ATTORNEY-GENERAL Rob Hulls will today announce a controversial compromise struck with the state's religious groups that will allow them to continue to discriminate against gays and lesbians, single mothers and people who hold different spiritual beliefs.In a move that has delighted religious groups but angered gay activists and discrimination experts, Mr Hulls will protect the right of hundreds of church-run organisations - including schools, hospitals and welfare services - to refuse to employ or provide services to people who they believe may undermine their beliefs.
Under the deal, Mr Hulls will allow church groups to continue discriminating on the grounds of sex, sexuality, marital and parental status and gender identity. But they will be unable to discriminate on the basis of race, disability, age, physical features, political beliefs or activity, or breastfeeding.
The decision has dismayed groups that argued that the review was a chance to eliminate entrenched discrimination in Victoria, which has more exemptions to its equal opportunity law than any other state.
Leading discrimination law expert Professor Margaret Thornton said it was a win for fundamentalist religious groups. ''In terms of a person's private life ... their sexual preference or marital status really has nothing to do with their ability to perform a job. Being able to discriminate on marital status is particularly absurd. It is really out of date. It really amounts to the policing of women because the focus is on single mothers, not on men.''
From The Age, Government bows to religious right.
I've realised I can't imagine ever being able to think of January 26 as something to celebrate, but I like the idea of celebrating the good things about Australia so I'd like Australia Day to be on a different date. Kevin Rudd said 'sorry' on behalf of all Australians, but January 26 is still 'invasion day' to me.
After all, it's not like January 26 just marks the date I borrowed your lawnmower that I subsequently forgot to return. It marks the day Aboriginal people had their land nicked from them; the start of everything from genocide to appalling infant death rates.
I was going to suggest May 27, the date of the 1967 referendum about Aboriginal Australians. It's a pretty symbolic date because 90% voted for it, though its meaning isn't straightforward according to Wikipedia:
The overwhelming support for the 'Yes' vote gave the Federal Government a clear mandate to implement policies to benefit Aborigines. A number of misconceptions have arisen as to the outcomes of the referendum some as a result of it taking on a symbolic meaning during a period of increasing Aboriginal self-confidence. It was some five years before any real change occurred as a result of the referendum but federal legislation has since been enacted covering land rights, discriminatory practices, financial assistance and preservation of cultural heritage. The other aspect of the constitutional change, enabling of Aborigines to be counted in population statistics, has led to clearer comparisons of the desperate state of Aboriginal health.
I like the idea that not only is it a day off work, a day for catching up with friends and family or just lazing around, it's also a day where the nation can examine its conscience and test its actions and statements against the spirit of May 27, 1967.
From The Age:
Women in Victoria would have the legal right to choose an abortion under historic legislation expected to be introduced to State Parliament next week.The Age believes the bill, which will prompt long and emotional debate, would decriminalise abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, providing the woman gives consent.
...
The bill, which will be the subject of a conscience vote, is certain to split both major parties, but pro-choice advocates are confident it will be passed.
...
It is believed the bill will ensure that a woman's consent provides lawful authority for an abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation. After that, terminations would be unlawful unless doctors deemed continuing the pregnancy would pose a risk of harm to the woman.
Health Minister Daniel Andrews, who will introduce the bill, is expected to argue that it is designed to bring the law into line with community expectations and clinical practice.
Abortion officially remains a crime in Victoria, but an estimated 20,000 pregnancies are terminated each year under the common law protection of a 1969 Supreme Court ruling by Justice Menhennitt that allowed abortions if a woman's physical or mental health would be put at risk by continuing the pregnancy.
...
Pro-choice advocates, who have been lobbying for the most liberal option, will be disappointed the Government has opted for the so-called compromise mode
via Paul's buggery.org:
'Chris Evans is Australia's best immigration minister in a dozen years' - go read it, it'll gladden your soul.
It's worth repeating why immigration is such an important issue:
The immigration portfolio is probably unique in the degree to which the minister hold in his or her hands the lives and aspirations of individuals - real people. With a stroke of the ministerial pen, the immigration minister has the power to break the spirits and crust the souls of ordinary human beings whose only hope is the chance of a life in a new country where opportunity, not oppression, is the norm. That's what Evans was referring to when he spoke of "playing God".
And also - 'Starbucks to close 61 Australian outlets'.
