News Archive September 2006

30 September 2006 - Victoria - Decriminalisation of abortion
The decriminalisation of abortion is on the political agenda in Victoria and is set to be an election issue with the election due on 25 November - this would allow abortion for any reason at any time during pregnancy up to birth.

Labor Party policy is to decriminalise abortion - we need to ask all candidates and MPs their view....

The Coalition Against Decriminalisation Of Abortion -CADOA - has been formed by many concerned organisations who don't want abortion to be legalised.

CADOA is surveying all candidates and MPs on their views and will publish the results.
Find out more! Question YOUR candidates...
Check out the CADOA website. Click here .

Submissions for the Senate Committee's Inquiry into cloning and the Lockhart Report close on 4 October .

Senator Patterson has now tabled her Bill. It allows therapeutic cloning - the creation of embryos. It would also allows the creation of animal-human hybrids and the creation of embryos using cells from aborted babies!

29 Sept 2006 - Cloning - Just 5 days left to lodge your submission
Submissions for the Senate Committee's Inquiry into cloning and the Lockhart Report close on 4 October .

Senator Patterson has now tabled her Bill. It allows therapeutic cloning - the creation of embryos. It would also allows the creation of animal-human hybrids and the creation of embryos using cells from aborted babies!

This is a BRAVE NEW WORLD which we DON'T NEED!
Click these links:
Click here for Senator Patterson's Bill.
Click here for the Explanatory Memorandum of the Bill.
Click here for info on making a submission - all Bills and documents.
Click here for the NO CLONING website - all the info you need!
Click here for our webpage on this issue.
Click here for the Make a Stand website - a petition and letters to MPs.

21 Sept 2006 - Senate's Inquiry into Cloning
The Senate has asked the Senate Community Affairs Committee to investigate the recommendations of the Lockhart Committee regarding cloning - the creation of embryos to be destroyed for research.

The Committee has to report to the Senate before the end of October.
Submissions are being called for by 4 October - we need to make clear submissions to this Committee.
The key point to make are that the creation of embryos (a living human baby) for research is unethical and we cannot cross that moral line. Then we need to say that such cloning is irrelevant since cures and treatments are being found already using ADULT stem cells.

For full details on the cloning issue see www.cloning.org.au

To find out how to make a submission and communicate with your MPs
- click here to go to our Campaign page on this issue!

Senator Stott Despoja's Bill
Senator Stott Despoja has submitted her Bill on this matter. It would also allow the use of animal eggs to combine with human material to create animal-human hybrid embryos.
This is TOTALLY unacceptable.
As Senator Boswell said in his media release, "In doing so, Senator Stott Despoja has ignored the specific scientific advice of the nation's chief scientist, Jim Peacock, who says that the use of animal eggs as part of therapeutic cloning should be banned."
See article in The Australian.

In 2004, Senator Stott Despoja s poke against using animal-human hybrids: "This is a radical agenda, unsupported by proof of principle research. When the topic is so sensitive, there should be plenty of evidence to support going down this path. That evidence doesn't exist. No expert can even tell us how many eggs and how many embryos will be needed."

Click here for Senator Boswell's media release.

18 Sept 2006 - Conference of Australian imams
The federal government's Muslim Community Reference Group organised a conference of imams that was held last weekend - 16-17 Sept. It was funded by taxpayers at an estimated cost of $300,000.
100 imams attended - included some so-called 'radical' ones.
Mr Andrew Robb, the government minister responsible for overseeing the Reference Group, gave a strong message to the conference, urging Muslim leaders to denounce terrorism, speak English and integrate into Australian society.
Click here for his speech.
The government is still promoting the notion of an Islamic Institute, which concerns us as it is promoting Islam in the community. However, Mr Robb did tell the conference this would not be a 'theological seminary' and that theological training would need to be done by Muslim communities.

1 September 2006 - New website for 'cloning' debate
A new website has been launched to assist in the campaign against the move to allow 'cloning' and the creation of embryos for research in Australia.

