and Members, it immediately raises questions. And, Miss Eagle has asked those questions by emailing CES to-day. Below is the content of the email:

I have been in and out of the CES website in recent days and feel compelled to write to you about the constitution of your Board and the Members listed on your site.

I am stunned by the people you have listed. One woman! One black woman! Does she have a disability and immigrant heritage as well - so that everything and all that is tokenism rests on her shoulders?

It is not only the gender bias of your organisation that brings me to write in protest but also the clerical dominance of the people listed on your site. Surely, two of the great lessons of the late twentieth century are the negative fruit generated by patriarchy and professional clericalism - both of which dominate religions of all varieties to this day.

As a practising Christian, I am more than pleased when I come across organised Christian voices espousing balanced public policy directions but an organisation trying to preach ethics needs to provide balance socially and politically in accord with wide-ranging skills, work experience, and life experience within all its constituent parts.

I understand that you are small and new and, undoubtedly, struggling for financial support but, in all honesty, is this the best constitution of Board and Members that you can come up with in the whole nation to represent an ethical organisation for an ethical society?

Christine Milne - an impressive Green

Stephen Crittenden of the ABC's The Religion Report did yet another brilliant job yesterday on a episode titled Australia's Christian Vote. Miss Eagle was particularly impressed by the contribution of Green's Senator Christine Milne. The Centre for an Ethical Society rated a significant mention so you might like to drop by its site.

Hell hath no fury like a preference deal scorned...

Family First got one Senator up at the 2004 Federal election. With a primary vote of one-point-infinitesimal-per-cent and an array of very c-u-t-e preference deals, they got their man in Victoria up.

They were so chuffed about this that they are r-e-a-l-l-y determined to get some more of their people into the Senate - especially since s-o-o many people have tried s-o-o hard in 2007 to get the Christian vote and its family values (well, a certain brand of Christian vote and a certain brand of family values) up front and taken seriously in the political debate. Seems that there's a lot of Christians out there determined to give it to Caesar!

And Preference Deal Season - or, at this stage, its final results - is upon us. Family First is most amusing. Probably they are so amusing because they were so clever last time, their Senator so energetic and determined to be Everywhere Man on his trendy scooter, they are so publicly Good, and - it now becomes clear - so DETERMINED TO WIN AT ANY COST.

It is being reported that Family First preference deals have been made with the Liberty and Democracy Party (a bunch of libertarian nutters) and Pauline's United Australia Party. This is the evidence for Family First putting winning above anything else. Funny that. I thought Christians were against an "ends justify the means" attitude.

You see, dear Reader, Pauline Hanson's political adventures have always carried racist undertones if not, indeed, full blown overtones. Now there is a report that a Liberty and Democracy Party candidate in Tasmania has spoken out in favour of decriminalising incest. In regard to the latter, I am waiting for the jokes from all those funny people out there. You see, if you are an overseas reader, you may not know that there have long been jokes in Australia about Tasmanian family life, incest, and people with two heads. These unkind jokes relate to the fact that Tasmania is an island with a small, insular population. Now we have someone in a political party who has taken the whole thing seriously and turned it into a political policy. Wow!

Please note: If you go to the comments, dear Reader, correspondence has been entered into by Terje of the Liberty and Democracy Party. Based on his comments, Miss Eagle has issued a non-John-Howard type apology and agreed to forbear from references to nutters and the legalisation of incest in relation to the Liberty and Democracy Party. Miss Eagle has issued a full reply in the comments section. Thursday 8 November 2007 4.40pm

Well, if Pauline having another adventure and keeping her name in front of the Australian public - perhaps she wants a reprise of Dancing with the Stars - and the Liberty and Democracy Party turning an Aussie joke into political policy were not funny enough....

then amuse yourself with the idea of the good Christian supporters of Family First entering into preference deals with such racists and libertarians. OK, dear Reader, up off the floor. You are making a display of yourself.

But, on second thoughts, dear Reader, stay there a while longer while I tell you that Family First is outraged. Absolutely outraged. Its rage is out and there. Why, you ask dear Reader? Because there is a preference deal between the ALP and The Greens. Ooooh-wah! Naughty aren't they. And why, again you ask dear Reader? Because of the drug policy of The Greens!

