News -
archive from March
2007
March 2007
30 March 2007 - MCC Register passed
The full meeting of the Melbourne City Council on 27 March
2007 voted by 6 votes to 3 to establish a relationships register for same-sex
and heterosexual couples.
The Chair Lord Mayor John So,
the Deputy Lord Mayor Gary Singer and Councillors Brindley, Jetter, Ng and
Snedden voted for the motion and Councillors Clarke, Shanahan and Wilson voted
against the motion.
Click here to read the Melbourne City Council minutes of the
vote.
(It is item 5.12 on Page 9.)
The Council held a launch for the Relationships Register on
2 April 2007.
Click here for MCC Media Release about the launch.
Click here for full details of the scheme.
For our page on the MCC
Register, click here
.
30 March 2007 - Same-sex relationships register...
Last week we learned that the Victorian government
was considering establishing a same-sex relationships register similar to that
in Tasmania. Perhaps they think that a 'civil union' scheme would cause problems
with the federal government but they can appease the homosexual lobby by just
doing a 'register'.
The establishment of 'relationships
registers' has been a point of contention over the past year with some Christian
groups calling for governments to establish 'relationship registers'.
Salt Shakers opposes all formal registration of same-sex
relationships.
Click here for our campaign
page on the proposed register.
Media article:
Gay unions may soon be
official
The Age , March 24, 2007
29 March 2007 – 'Resistance News' launched
Earlier
this year Salt Shakers launched Resistance Thinking, a project to assist
Christian young people resist the culture of the world and develop a Biblical
Worldview.
A website with articles, reviews and a forum
have now been set up.
The first monthly Resistance News
has just been sent out and weekly 'Higher Distinctions' will be sent to those
who subscribe.
Click here
for the Resistance
Thinking website. Sign up details are on the home page!
Click on the 'Forum' button to discuss current issues.
28 March 2007 – Catch the Fire Ministries Directions Hearing
postponed
In December 2006, the
Court of Appeal upheld the appeal made by Catch the Fire Ministries, Pastor
Danny Nalliah and Pastor Daniel Scot against the complaint made by the Islamic
Council of Victoria. The case be sent back to VCAT to be re-considered by a
different Member.
A Directions
Hearing had been scheduled for this Friday (tomorrow) 30 March 2007 before Justice Stuart Morris, President of VCAT.
Catch the Fire Ministries and the Islamic Council jointly
applied to VCAT to postpone the Directions Hearing since some discussions are
still underway about resolving the case.
Pastor Danny has been notified that the Directions Hearing has been postponed.
Click here for our main page on the CTFM
case.
Also of particular interest is the fact that Justice
Stuart Morris resigned last week as the president of VCAT and as a Supreme Court
judge! He will remain at VCAT for the next month.
Media Reports:
VCAT chief in shock departure
The Age , March 22,
2007.
VCAT chief quits
Herald Sun, March 22, 2007
19
March 2007 – Radical sheik to visit Melbourne
Sheik Bilal Phillips,
who is listed by the US government as an "accused conspirator" in the 1993 US
World Trade Centre bombings, is scheduled to speak at the 1st Australian Islamic Conference over the Easter
weekend. On a recent British documentary he supported marriage to pre-pubescent
girls because Mohammed married a nine year old.
The
government is currently investigating to see if a visa will be issued to him.
Article in the Sunday Herald Sun, 18 March
Radical Cleric to speak here
The Conference
It is being run by 'Mercy Mission. Click here for website and conference
details.
15 March 2007 – Prostitution legalisation in
WA
Moral Values are now OUT in Western
Australia BUT government regulation and encouragement of 'sex for entertainment'
is IN.
Jim McGinty’s working group on Prostitution Law
Reform has now completed its report.
Gerard
Goiran,CDP
State Director
and Senate Candidate stated that “Mr McGinty has
indicated that a Bill will soon be introduced into Parliament to implement the
recommendations of the report. If the recommendations of the report are adopted
by Parliament, brothels and escort agencies will now be certificated and given
an appearance of respectability that they should not have. They will be treated
like any other business and subject to planning considerations only. The report says that moral objections should not be taken
into account! Local governments will not be allowed
to prohibit them, only to regulate them in accordance with uniform planning
legislation to apply throughout the entire State.”
Despite the appalling record of sexual abuse, drug use,
under-age girls and sex slavery continually exposed in Victoria since brothel
'legalisation', the WA government have decided to legalise, and thus 'normalise'
the 'sex industry'.
