keywords: Bob Carr

  • RELIGION

    Religion and Australian law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 02 August 2011
    1 Comment

    I am bemused that whenever I agitate questions of Aboriginal and refugee rights I am well received by liberals, who then question my clerical entitlement to speak when I buy into debates on issues like euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. On same sex marriage, I am attacked from both sides.

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  • RELIGION

    Religious groups and the Bill of Rights debate

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011

    Speech given by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the 'Law and Religion: Legal Regulation of Religious Groups, Organisations and Communities' Conference Dinner in Melbourne on 15 July 2011.

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  • RELIGION

    Human rights and Christian lawyers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011
    5 Comments

    When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The NSW democracy deficit

    • Tony Smith
    • 10 March 2011
    8 Comments

    If voters are disappointed with Labor now, they could be positively angry after the election. Because the Coalition is a shoo-in to win, the public is showing little interest in policy debates and the media have brought little pressure to bear over policy details and likely costs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Christchurch's reasonable hope

    • Sande Ramage
    • 23 February 2011
    5 Comments

    Unreasonable hope is when we think God will save Christchurch, or that anything is going to be the same again. Reasonable hope means we become realistic, sensible and moderate, directing our attention to what is within reach.

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  • RELIGION

    Best Of 2010: Why a conscientious Christian could vote for the Greens

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 January 2011
    19 Comments

    It would be regrettable if an attack by Cardinal Pell and the Australian Christian Lobby on the 'anti-Christian' Greens could be construed as an indirect shot across the bows of the atheist Prime Minister. On some policy issues the Greens have a more Christian message than the major parties.

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  • RELIGION

    Reconciling religion, politics and human rights

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 November 2010
    15 Comments

    Cardinal Pell, with whom I have voiced disagreement, preached superbly at the mass of thanksgiving after the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. 'She does not deter us from struggling to follow her.' As we wrestle with the common good, let's make a place for all our fellow citizens.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Fanatic's football fairytale

    • Brian Matthews
    • 06 October 2010
    1 Comment

    Fiction writers have to arrange events so that they achieve the required outcome without stretching credulity. Yet real life routinely throws up sequences so bizarre that a fiction writer wouldn't dare to own them. Try this one. 

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  • RELIGION

    Why a conscientious Christian could vote for the Greens

    • Frank Brennan
    • 10 August 2010
    123 Comments

    It would be regrettable if an attack by Cardinal Pell and the Australian Christian Lobby on the 'anti-Christian' Greens could be construed as an indirect shot across the bows of the atheist Prime Minister. On some policy issues the Greens have a more Christian message than the major parties.

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  • RELIGION

    Human Rights Act door still swinging

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 June 2010
    13 Comments

    When the Government announced that its response to the National Human Rights Consultation would not include a legislative Charter of Rights, many activists despaired. I am more sanguine. We knew from the beginning that a Human Rights Act would be a big ask.

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  • INFORMATION

    Disagreeing with Gerard Henderson

    • Bruce Duncan
    • 12 March 2010
    1 Comment

    Dr Henderson does Maritain a grave injustice in so cavalierly dismissing him as favouring the 'you-beaut idea to advocate Catholic/communist dialogue'. Maritain was strongly opposed to communist ideology, but he also recognised it contained positive elements, some of which he said were drawn with the Gospels.

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  • INFORMATION

    Santamaria and the bishops in politics

    • Gerard Henderson
    • 11 March 2010
    2 Comments

    Towards the end of his life, the French philosopher Jacques Maritan thought it was a you-beaut idea to advocate Catholic/communist dialogue between the Vatican and Stalin's heirs in Moscow. Santamaria made mistakes, yet on the issue of Soviet totalitarianism he was smarter than Maritan. 

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