How outrageous! Harm minimisation policies in relation to drugs are beyond the pale - but racism and incest are not! Not when it comes to Family First winning it seems.

Miss Eagle - as well as a lot of others in that tiny factional group known as Rusted-on Labor Who Vote Green - will be pleased to know that the ALP has listened and noted that the ALP constituency prefers its preferences (ok, Lexicon Harlot, I can hear you listening!) to go to parties of the left - not parties of the ultra-right. This howl of protest was heard loudly in last year's Victorian election when the Demo(n)cratic Labor Party (the dreaded, historic enemy of the ALP, the DLP) got one of theirs into the Upper House on the strength of ALP preferences.

So - if Pauline gets up - will Family First take responsibility? If people with two heads (do they get two votes), vote for the Liberty and Democracy Party will Family First publicly apologise?

What is taught at City Life Church, the second biggest Christian church in Australia after Hillsong, where Senator Steve Fielding and his family worship? Traditional Christian ethics?

Australian Christian Lobby (ACL): To see themselves as others see them

Ah - to see ourselves as others see us.

Wednesday Round Up: Storm Victory; Religion & Politics; Massacres; Health Policy

Rescued and refurbished - from the Hard Rubbish

My posting - or lack of it - has got out of hand. It is not because of lack of time management but because I am doing my utmost (but could still do better) to manage my time to be more productive. There is so much to do - mainly because winter is gone and Spring has arrived. You, dear Reader, can see some of what I have been up to at The Trad Pad.

There is gardening - with a sense of urgency now that warmth is coming. Wanting to get everything up and growing - particularly since predictions are for expensive vegetables and fruit in short supply due to the longest and most severed drought since white settlement in 1788.

I am divesting once again with a garage sale planned at the week-end. And in between there is craft and gleaning in opp shops and the hard rubbish (cast offs placed on footpaths). The hard rubbish has turned up some lovely stuff that I have given a coat of paint and some stamping and stencilling, which I love to do, and this will find its way into the garage sale as well. Waste not, want not. Recycle, repair, re-use.

Part of the divesting has been re-organising cupboards and drawers. Armloads of clothes to the opp shop because I have lost a lot of weight. Some good stuff for someone, I'm sure.