Interesting. Based on my experience as an Australian in Europe, Tampa changed how Australia was viewed - I'm not sure how that perception can be repaired, and while it's heartening to read that 'Australia generally is one of the least racist countries in the world', even one 'pocket of racism' is too many.
The Age: We're not racist, but ...
There seems to be agreement among the experts that Australia generally is one of the least racist countries in the world. Instead, they point to "pockets of racism" across the country....
But Kevin Rudd's apology might be the stimulus for changing attitudes towards indigenous Australians. Waleed Aly says it tapped into a sense of unease that perhaps Australians weren't doing all they could on race. That, he says, suggests that we are aware of the criticism that Australia has problems with racism and that we want to shed that image.
"I would argue that Australia is among the least racist societies on earth," he says. But he has no doubt that Australia is perceived poorly by other countries on matters of race. He believes past policies on refugees, Tampa, the stolen generations, the White Australia policy, Hansonism and Cronulla have damaged Australia's reputation -- somewhat unfairly.
"The reality of Australian society is complex, but the international vision of Australian society is usually simple." And superficial.
One leading multiculturalism researcher, the Australian National University's James Jupp, argues it is the outdated images -- of Anzac, of battlers and of the outback -- that should be a starting point for change. "Lots of countries have myths that are out of date, in fact most countries do, but it makes people who weren't born here feel that the country doesn't belong to them," he says.
Australia to speak up in the world: PM
The Prime Minister has declared that Australia will adopt an ambitious new "activist" stance on international issues where it believes it can make a difference.Before leaving today on a round-the-world trip, which starts in the US and ends in China, Kevin Rudd said last night that Australia's voice had been "too quiet for too long across the various councils of the world".
He said the Government was committed to "creative, middle-power diplomacy as the best means of enhancing Australia's national interests".
Admittedly I've been busy with deadlines over here (because of course the end of the financial year is April 5 or whatever) but I haven't seen Kevin really stuff up so far. This is so much more than I hoped for... to be very mature about it, Johnny Howard can go suck eggs.
If you didn't get a chance to watch them in a venue (we watched them at the Barbican in London as part of the Australian Film Festival) you can check the Tropfest 2008 entries out outline.
I liked Marry Me, Made in Australia, Beggar's Belief because it was set down the road from my old place, White Lines and the shark and mouse ones.
From the Age: Hands across the nation, 'The apology to indigenous Australians is not about dwelling on the past, it's about building a future.':
I know of no indigenous person who told their story to the inquiry who wanted non-indigenous Australians to feel guilty -- they just wanted people to know the truth. They wanted to tell the stories of their lives, to have the truth of their experiences acknowledged. Many people who gave evidence to the inquiry said that the telling was itself healing -- knowing that at last they were being officially heard.Governments inherit the laws and practices of previous governments, and so, too, do they inherit responsibility for past actions. We as Australians need to acknowledge the effects that past policies had on indigenous people, the hurt that has been caused to a group of Australians on the basis of their race, and we should rejoice, and take great pride, in today's apology in our Federal Parliament.
Ultimately, we have chosen not to turn away from what was done to those children. We have chosen to face it for what it was, and I know that Australians will feel great relief having done so.
This is not about taking a "black armband" view of history. It is not about dwelling on the past for its own sake. This history is not someone else's history. Today's apology is about healing and reconciliation for the benefit of us all.
Monstrous Melbourne presents Melbourne as the city that just keeps growing, and Melbourne dreamtime a reality looks back to the people, flora and fauna that was there before white settlers.
Melbourne seems both utterly familiar and completely strange to me now. It's 'home' and yet it's also a city I'd have to get to know again. I could live here again, but it would be an adjustment.
At least I don't have to feel ashamed of being Australian now Howard is gone. Such a simple thing, but it's such a big change.
I'm so excited about going home to a Howardless Australia. And I might even get to check out Maxine on the local news.
And after all the months of caution, control and campaign courtesy, she is finally ready to say what she really thinks about the former prime minister."Mr Howard has always presented himself as a courteous man, a civil man, a man with a great sense of history," she says.
"But I'd have to say what struck me and what struck a lot of people in Bennelong and elsewhere ... was a sense that Mr Howard presided over a government where there was diminished respect for our institutions.
