ACL compiles a daily media monitoring service of stories of interest to the Christian constituency relating to children, family, drugs and alcohol, marriage, human rights, religious freedom etc. Visit the ACL’s website each day to see what’s of interest in the news. Please note that selection of the articles does not represent ACL endorsement of the content.
Children & Family
Wong misses the point about same-sex marriage concernKatherine Spackman - InternationalSenator Penny Wong’s defence of same-sex parenting in the latest issue of the South Australian magazine SALife completely misrepresents the arguments against same-sex marriage, according to the Australian Christian Lobby. “No one has ever doubted that a gay parent would love their child or suggested that the marriages of infertile couples are somehow inferior as Senator Wong claims,” ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said, “It is very manipulative to even suggest this.”
Donor Conception & Surrogacy
The link between rented wombs and gay marriageMichael Cook - Life Site NewsA TV show called The New Normal will have its premiere on NBC in the US soon. It’s about a gay couple and the single mother they engage to have their baby. “She’s just like an easy-bake oven except with no legal rights to the cupcake,” the surrogate-mother broker tells Bryan and David. This is a hard-nosed description of the woman’s role in gay marriage and child-rearing, but it sums it up accurately. In heterosexual relationships, the birth rate rises when couples are married. One would expect similar dynamics to apply to same-sex couples. For lesbian couples, this is not a huge problem; all they need is a sperm donor. But male couples need surrogate mothers. Where will these women come from?
Drugs & Alcohol
Board singles out careless booze adsBigpond newsAdvertisements linking alcohol with sport and an on-campus bourbon promotion are irresponsible marketing campaigns that should be withdrawn, says a new board chaired by former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley. The independent Alcohol Advertising Review Board (AARB), a coalition of health campaign groups, was formed this year in response to concerns about Australia's voluntary alcohol advertising regulation system.
Alcohol industry labels 'half-baked'NineMSNAn audit showing the alcohol industry has mostly failed to voluntarily put health warning labels on bottles and cans proves the government needs to step in, a responsible drinking lobby group says. The audit commissioned by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) suggests just 16 per cent of alcohol products carry the industry's own DrinkWise warning labels.
Child Safety Minister's daughter Alexandra Davis, 20, admits to snorting drugsJasmin Lill - The Courier-Mail The daughter of a Government Minister will enter a drug rehab facility next week after she admitted snorting methylamphetamine through a $5 note. Alexandra April Palmer Davis, the daughter of Queensland's Child Safety Minister Tracy Davis, has appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Two more charged over Vic drug lab murderAAPTwo more men have been charged with the murder of a 23-year-old nightclub promoter whose body parts were uncovered during a drug lab raid in Victoria's southwest. Matthew Lowe, 23, and Brok Sekold, 29, faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with murdering Yengo Faugere at an unknown place in October last year.
Education
Quick and easy preselection to safeguard Peter GarrettImre Salusinszky - The Australian Labor in NSW has moved to shield Peter Garrett from any potential challenge and will quickly re-endorse the federal School Education Minister in his eastern Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith. Labor will open nominations on Monday for 11 federal seats in its first tranche of NSW preselections ahead of the election due next year. Nominations will close the following Monday.
Environment
Slam carbon scamsMichael Kile - OnLine Opinion“Businesses that set out to dupe consumers [about the carbon price] - and to do it deliberately - are firmly in our sights. They're the ones we'll be putting our energy on”, said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission acting chairman, Dr Michael Schaper on ABC’s Radio National on 4 July 2012. The nation entered the House of Count Carbon last month. Fear not, the Australasian Consumer Fraud Task Force is only a telephone call away. Persons, companies or counts trying to take you for a “carbon” ride will be asking for trouble.
Gambling
Tatts flags higher net profitNineMSNTatts Group expects its net profit for the 2012 financial year at between $315 million and $320 million, compared with $275.4 million for the previous corresponding period. The gambling company told the Australian Securities Exchange after the close of trading on Thursday that the expected profit included the expenses incurred on the integration of TOTE Tasmania and TattsBet and the installation of Tatts' lottery system at NSW Lotteries.
Revealed: James Packer's new plan for $1b hotel-casino at BarangarooNick Tabakoff - The Daily TelegraphJames Packer has cleared a major hurdle in his bid to build a new $1 billion Sydney hotel-VIP casino, striking a deal with the company that holds the rights to build a hotel at Barangaroo, Lend Lease. The compromise deal helped Mr Packer and Lend Lease to yesterday finally reach an agreement that is likely to bring the Crown casino brand to Sydney.
Government betrays its most needy citizensJonathan Green - ABCThat people have lost faith in the political class and its doings is one of the truisms of our time. Have our expectations been unreasonable? Probably not. Presumably most of us ask little more of government than that it represent and pursue our best interests, individually and collectively. An industry worth billions that has defined its most lucrative markets among the poor and disadvantaged.
Marriage
Thousands flock to Chick-fil-A's defenseRob Quinn - NewserChick-fil-A is now smack in the middle of the gay marriage debate, and the fried chicken chain had a busy day yesterday. Across the country, crowds of gay marriage opponents—and supporters—converged on the chain's more than 1,600 locations for "Chick fil-A Appreciation Day," reports the Los Angeles Times. Huge lines grew outside many restaurants, while gay rights advocates held signs urging people to eat elsewhere. Some protesters and counter-protesters dressed as Superman or held 8-foot crosses, while some wily gay rights advocates joined the long lines only to order water once inside the restaurants.