Even though I have not been blogging I have been doing my best to keep up with my FeedDemon - and this does take quite a bit of time and constancy.

~~~~~~~

But there are some things for a Round Up.

Federation Square was the centre of the universe for Melbourne fans.

Above: Fans celebrate on Sunday night after the game - The Age

Yesterday, The Storm met their fans, trophy and all, in Fed Square.

Will this be the last time we see Mat King (tall, curly headed bloke in glasses on left) in a Storm shirt?

Victory
The magnificent Melbourne Storm won the NRL Grand Final. The victory was wonderful and, it is hoped, will get greater recognition for Rugby League in the midst of an Aussie Rules culture. And the follow on is great two, as the Storm has significant membership in the team to play New Zealand in the upcoming Australia v NZ tests. Much-rejoicing-in-the-marsh (oops, I mean Melbourne!)

Religion and Politics
A hat tip to Simon Barrow who has drawn attention to this opinion piece by Madeleine Bunting. Australia will go to the polls to vote for a new national government before the end of 2007.

Religion has entered the political debate in a way it has not been present for quite a long time through the strenuous efforts of the Australian Christian Lobby. There is little doubt that the ACL draws a lot of its raison d'etre from the experience of the "religious right" experience in the USA while maintain that it is not taking the path of putting its efforts solely behind the right but wish to use the Christian vote to dialogue with and influence both the left and the right of politics - or should that be the right and the right of Australian politics.

Politicians from both the ALP and the Liberal parties have been seen in mega-churches. It comes as no surprise that politicians will turn up anywhere where there are large groups of people - particularly those who can be manipulated by their leaderships or who can be delivered in voting blocs on election day. But, Miss Eagle thinks, while those pollies might think they are co-opting the Christian vote, something else is really happening.

The Australian Christian Lobby - a decidedly right-wing Christian lobby in spite of protestations to the contrary - is endeavouring to capture Australian politics - or a significant slice of it. The ACL has a definite agenda to push - and it will not always be the agenda of Catholics, Anglicans, or UCA adherents in the pews. So when the hoo-hah has died down post-election, it will be interesting to see how much the ACL and its fellow travellers have influenced the national political agenda. Very little, is Miss E's view.

Let's face it! Australia is a conservative country. It is hardly a hotbed of radical left-wing initiatives. Radical initiatives from either the right or the left are more likely to come from our Kiwi cousins across The Ditch.

The ALP's dominant faction - the Right - is highly conservative. And the Left - well, we have the Left to thank for establishing concentration camps for refugees in the harsh conditions of the Australian outback; we have the Left to thank for the deceptive mechanism to give Aboriginal Australians a voice through ATSIC. Now, Australia has the possibility of adding the conservative Kevin Rudd to the mix should the ALP win government. In a lot of areas, the ACL is merely speaking to the converted - and the converted merely want to grab the pencil marks in the right place on the ballot papers.

Above: Portland Koori Wal Saunders at the Convincing Ground.

Below: Memorial of the Myall Creek Massacre

Massacre Day

Yesterday, 2 October, was Massacre Day in Australia. A day to remember those indigenous people who died in the course of white settlement/invasion. I had meant to post on the day but ran out of time - because I was gathering material for you, dear Reader, so that you could familiarise yourself with some of the tragic history of colonisation in this country. You will find it here. Please email me if there is any difficulty accessing the material. It resides on my Furl site and this is the first time I have presented material on the blog in this way, so I do hope it works for you

Howard, Abbott and Hospitals
Re the Liberals' plans to turn back the clock to the last century and establish individual hospital boards, Howard's comment yesterday displays overwhelming ignorance of public administration in the health sector:
"I believe (in) moving toward a situation where every hospital had a board (and) the board was made up of a cross-section of people, including more clinicians.
"There's a CEO, and he or she is accountable for a budget and the buck would stop with him or her.
"That is how you run a company, it is how you run a club and it ought to be how you run a hospital."

Miss Eagle makes the following comments:

1. The Royal North Shore in Sydney may be able to scratch up a fair bit of expertise to provide a credible Board - but experience has shown that Hospital Boards have tended to be sinecures rather than hives of active and advanced business management. Some are famed for the quality of the drinks cabinet.
2. Victoria has hospital boards for local hospitals. Victoria's hospital systems have, historically, been largely private. This has meant expensive health care. Long before Medicare was established Victorians developed the habit, which continues to-day, of going to Queensland [where health care was free and mainly public] in the winter for their health care....to lovely places like Hervey Bay. This is reflected these days in Victoria having the highest Medibank Private fees in Australia.
