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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Aged care in purgatory

    • Scott Stephens
    • 01 June 2009
    10 Comments

    Our failure to care for and honour our elderly is one of the great causes of moral impoverishment in our culture. Lives tempered by age and hard-earned virtue are gifts from God. It is to our detriment that we ignore them.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Patients lost at the health care checkout

    • Frank Bowden
    • 28 May 2009
    16 Comments

    To be a patient is to place yourself in the hands of another, to give them your trust and expect it to be honoured. If you call sick people 'clients' or 'customers' you risk turning healing into a commodity to be purchased — or rationed.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons from Ireland's sex abuse shock

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 May 2009
    15 Comments

    News of the Irish child abuse report prompted a call for scrutiny of Irish priests now based in Australia. A more far-reaching implication is the need to look at the state of regulations governing care in our entire not-for-profit sector.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Pope vs Holocaust deniers

    • Nigel Mitchell
    • 25 May 2009
    7 Comments

    The Pope visited the Middle East in an attempt to address the controversy regarding 'Holocaust denier' Bishop Richard Williamson. In the same week, in Australia, 'revisionist' historian Frederick Toben was sentenced to three months in jail.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rehabilitation of a failed state

    • Ben Fraser
    • 21 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Perhaps it's an omen: election day in Somalia, and the first voter to approach the polling station wears an Obama t-shirt. Elections, and the act of voting, are a powerful affirmation of one's ability to stand and be counted. For refugees, it is all the more significant.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    An end to rugby's unethical code

    • Tony Smith
    • 19 May 2009
    25 Comments

    It is time we stopped allowing football administrators, advertisers and television stations to set the standards for ethical behaviour. The only way that the current unethical rugby league culture can be removed is for the code itself to disappear.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Matthew Johns is his own best judge

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 May 2009
    6 Comments

    The public thinks rugby league star Matthew Johns behaved disgracefully in the 2002 Christchurch group sex incident. He has done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. He needs to imagine that he is on his deathbed and then ask 'what would I like to have done?'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bikers, violence and justice

    • John Smith
    • 14 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Going to jail for the right reasons is noble. In effect Jesus called for a kind of civil disobedience. He went to jail for justice. Today, I would be prepared to be jailed for resisting consorting laws. Exclusive preview: The John Smith Quarterly Essay

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Budget stumbles on social inclusion

    • Frank Quinlan
    • 13 May 2009
    3 Comments

    Rudd Labor's first Budget last year seemed to indicate a turn towards a fairer Australia. After the scripted theatre of pre-budget leaks, secure lock-ups and dazzling announcements are stripped away, the 2009–10 Budget indicates we may be waiting for a long time yet.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ethical keys to a just budget

    • John Warhurst
    • 12 May 2009
    1 Comment

    Catholic Social Teaching promotes the common good, distributive justice and a preferential option for the poor as key principles to underpin any budget. If might is right then the preferences of the strong will overpower those of the vulnerable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Budget will test Labor's Indigenous commitment

    • Myrna Tonkinson
    • 11 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Any cuts made in this dire economic climate must exclude items for improving conditions for Indigenous Australians. This Budget will test the Government's determination to 'close the gap' between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the population.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia's chance to lead climate change action

    • Michael Mullins
    • 11 May 2009
    3 Comments

    The community is divided over the Government's revised climate change strategy. Australia has the most visible evidence of climate change, which makes it all the more urgent for us to provide leadership on the world stage.

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