"Be it the rule of law, the separation of powers, or the importance of institutions such as the universities, or the ABC and the CSIRO. And I think there is a message there."
...
After months of intensive canvassing around the streets of her new domain, McKew also feels bold enough to proclaim a further, deeper mood shift in the populace - towards a national apology.
"I see this as a victory, importantly, for Bennelong's people. I mean, consider the name of the seat.
"It turns out that Bennelong, one of the first Australians, who had a very interesting relationship with Governor Phillip, is buried in an unmarked grave in Kissing Point in Putney, right in the middle of the electorate of Bennelong.
"I think we're on the threshold of something fine in this country. Jenny Macklin this week has talked about the importance of saying sorry to the first Australians. And I know that the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is very conscious that this be done in a very special way. It marks, I guess, a new generosity in the way we engage with the first Australians, and I would like to think that Labor's win in Bennelong connects with that generous spirit in some way."
McKew is not overly concerned with the questions of formal legal liability that have for so long attached themselves to the prospect of a formal apology to Aboriginal Australia.
"[In] most state governments, where the apology has been made in state assemblies, this has not been the case at all, so I think we have to look beyond all that, and be big about
this. It is high time now that the Commonwealth of Australia, in our federal parliament, that our parliamentarians take this step, and let's hope that it is a bipartisan exercise. That's my hope. It really is."
SMH, Chinese whispers that built to a roar
...but imagine my outrage that Franco Cozzo doesn't deserve his own proper Wikipedia entry!
I originally thought of him because of an article about anger in America over non-English language ads which made me want to hear "Comprate da Franco Cozzo" and "Megalo megalo megalo" again.
Maybe there is hope for Australia yet - I might have been too young to notice any fuss but his ads, in Greek, Italian and English, were cult classics rather than an outrage. There's a video on YouTube where someone's spotted him in a car and asked him to say the lines from his ad, but even better - here's the original Franco Cozzo ad.
Ha ha ha haha ha. Melbourne vs Sydney, booze-style:
"In NSW, you get bogan-style drinking because bogan-style venues are encouraged."
"We aren't barbarians, but we don't want to sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book."
London is turning into Melbourne - it was beautiful and sunny this morning, and I was even going to venture from my desk and go to the park at lunchtime, but we've just had a massive downpour.
I never particularly liked the 'four seasons in one day' thing in Melbourne and don't want it over here too!
(I could also do without hayfever, ta)
"We're trying to go from comfortable to scary. We're sadistic I suppose," Mr Cockburn said.
"Melbourne City Council has dipped its toe into the legal minefield of gay civil unions. As Kenneth Nguyen discovered, it may prove a catalyst for change across the state." The Age
"Melbourne the food capital of Australia? Yes - and things just got a lot better." (Age)
I shouldn't read things like this when we're about to head into winter over here.
Looking for more on "Is Not" led me to gridskipper melbourne and then to a blog about squid. Truly the internet is wonderful.
I wish I could see this: "Is Not is "uniquely Melburnian", its designers claim, because of the centralised, pedestrian-friendly nature of the city and the relative abundance of bill-postering sites." (Age)
A collection of articles about the gay marriage ban in Australia:
"Australia's conservative national government has overruled a local law allowing gay unions.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) became the first part of the country to legally recognise gay relationships when it voted on the issue last month.
But now the federal government has stepped in to invalidate the new law."
Australia overrules gay union law, BBC.
The latest:
"The Australian Greens and Democrats tomorrow will seek to overturn the federal government's decision to block ACT laws allowing same-sex civil unions.
This morning Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced that Governor-General Michael Jeffrey had agreed to use his powers to disallow the ACT law, which would have allowed gay couples to have their relationships registered and legally recognised."
Minor parties fight gay marriage ban, The Age.
"Coalition Senators are being urged to cross the floor and over-ride the Government's move to disallow ACT civil unions laws.
...
ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell has attacked the Governor-General's decision, calling it arrogant and undemocratic.
Mr Corbell says the issue of same sex unions will not go away and he will continue to push for legal recognition for gay couples.
"We will pursue all options to provide for equality under the law for people in same sex relationships," he said."
Senators urged to protect civil unions, ABC.
One reason Australia needs to allow gay marriage:
"Mr Walters said the inability of gay people to have their relationships formally and legally recognised caused great damage.