3. What's the betting that Howard and Co. have an eye on introducing some form of corporatisation either for the whole hospital operation or just forming a shell company to employ staff so that Work Choices can predominate and wages costs can be cut. Bear in mind, dear Reader, that it is not only doctors who cost heaps. When nursing professionalised through creeping credentialism, it built a highly layered career structure - at a time when modern corporations were demolishing their layers into flattened corporate structures. The taxpayer paid and continues too pay for this.
4. Howard wants a larger role for clinicians. Interesting - considering that the medical associations are the biggest closed shops in the nation. Remember the Painters and Dockers? These days it's the Painters and Doctors - and they even protect known killers.
5. Whatever the manner of administration there must be a vastly increased role for consumers and a form of management skewed to wide community consultation. Currently, the health system is heavily geared to suit doctors and nurses and the manner in which THEY want to deliver their particular brand of health services. What THEY want is not the same as what the consumer expects and needs. In fact, what THEY want is often the antithesis of what the consumer wants and what the consumer needs to achieve and maintain good health

'round the traps

Is Andrew Landeryou over at The Other Cheek having withdrawal symptoms? It's either that or there's something wrong with Blogger.

In my FeedDemon, I have a post from OC dated Friday 8.53am with the heading LEGAL SAGA: Family First threaten to sue DLP. Now the OC feed only gives the shortened version of a post. When I tried to get the post up in full, it is nowhere to be found either on the whole blog or by its permalink. If you are more successful than I, dear Reader, please advise. In the meantime, I am left to think that there is someone out there who thinks OC has overstepped the mark and convinced AL that he should withdraw the post. Anyway, here are the first two sentences:
The OC understands that there is a spat emerging between Family First and the Democratic Labor Party which could end up in the courts. Our source told us this morning: Family First has sent a legal letter to The DLP threatening legal action against Vern Hughes because he states in a flyer that FF is associated with the Assemblies of God.

Miss Eagle, for one, dear Reader, is always amused when Family First goes into denial about denominational affiliation from the Assemblies of God. Coz Miss Eagle thinks FF protesteth too much.

Miss Eagle would think that Pentecostal churches are to Family First what Trade Unions are to the ALP and business organisations are to the Liberal Party and the National Farmers Federation and state farmers' organisations are to the National Party. Is Family First really trying to convince us that it is a secular party? Where's the ethics in that?

And as for ethics, let's cross to Father Bob who posts on The Chaser Treatment. Miss Eagle always pricks her ears when it comes to the topic of prophecy in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. After all, Miss E considers the Eighth Century Prophets of the Old Testament to be good friends of this blog. So Father B gives us a bit of early christian history and where everything went awry and where we are to-day and where The Chaser fits. Good stuff! More Please!

Philip Freier: Aboriginal voices of prophecy

People - Christians among them - frequently get the concept of the prophetic voice all wrong. In the Biblical tradition, there is a future context within the prophetic call and voice. Closer examination of the prophetic voice clearly shows that it has a quality of forth-telling, not merely fore-telling.

Philip Freier makes this plain. He also makes it plain that politicians who pander to certain sectors of the body politic are merely re-inforcers of the status quo. They are not people who can move in a prophetic way

• to provide leadership;
• to bring justice to those treated unjustly; and
• to bring clarity to our journey into the future.
  

Archbishop and Anglicans : Policy and Prayer

We keep hearing that our economy is booming, and we saw clear evidence of that in the federal Budget. But the sad reality is that inequality is increasing. Housing affordability is at a record low, rents are rising rapidly, and homelessness is increasing.

Words of warning from Philip Freier, Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne. Read more of what he has to say here.

Philip Freier is taking the Christian voice to the frontline of the public policy debate in Melbourne.

New to Melbourne, the Archbishop has established a prayer quest, Prayer4Melbourne. This gets Archbishop Philip out and about into all sorts of places in the city and the suburbs to talk to all sorts of people. Read about this stuff on the Archbishop's blog.

Then there are his Conversations. Held in the centre of Melbourne at BMW Edge at Federation Square, there have been two so far. The first one focussed on stem cell research under the title Send in the Clones; the second one was Is a 'fair go' a 'no go' in Australia today?

God; politics right, left & centre; and the Wallis & Costello show

So you think that all Christians vote for right wing parties and think of political issues in terms of abortion, RU486, gay marriage and pornography. Not so. But, unless you follow the political processes of Australia quite closely, it can be hard to detect faith-based politicians and activists who take a broader view. They are there - and across party lines. Miss Eagle thinks of Bruce Baird in the Liberal Party and Claire Moore in the Labor Party who was one of that small group of women in the Senate who led the successful charge to make RU486 available to Australian women. There are others - but they are few. Not surprising really because, as a generality, Australians don't wear their faith on their sleeves as people do in the USA. Not that there aren't similar difficulties of awareness for broad-viewed people in the Republican and Democratic parties of the U.S.