The website is http://www.cloning.org.au/
It contains the IMPORTANT information you need to know when speaking or writing to to MPs, Senators, and others on this important issue.
Senator Kay Patterson is drafting a bill that would allow 'so-called' therapeutic cloning - the creation of embryos for research.
The message we need to give is:
* Say NO to cloning of any kind.
* The creation of an embryo for research is morally impermissible and ethically wrong.
In the Parliament vote in 2002, there was a UNAMIMOUS vote not to allow any form of cloning. Research using embryos left over from IVF processes was allowed - this gives the scientists all they need to do "embryonic stem cell research". We cannot extend this further.
Adult stem cell research is already providing valuable treatments and this needs to be pursued.
Click here for our Action page.
(An ACTION website on this issue is coming SOON - check back in a few days!)

August 2006

31 August 2006 - PM releases stem cell research report
Prime Minister John Howard has released a report that analyses the Lockhart Review, which investigated embryo stem cell research and 'therapeutic cloning'.

The report found that the "arguments for therapeutic cloning have not advanced since the matter was debated in the parliament four years ago".
"The report found many of the concerns that existed when Parliament debated extending stem cell research in 2002, still exist today."
Report finds no new arguments for therapeutic cloning
ABC Online, 31/8/2006.

Two private member's bills on the matter are being prepared - one by Senator Kay Patterson and the other by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja. The matter will be decided by a conscience vote in Parliament later this year.

The 33 page report released by the Prime Minister:
ANALYSIS OF ADVICE ON DEVELOPMENTS IN ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND RELATED MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Click here to read the report.

25 August 2006 - Andrew Bolt on the religious vilification appeal
Andrew Bolt has written another excellent article exposing the flaws in the religious vilification laws. He analyses the comments reported as made by the ICV barristers during the appeal....
A MUST read!

A very scary laugh
Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt, August 25, 2006
ANDREW Bolt writes: He quoted the Koran in a way that caused laughter and we all know how dangerous laughing Christians are, don't we?
Let a top lawyer -- Debbie Mortimer, SC -- demonstrate why you should laugh at the Bracks Government's vilification laws.
Or, perhaps, why you should fear them instead.
Of course, Mortimer doesn't actually want you to laugh at these laws, or indeed to see them as an outrageous attack on your freedom to say what you think.
No, no, no. That wasn't her intention at all when she appeared before Victoria's Appeal Court on Monday.
Truth be told, she'd been hired by the Islamic Council of Victoria to justify these curbs on your free speech......"
Click the title of the article to read it all.....

23 August 2006 - Appeal on religious vilification case
The appeal against the finding of Judge Higgins against Catch the Fire Ministries for 'religious vilification' was heard in the Court of Appeal (Supreme Court) on Monday and Tuesday 21-22 August.

Justices Ashley, Nettle and Neave heard the appeal. They reserved their decision and this may not be given for some months.
The appeal hearing was reported in The Age following both days with some startling revelations.
For a fuller description of the hearing and arguments presented by CTFM, click here.

Articles from The Age:
Religion in the dock
The Age , Tuesday 22 August 2006.

Questions over ruling on Muslims
The Age, 23 August 2006.

10 August 2006 - Liberals position on religious vilification laws
They say a day is a long time in politics!!!

A further media article today clarifies the position of the Liberals regarding the religious vilification law in Victoria.
Good News! According to a report in The Age, "Shadow attorney-general Andrew McIntosh said the party would repeal the religious section of the "fundamentally flawed" Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, but he could not say until the Liberals were in government what, if anything, they would replace it with."
The report said "They might then rewrite them, they might do nothing, or they might amend other acts, such as the incitement provisions of the Crimes Act or the Sentencing Act. They would consult all groups."

Note: one sentence in this article is incorrect (clarified with The Age).
At the rally on Tuesday Andrew McIntosh said the Liberals would repeal the Act and re-write it.
Today's Age article incorrectly says the Libs told the rally they would "not repeal it but re-write it" . (Sub-editor change!)
The Coalition for Free Speech responded:
" Jenny Stokes, of the Coalition for Free Speech, which organised Tuesday's rally against the law, said she welcomed the commitment to repealing the act's religious section but wanted a commitment that the Liberals wouldn't replace it."

Full article:
Libs coy over hatred laws
The Age, Barney Zwartz, August 10, 2006.

More media articles:

Anglican Media Melbourne has an article on their website:

Protesters call for repeal of religious tolerance Act
Anglican Media, Melbourne, 9 August 2006.