Fried chicken in same-sex marriage rowAFPThousands of Americans have feasted on fried chicken in a politically-charged show of support for a family owned fast-food chain which opposes same-sex marriage. Long lines and traffic jams were reported throughout the American heartland after 630,000 people declared on Facebook they would take part in a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.
Black pastors group launches anti-Obama campaign around gay marriageDan Merica - CNNA group of conservative black pastors are responding to President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage with what they say will be a national campaign aimed at rallying black Americans to rethink their overwhelming support of the President, though the group’s leader is offering few specifics about the effort. The Rev. Williams Owens, who is president and founder of the Coalition of African-Americans Pastors and the leader of the campaign, has highlighted opposition to same-sex marriage among African-Americans. He calls this campaign “an effort to save the family.”
Barr saddened over civil unions stance of marriage advocatesSerkan Ozturk - Gaynews NetworkACT Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr is said to be “personally saddened” by suggestions from marriage equality groups and other LGBTI activists that the Government’s proposed amendments to its civil unions laws are a step back for same-sex couples. During this month’s sitting of Parliament, the Government will debate a bill it introduced late last year that would allow same-sex couples to enter into a civil union at a legally binding ceremony conducted by a celebrant.
Politics
Greens vilify anyone at odds with themAlan Oxley - The AustralianOn Tuesday, a story on ABC1's 7.30 revealed the harsh line the Greens party is drawing in the sand. Unless groups that claim to advance environmental interests support its positions, they are vilified. Perhaps recent attacks on the Greens from both sides of politics rattled the leadership? The 7.30 story quoted Christine Milne declaring that Planet Ark could not endorse a marketing program run by a government-financed Forest Wood Products Research and Development Corporation that demonstrated timber products were sustainable.
Internal polls tip wipeout for ALPMatthew Franklin - The AustralianLabor faces an electoral wipeout in which it stands to lose all of its federal seats in Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, according to leaked internal party polling. The Seven Network reported last night that Labor's two-party-preferred vote in Queensland had plunged from 45 per cent at the 2010 election to 36 per cent -- enough to cost it every seat in the northern state, including those of Wayne Swan, former prime minister Kevin Rudd and Trade Minister Craig Emerson.
Labor opens up leader electionTroy Bramston - The AustralianTasmanian Labor is to radically change how it elects its parliamentary leader by allowing MPs and union and party members to decide, rather than just MPs. Saturday's Tasmanian Labor conference will adopt a motion backed by the dominant Left faction to change the rules so that when in opposition, an electoral college of about 26,000 people will vote to decide who leads the party, but when in government, MPs will decide on the premier.
Religious Freedom & Persecution
Why Christians are dying in Nigeria: Understanding Boko HaramStacy L. Harp - Persecution BlogThey're responsible for murdering 32 people on Christmas Day. They set off 10 car bombs in 24 hours to kill over 250 people. They've owned up to bombings, drive-by shootings, anti-Christian and anti-government warfare. For the last several months, they've aimed deathly explosives at churches on an almost weekly basis. Hundreds have died at the hands of this terror group, but who exactly are they?
Breaking news: Anti Christian group claims suicide blasts at Nigerian police stations
Refugees
Greens call for asylum policy changesAdam Carroll - Sunshine Coast DailyThe Greens have called on the Federal Government to abandon its "obsession with deterrence and punishment of refugees". Greens Leader Christine Milne again urged the government to compromise on asylum seeker policy. "Deterrence has never worked and is not working now," Senator Milne said in Melbourne on Thursday.
Sexualisation of Society
Why can my kid reach the porn but not the choccies? – An open letter to the Chairman of 7ElevenMelinda Tankard Reist blogDear Mr Withers, A couple of weeks ago I wandered into one of your 7Eleven stores in the Sydney CBD. I was surprised to see Penthouse magazine and other such titles on the bottom shelf of your magazine rack. Did I miss something? When did these previously ‘top shelf’ magazines make the migration south?
Fifty Shades off Grey StreetDan Nancarrow - Brisbane TimesCredited with boosting everything from interest in erotica and swingers' clubs to sales of sex toys, the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon makes a perfect bed partner for Sexpo. In a consummation of this like-minded pairing organisers of the adult entertainment exhibition will debut a fully licensed recreation of a room from the book at today's event opening at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Other
ABC to control staff from single newsdeskAmanda Meade - The Australian The ABC is on the verge of implementing a historic restructure of its news operation that will integrate television, radio and online news into one centrally controlled super-newsdesk. In February, the ABC recruited British news experts Gary Rogers and Gay Flashman from Venture Consulting to analyse the workflow in various newsrooms across the country.
Jeff Kennett wants capital punishment open for national debateChristopher Gillett - Herald SunFormer Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has called for a debate on whether Australia should reintroduce the death penalty. His comments were sparked by Victorian woman Emma Louise L'Aiguille, who is facing the death penalty in Malaysia, and the recent police seizure of $500 million worth of ice and heroin in Sydney.
South Australian Government rejects complaints about 'offensive' road safety signsGreg Kelton - AdelaideNow Complaints about the use of the terms "wanker", "cock" and "knob" in a road safety campaign have been rejected by the South Australian Government. Road Safety Minister Jennifer Rankine has told independent MP Bob Such that the results of the campaign "vastly outweigh it being labelled as irresponsible".