How refreshing it is when one comes across US citizens of faith who don't support the Iraq war, who put the fight for poverty, justice, and equity above the abortion debate, and speak out on the biblical basis for these views. Such a person was in Melbourne yesterday: Jim Wallis of Sojourners. Jim, hosted by Micah Challenge and introduced by Micah Challenge International Council member and Tear Fund Executive Director Steve Bradbury, spoke yesterday at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Also speaking in support of Jim was World Vision's, Tim Costello.

Jim is in Australia promoting the Australian edition of his book, God's Politics: why the American Right gets it wrong and the left doesn't get it.

Tim Costello wrote the Foreword for the Australian edition. Quotes

How did Jesus become pro-rich, pro-war and pro-America alone?

The good news is that the monologue of the right is over...Dialogue is always better than a monologue.

There are two great hungers in our world today, one for spiritual integrity and the other for social justice. And the connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for.

The churches ask for the edges of people's lives, and that's what they get, the edges. A whole generation of young people are looking for an agenda worthy of their energy and gifts, something big enough to give their lives to.

If I'm an unborn child I should stay unborn. Once I'm born I'm off the radar screen of the religious right - no child care, no support for mothers. It's pro-birth, not pro-life.

The choice is between hope and cynicism.

Cynicism is a buffer against commitment.

Hope is not a feeling nor a state of mind. Hope is a choice, a decision we make because of faith.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

For a review of God's Politics which points out flaws as well as applauds, read Elizabeth Castelli's critique at Slate.

The Prophetic Voice of Vinnie's

While I listened to the ABC's Religion Report on Wednesday 5 April, I thought I could hear Helen Coonan in the background marking down the ABC's Budget. Stephen Crittenden interviewed John Falzon, Operations Manager for one of Australia's biggest charities, the St Vincent de Paul Society. Falzon's interview was a tour de force and is worth listening to. For those of you who can't listen to it, or would like a permanent record, here it is. Fasten seat belts. Hold on to your seats.

The St Vincent de Paul Society says the Federal Government’s new breaching regime for people on welfare is immoral. Under the scheme, people who are breached but deemed to be extremely vulnerable, will be referred to the churches and charitable organisations to receive one-off payments of up to $650 to manage their cases.
Dr John Falzon is the National Operations Manager for the St Vincent de Paul Society.
John Falzon: Under the new Welfare to Work legislation, two major groups of people are going to be brought within the scope of the breaching regime. That’s people in receipt of parenting payments, especially single parents, but not exclusively, and also people with disabilities who are able to work more than 15 hours a week. Now when these people are breached, there are going to be some cases judged by Centrelink as being extremely vulnerable, and they are going to be referred to agencies that have taken up a contract to case manage the extremely vulnerable, and those agencies are going to give assistance in packages of up to $650 of government funds to the people who’ve been breached.What’s Vinnie’s position on this? Well, No.1 we consider the entire breaching regime to be unconscionable and immoral. It takes away dignity, it doesn’t offer hope, it doesn’t act as a mechanism for really enabling people to move from welfare to work. It punishes people who are already vulnerable, it deprives people of their human rights, of their dignity, of bread on the table for children in many cases.
Stephen Crittenden: And you’re not having any part of it.
John Falzon: Exactly. We’ve always held that position and as far as this idea of institutionalising charity and making people feel an even greater sense of humiliation in that even though the government is acknowledging that they’re going to be in a dangerous situation and is funding this period of crisis, it’s going to do so via a charity, to make people feel that the charity is being institutionalised and they’re being forced to go to a charity.
Stephen Crittenden: Yes, I don’t really understand what’s in it for the government. They aren’t really getting people off welfare, and even though the churches are looking after them, the government’s still going to be paying.
John Falzon: Yes, it’s more symbolic I think in this case. That’s what we really find unconscionable, that this is a return to some very old models of charity as being a means of really making people feel like they are to blame for their poverty. There’s a whole moral discourse involved here that we will have no part of. You know the wonderful educational theorist, Paulo Freire, and we really take his lead in Vinnie's, when he spoke very beautifully about needing to engage in a prophetic denunciation of the bad news, in order to engage in a prophetic annunciation of the good news. We denounce the breaching regime as bad news, there is no good news in any element of it. We do announce the good news that there is an alternative vision for Australia, and that’s one of our major concerns with this Welfare to Work legislation which some of our members refer to as Welfare to Work to Welfare - because in fact we don’t believe it’s going to have those sorts of positive outcomes that everyone would hope for. We believe that it lacks vision. Not only does it lack fairness but even from an economic rationalist point of view, it lacks strategic vision, and as the Book of Proverbs says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’. Well where is the vision in pushing people who are vulnerable into that low end of the labour market without any adequate opportunity for skilling, for education, at a time when most commentators will acknowledge we’re facing a skills crisis, at a time when Australia can in fact have a competitive edge, by investing in education skills and innovation.