Victoria has also seen an 800%
increase in ILLEGAL brothels (50 - 400) and the establishment of at least 100
'legal' ones.
A petition for WA
residents ONLY has been organised by CDP to oppose the legalisation of
prostitution. The petition is attached BELOW! Please print it off and collect
signatures as soon as possible.
It is also important to
write to your MPs – click here for MP addresses.
14 March 2007 – Catch the Fire at
VCAT
The religious vilification
complaint brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria against Catch the Fire
Ministries, Pastor Daniel Scot and Pastor Danny Nalliah is returning to VCAT.
When the Court of Appeal upheld their appeal in December, the justices ordered
that the case be sent back to VCAT for a different Member to decide the case.
No further evidence will be heard.
A "Directions Hearing" has been scheduled
for 30 March at 10 am to determine how the
case will be handled. The hearing is at VCAT, 55 King St, Melbourne and will be
public.
Stay tuned to this page for updates as to
whether the hearing will be held as planned. Please pray for the pastors and
their legal team.
12 March 2007 – Catholics say 'No' to
homosexual unions
Legislation permitting
de facto and same-sex unions would be so damaging to family life and society
that Catholics will do “everything possible” to ensure the laws do not pass, the
head of the Pontifical Academy for Life Bishop Sgreccia said last week. He said
"Catholics will do everything to shed light on the debate, and will do
everything possible so that these proposals will not pass. Everything based on
untruths is destined to damage someone, if not many people." Click here for report.
This reflects a 2004 Vatican document
titled "COMPENDIUM OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH" which said "Making “de facto unions” legally equivalent to the family
would discredit the model of the family" and "... The reveals “how
incongruous is the demand to accord ‘marital' status to unions between persons
of the same sex." Click here for document.
5 March 2007 – mardi gras crowd numbers
Despite proclaiming on the mardi gras website that
‘half a million’ watch the parade each year, the organisers estimated that 350,000 people were in the crowd this year. Perhaps
they remembered that they had to reduce the figure by 200,000 overnight last
year when challenged – but they still managed to increase the figure by 50,000
people.
By 11 pm on the parade night we had online reports of
‘over half a million’ from the ABC, ‘hundreds of thousands’ from Reuters,
‘hundreds’ from the BBC and ‘tens of thousands’ from AAP and theSydney Morning Herald .
The following day the reports had morphed to 350,000
(give or take 50,000) because the ORGANISERS announced that was their estimate!
Our report on the crowd figures – and an assessment of
the real crowd figure (around 60,000
people) is on our new 2007 mardi gras page – click here for details and
links!
3 March 2007 – mardi gras - crowd at parade
The mardi gras organisers always give inflated
estimates of the ‘expected’ crowd that will attend the parade. On their website,
prior to the event, they say “Indeed over half a
million Sydneysiders turn out each year to cheer on the parade”.
Click here to read statement.
We sent out a media release
yesterday, calling on the media to report ACCURATE
crowd number estimates.
We told them that last
year the ‘estimate’ dropped from 500,000 on mardi gras night to 300,000 the
following day after we contacted the journalists who initially printed the ‘half
a million figure’ online!
Click here for details of last year’s reports.
We also quoted Adam Carr, a homosexual journalist, who
said, in 2002, that the organisers should really come clean with the crowd
numbers – he estimated about 60,000 to 75,000 people!
How many will there be at the parade tonight?
And what will the media say?
Click here
for our media release.
2 March 2007 -
Anthony Venn-Brown organises pentecostals to march in mardi gras on Sat 3
March
Anthony
Venn-Brown is a homosexual who runs a support group to help homosexuals who are
pentecostal 'accept their homosexuality'. The group is called Freedom 2 B[e]. He
is planning to lead a group in the mardi gras parade on Saturday night.
One newspaper report said he attends Hillsong. The report
falsely said he is an ordained AOG minister.
The AOG and
Hillsong have now released a statement saying he is not ordained: at the time he
came out as a homosexual his “AOG
credential was revoked”. The statement said he “attends
services at Hillsong Church occasionally”.
Meanwhile, Venn-Brown told ABC's Life
Matters yesterday that he is a member of Hillsong and attends a fortnightly
'Connect' group.
Sources/references
*Original article in The Australian's Strewth column
*
AOG statement
* Life Matters interview (minutes 31 to 43), 1 March
2007.
* Details of Freedom 2 B[e]'s participation on their
website. Author: Jenny Stokes | Modified: 19 July 2007 |