"The implication that (homosexuality) is in some way shameful or second class cannot be avoided when we treat people in this way," he said.
"We have a high rate of youth suicide in Australia - one of the highest in the world - and one reason for that is where people's sexuality is not accepted by the wider community and the message that sends is very damaging to those who are just finding out about their sexuality," he said."
Rights group slams gay marriage ban, The Age.
And a bit of a conspiracy theory:
"The federal government's decision comes just after a push by United States President George Bush for a constitutional ban on gay marriage."
Gay couples to lose right to say 'I do', The Age.
"Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area, because they can't stand the music". Ahh, Australia. The BBC article helpfully explains that "Daggy is Australian slang for unfashionable or uncool".
I read in WWW that 'CUB' cashed-up bogans is a new phrase in use in Australia - can anyone confirm?
It's amazing what you can find when searching for a random word like malaka.
"The Australian government has said it will oppose any new laws legalising gay civil unions.
Prime Minister John Howard said he did not intend to allow the institution of marriage "to be in any way undermined".
...
The head of the ACT government, John Stanhope, said Mr Ruddock's reaction revealed homophobia in the Howard administration.
"One has to pose the question of whether or not the real reason (for Mr Ruddock's stance) is that there is no place in John Howard's Australia for homosexuals," he told ABC radio." (BBC)
"Melbourne is the proud capital of street painting with stencils. Its large, colonial-era walls and labyrinth of back alleys drip with graffiti that is more diverse and original than any other city in the world. Well, that was until a few weeks ago, when preparations for the Commonwealth games brought a tidal wave of grey paint, obliterating years of unique and vibrant culture overnight." (Guardian)
"South-East Asia's most wanted terrorist has warned in a video message seized by Indonesian police that Australia will be the prime target of new "intimidation and terror" attacks while its troops remain in Iraq." (Age)
And meanwhile...
"The draft anti-terrorism law is so broad it could even be used to jail members of the Australian Wheat Board accused of paying Saddam Hussein $290 million through a front company, a Government committee has been told." (Age)
Australia warns of terror threat (BBC)
Scary stuff, though I don't know whether I believe it.
The Encyclopedia of Melbourne looks really cool, though only the A entries are currently online.
I'm off to see Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Barbican tonight, woo!
In other news, Melbourne has been reduced to second 'best place to live'.
"Provocation as a defence to murder will be abolished in Victoria and a new offence of defensive homicide introduced under a bill to go before state parliament tomorrow.
...
"Victoria's homicide laws have not kept pace with changing social values," Mr Hulls said.
"The law regarding provocation was developed from times past when it was acceptable, especially for men, to have a violent response to an alleged breach of a person's honour.
...
Under the changes, the law will now take into account situations where a person kills in response to long-term family violence."
(Age)
WTF? I go surfing in Cornwall for the weekend and come back to this:
"Melbournians are being urged to stand firm against terrorism after a new video warned the Victorian capital may be next on al-Qaeda's hit list."
But also...
"A videotape threatening terrorist attacks on Melbourne and Los Angeles could be an opportunistic stunt to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, an al-Qaeda expert says." news.com.au
The front page of the Age online reads like a primary school playground. Beazley is calling Costello a sook, and the Communications Minister tells Telstra heads to 'stop whinging'.
As I was desperately trying to remember the name of Rue Bebelon, I came across this travel article on Booroondara.
I also managed to come across Clan Melbourne and crashfrequency.com.
Ah, Melbourne. Best food in Australia, apparently.
We love you, Paul.
"All the people who dabble in race, whether it be the Hitlers at the hard end or the Hansons in Australia on the soft end, have one subject in common - citizenship. And these days, for citizenship read migration.
They seek to construct parochial and arbitrary distinctions between the civic and the human community. So some of us have a right to enjoy the sovereign benefits of security, sustenance and belonging while others are wayfarers and itinerants who are not entitled to inclusion with us.
...
Britain is a great state because it has always had solid values, and has been prepared to fight for them. How wrong it is for Michael Howard's Conservative party to tread the slippery and sleazy track of race to ingratiate themselves with that proportion of the electorate always susceptible to this malignant appeal.
...
In 2001, Prime Minister John Howard ran a despicable election campaign against asylum seekers. The campaign was successful but Australia was weakened by it. Its moral compass now lacks the equilibrium it had and the underlying compassion has been compromised."