They also have a discussion forum on the article. Click here.

Act 'flawed', says Wilson
Berwick News, By Rebecca Fraser, 10th August 2006.
Cr Rob Wilson was a speaker at the rally - he is Deputy Mayor of the City of Casey (which includes Berwick).

9 August 2006 - Coalition for Free Speech RALLY
The rally for free speech was very successful. Around 2000 people gathered from Melbourne and many country areas, with buses coming from Mildura, Kyabram and Bendigo.

Thirteen speakers addressed the rally in just over an hour, which made for a fast-moving and interesting event. As Jon Faine said on 774 ABC, this was an 'unprecedented' coalition with the Liberals and Greens speaking - and everyone in between!
For the media release and the Coalition for Free Speech website, click here.

The Nationals called for the repeal of the religious sections of the Act and this was also the position of Family First and CDP. Independent MP Russell Savage spoke of his continuing opposition to the RRTA.
The Greens launched their policy on this law - to repeal the whole of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.
Senior legal counsel Peter Faris QC and Brian Walters SC both said the law was totally unacceptable and that freedom of speech was important and that the law undermined that freedom.
Rev David Palmer spoke of the statement sent to the Premier last year calling for the repeal of the religious provisions or - as a minimum - the repeal of the 'civil' religious provisions. He read out the list of 19 church leaders who signed the Statement, including Bishop John Wilson, currently the Administrator of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. Click here for the Church Leaders Statement of Concern.

Andrew McIntosh, Liberal Shadow Attorney General, spoke at the rally. A media article on the morning of the rally said they had moved from a position of repealing the religious sections of the Act to one of leaving the Act in place but 'fine-tuning' it.
At the rally Andrew McIntosh, Liberal Shadow Attorney General, said that report was incorrect - he said they would repeal the Act and 're-write' it.

The major parties have firmed up or announced their positions on this law as they have prepared for the rally, which was pleasing to see.

Media reports:

After the rally:
Speaking freely is risky business, rally told
The Age, Barney Zwartz, August 9, 2006

Libs accuse leader of being left of Greens
The Australian, 9 August 2006. Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter
Before the rally:

Libs do U-turn on controversial race law
The Age, Barney Zwartz and Kenneth Nguyen, August 8, 2006
4 August 2006 - Coalition for Free Speech RALLY
The rally for free speech will be held on the steps of Parliament House this next Tuesday, 8 August 2006.

Everyone is invited! Bring your friends! Bring banners/placards.
Several MPs are speaking - Andrew McIntosh MLA (Shadow Att Gen, Liberal), Peter Ryan MLA (Leader of the Nationals), Russell Savage MLA (Ind) plus candidates from other political parties.
Two senior legal counsel are speaking plus two people who have had cases brought against them (Danny Nalliah and Rob Wilson) as well as several ministers.
Don't miss it!
More details on the Coalition for Free Speech website. Click here.

3 August 2006 - Catch the Fire Appeal scheduled for AUGUST
The Court of Appeal (of the Supreme Court in Victoria) will hear the appeal by Catch the Fire Ministries and Pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot on August 21 and 22, 2006. The hearing starts at either 10 am or 10.30 am.
If needed, the appeal will be heard on a third day.

Visit the Catch the Fire Ministries website for more information. If you would like to contribute to the costs of the appeal, contributions can be sent to the Trust Fund set up by the legal team. It is estimated that the appeal will cost over $400,000 - more than $200,000 is still needed. To support the appeal fund, click here.
We also have more details and a form for contributing on our website. Click here.
The pastors are inviting churches to take up a special offering for the costs of the court case - this has been scheduled for this Sunday, 6 August, 2006.

2 August 2006 - Homosexual activists launch new agenda in the USA
Homosexual activists and educators in the USA have released a statement outlining their new agenda.

Perhaps they have realised that courts and state governments are not allowing recognition of same-sex relationships. So they are calling for the recognition of a wide range of relationships - everything from two senior citizens caring for each other, to queer couples who have children with another queer person/couple to "Committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner". That means MULTIPLE partners....
Click here to 'Beyond same sex marriage' statement.
Click here for their website.