Stephen Crittenden: Presumably some of these people are still going to be coming to you for help, whether the government’s reimbursing you or not?
John Falzon: That’s true, absolutely, and Vinnie’s will never cease giving assistance to people who have been breached, and they will continue to come to us. We won’t be accepting government money to do that, we won’t be entering into a contract, but what we’ve always maintained is yes we will give the charitable assistance, we will be there as a charity because we consist of so many wonderful people who are giving up their time to do that, and because they believe in a fair go.
Stephen Crittenden: Doesn’t that let the government off the hook?
John Falzon: Well there’s the second part of the equation. We’ll give the charity to people but what we have always maintained is charity is fine, but what these people deserve is justice, and we’ll keep clamouring for that justice.
Stephen Crittenden: The Salvation Army says it will probably take up this proposal. The St Vincent de Paul Society says the breaching regime is immoral and you won’t have any part of it. Shouldn’t the churches be at one on this issue?
John Falzon: Well our position as far as – I’m not commenting on churches, but I will comment on agencies – we have taken the position quite rightly in my opinion, that we in no way wish to give any direction or call to other agencies as to how to conduct themselves. They must follow their own charters, their own rules, their own rationales for how to engage in this quite vexed social policy area.
Stephen Crittenden: But if you’re calling the government immoral, surely the implication is another church welfare agency who takes part in this immoral regime is participating in immorality if you like.
John Falzon: Well, as I said, we’re not commenting on the decisions of other agencies as to how they engage in this entire process, but for Vinnie’s our message is clear: in our rule as a matter of fact, it says where injustice, inequality, poverty, or exclusion are due to unjust economic, political or social structures, or to inadequate or unjust legislation, the society should speak out clearly against the situation, always with charity with the aim of contributing to and demanding improvements. For those people who might think that’s quite strongly worded, it’s not nearly as strongly worded as those words from the Prophet Isaiah, ‘Woe betide those who enact unjust laws and draft oppressive legislation depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, plundering the widow and despoiling the fatherless.’ That’s where we take our lead from, Stephen, we’re placed in a position by our members because of what they see every day in giving assistance to the people who come to us.
Stephen Crittenden: Let’s turn to a couple of other related welfare issues. Vinnie’s is also particularly concerned about what you’re describing as the nexus between the government’s Welfare to Work legislation and the new IR legislation.
John Falzon: Yes. Look, what we see is that the people who are going to be pushed by the Welfare to Work legislation into that low end of the labour market, are also the people conceivably, who will be subjected to compliance with Australian workplace agreements that potentially will not be family friendly, that will be deleterious to family life. We’ve actually received some legal advice to suggest that there may be a case whereby the provisions in the Welfare to Work legislation can contribute to coercion of sole parents to breach their duty of care to their children which is potentially a criminal offence.
Stephen Crittenden: But you’re also suggesting that the Welfare to Work legislation won’t just have the effect of pushing single mothers say back into the lower end of the workforce, it will also have the effect of pushing them on to individual contracts, which may be deleterious to them.
John Falzon: Conceivably, yes. We’re not in any way saying that that is necessarily going to be the case, but it is certainly on the cards as far as we can see, that that’s precisely where Australian Workplace agreements will be put in place, and who knows what kind of conditions will be removed from those working arrangements, particularly where children are involved.
Stephen Crittenden: OK, just finally, Dick Warburton and Peter Hendy, two Australian businessmen, have this week presented the Federal government with their review of Australia’s tax rates. And the Prime Minister has said that his first priority in this year’s budget is support for lower middle-income families. What is St Vincent de Paul Society saying about tax reform?
John Falzon: What we’re saying No.l is that the Treasurer is quite correct in citing the OECD figures that we’ve got the eighth lowest tax to GDP ratio, and that we’re the second-lowest spending amongst the OECD countries. We have always considered two major points as far as the debate on tax reform. 1. is that the effective marginal tax rates that affect precisely the people moving from Welfare to Work are incredibly high, up to the 70% mark and this acts as a major disincentive for people moving from Welfare to Work.
Stephen Crittenden: Labor’s Wayne Swan is saying this, too, this week.
John Falzon: Yes, quite right. Secondly though, we have always maintained that the far greater deficit in Australian society is not so much in terms of the need for tax cuts, it’s in terms of our under-investment particularly in social infrastructure, particularly in the costs that hit low income households, and middle income households in areas of education, health, transport, housing, child care, these are the sorts of costs that impact heavily because it’s a matter of shifting from the public purse to the private pocket. We would dearly love to see an intelligent and strategic investment in these areas of Australian society rather than putting a few dollars into people’s pockets, because this would have not only a great effect on those individual households, but as a whole, collectively as a nation, it would enable us to go forward and would stand in opposition to the narrow-minded punitive welfare reforms and IR reforms that we’ve seen.
Stephen Crittenden: John, thanks very much for being on the program.
John Falzon: Pleasure, Stephen.
Stephen Crittenden: You don’t often hear a Catholic who can quote the Bible. Dr John Falzon, the National Operations Manager for the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Owning up and going from there

Boyd over at Non-violent Jesus has a great post on what we - and particularly those of the we who are Christians - should be doing. His post is out of the USA and relates to that nation's involvement in the war on Iraq. Miss Eagle has long advocated similar principles in Australia in relation to this nation's handling of reconciliation with the people of the First Nations and in the matter of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigration policies.

" 'Fess up!", Miss Eagle says. Come to grips with the truth about ourselves, our actions, our motivations. Then - and only then - can we move forward into new and creative policies and solutions. Christians, if we are worth our salt - or, as the good news says, if we are the salt which has not lost its taste and flavour - should stop shilly-shallying and being mealy-mouthed and lead the way in this direction. The principles espoused can be used on a number of fronts.

1. Honesty, self-criticism, confession.
2. Contrition, repentance, making amends, setting things right.
3. Reformation in our actions and ways of doing things. New actions. New attitudes.

These are principles that can be taken onto a number of fronts. Not only in the matter of war and peace. Not only in the matter of asylum seekers and hospitality. But also in the matter of the new workplace legislation. Miss Eagle has said harsh words, particularly about the Howard Government, in all this. But if Miss Eagle is to be honest, the most satisfactory result for all with justice for all - employers, employees, business and community - will involve reconciliation. And Miss Eagle has to say that the state jurisdictions - at least the one in which she worked in Queensland - have strong conciliaton processes, and the word 'conciliation' is in the title of the governing industrial relations tribunal.

But - most Christians sitting in pews do not seem to have a clue about industrial relations or the issues involved. In most parishes or congregations of most denominations, industrial relations is barely a blip on the agenda. In fact, some denominations have poor track records themselves in industrial relations. Yet the current state of industrial relations in this nation has the capacity to rend asunder community values and traditions with no significant benefit or enrichment to either. So, in the name of Christ, Christians, what are you doing?

The struggle and the protests continue - 1

Yesterday, the protest continued. This time in the western suburbs of Melbourne at Yarraville Gardens at the Solidarity Picnic organised by the Western Suburbs Community & Unions Coalition. Those who fronted up to entertain and speak included comedian Corinne Grant who compered the event; Sharan Burrow (President ACTU), Phillip Huggins (Anglican Bishop), Cath Smith (Victorian Council of Social Services), Kevin Bracken (State Secretary, MUA), Michele O'Neil (State Secretary, TCFU), Janet Rice (Mayor, Maribyrnong Council) ; Chris Wilson, The Band Who Knew Too Much, Crawfish Dave, Sudanese Women Dancers, Indigenous Performers, and Sweet Cheeks. The Solidarity Picnic was endorsed by the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the Victorian Council of Churches, the Victorian Council of Social Service, and numerous individual unions, community and welfare groups, including Job Watch, Liberty Victoria, Western Suburbs Legal Service, Federation of Community Legal Centres, and Women's Health West.
Yarraville Gardens, the picnic venue, is beautiful. It was a great day for families, kids, dogs and protest.

The Religious Right: a fish out of water

This picture was drawn by Erika Aoyama.

Willzhead has a wonderful post where he is certain of the decline of the religious right in the US. To whet your appetite, here is a quote:

I based this expectation on systems thinking, which states that organizations act in certain ways because that is what they are. When they act in ways not in keeping with who they are, they fail. Fish live in water, for example, because they are aquatic beings. Take a fish out of the water and it will eventually die. In this way, it seems to me that Christians efforts for power and domination will eventually fail because they are simply not Christian. The overt exercise of power is a foreign cancer to the Body of Christ and will always need to be removed.