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

Budget to ease strain on dole and sole parent wage earners

Tim Colebatch, David Wroe, Daniel Flitton - SMH

About 150,000 Australians who are unemployed or sole parents are tipped to benefit when Tuesday's budget increases the amount they can earn without losing benefits. In a gesture to critics urging that the unemployment benefit be lifted by $50 a week, Treasurer Wayne Swan will announce that people on the dole or equivalent benefits will be allowed to earn $100 a fortnight before their benefit is reduced, up from $62 a fortnight now.

Classification

Wicked Campers snorts with derision at ad watchdog

Amy Kellow - Ad news

In the world of Wicked Campers, Snow White doesn't need dwarves. She's got drugs. The controversial graphic was one of three upheld by the ad watchdog. But once again the firm has refused to comply.

Education

Calls for Minister's sacking over new school approvals

Emma Macdonald - The Canberra Times

The ACT Government may consider legislative changes to the way in which new private schools are approved in the future following community unrest about the latest batch of approvals. At issue is that the Brindabella Christian College will open just a kilometre away from the former campus of Flynn Primary School – a government school which was closed amid outcry in 2006.

Gambling

Police says racing insiders would be banned from the sport if police could legally share information

Keith Moor - Herald Sun

A number of jockeys and owners would be banned from horse racing today if police were legally able to reveal what they knew about them. Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said the force would happily tip off racing authorities about the rogue industry insiders if they were allowed to. He said the Federal Government would have to change legislation relating to the sharing of telephone-tap and other material before that could happen.

Human Rights

Cultural imperialism on the march

Robert R. Reilly - Mercator Net

Why is the Obama administration promoting Gay Pride Months and campaigning for gay rights in countries like Pakistan and El Salvador?

Indigenous

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles says fears over Stolen Generation are causing child neglect

Paul Toohey - Daily Telegraph

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles says he will remove neglected Aboriginal children from their parents and place them in adopted homes if necessary. Mr Giles, Australia's first indigenous state or territory leader, said governments had failed Aboriginal children because of fears they would be accused of creating a new Stolen Generation, but he would not be put off by such accusations.

Marriage

Hong Kong transsexual wins fight to marry her boyfriend

AFP

A transsexual woman in Hong Kong won a groundbreaking court appeal Monday allowing her to marry her boyfriend and forcing the government to re-write the city's marriage laws. The woman in her 30s, known in the Court of Final Appeal as "W" under anonymity rules, successfully overturned earlier verdicts that said marriage is only allowed between couples who were of the opposite sex at birth.

Overseas Aid

Poor let down by delay Millennium Development Goals promise

Katherine Spackman - International

The Australian Christian Lobby has said the government’s decision to delay promised election funding to the world’s poor in tomorrow’s budget will disappoint the Christian constituency. ACL’s Managing Director Lyle Shelton said comments by Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr that lifting aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) would again be pushed back to 2016-2017 is a breach of an election promise. “There is an expectation in the constituency that Labor will honour its election promise and its promise to the poorest of the world’s poor,” Mr Shelton said.

PM accused of breaking promise to poorest

Adam Gartrell - SMH

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been accused of breaking a promise to the world's poorest people after the government revealed another delay for its overseas aid spending targets. Foreign Minister Bob Carr confirmed on Monday that Labor's goal of increasing aid spending to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) had been pushed back by another year. Labor originally promised to reach the target by 2015/16 but pushed it back to 2016/17 last year. The Australian Christian Lobby said the government's decision would disappoint Christians.

Foreign aid falls victim to surplus push

Phillip Coorey - AFR

The federal government will delay for another year reaching its foreign aid spending target, a move that could save as much as $3 billion and help it forecast a surplus in 2016-17. In a bid to placate aid groups, Tuesday’s budget will cap the amount of aid money that can be spent on onshore asylum seeker costs. This financial year, $375 million – about 7 per cent of the $5.2 billion annual aid budget – was hived off to help meet spiralling costs caused by the record influx of asylum seekers. This number will be confirmed as the cap in the budget.

Politics

Labor Government tests Tony Abbott on NDIS, schools in Federal Budget funding

Malcolm Farr - news.com.au

The Government will map out a decade-long strategy to fund school improvements and disability insurance in tonight's Budget. And the blueprint will come with a challenge to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to match the strategy or say how he would cut spending to find the money.

Coalition must be smarter when it issues preferences

Gerard Henderson - SMH

Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and Greg Combet appear to believe Labor will win the election. Who knows? They may be right. There have been a number of elections, in Australia and elsewhere, where firm favourites lost what were wrongly considered unlosable contests. Irrespective of who wins, the Liberal Party and the Nationals may be able to determine the success or failure of some minor parties and independents, especially in the Senate. In the lower house in 2010, Liberal preferences made it possible for the Greens' Adam Bandt and independent Andrew Wilkie to prevail in Melbourne and the Hobart seat of Denison. Also, Coalition preferences helped Lee Rhiannon win an upper house seat in NSW.

Abbott confirms pledge on no-confidence motion

Heath Aston - SMH

Tony Abbott has pledged to introduce a motion of no confidence in the government in the next sitting fortnight, as Labor accused him of ''crab walking'' away from repeated threats to do so on budget day. The Opposition Leader said: ''We said we will move a motion of no confidence. We will move a motion of no confidence in this Government.''

Religious Freedom & Persecution

Pakistan: Pastor's son escapes kidnappers

ASSIST News Service

A Pakistani pastor says his son was kidnapped by terrorists, but he was able to escape and return to his family. That's the claim made by Pastor Javaid Austin in an email to the ASSIST News Service. Austin is chairman and a founding member of the Light of the City Church in Lahore. He has also been a member of the Pakistan Christian Welfare Council (PCWC) for the past 22 years. Austin claims that area police are corrupt and not taking any action against the "terrorists" who he says kidnapped his son.

Refugees

Salvos put aside funds to provide relief to hungry asylum-seekers

Rick Morton - The Australian

The influx of asylum-seekers in desperate need of support while living in the Australian community will be so large the Salvation Army has quarantined "a significant amount" of money in its next budget so it can deal with demand at its emergency relief centres.

Sexualisation of Society

Sex injury compo case goes to the High Court

Stephanie Gardiner - SMH

It started with a dinner date and a tryst in a motel room in the country, made its way to the Federal Court and now a notorious compensation case about a woman injured while having sex on a work trip will play out in the High Court. The federal government's workplace safety body, Comcare, was granted leave on Friday to appeal, to seek a High Court ruling on the distinction between private and business activities when employees are travelling for work.

An academic journal for porn fans by porn fans

Melinda Tankard Reist

If there were ever a human phenomenon in need of serious objective investigation, Internet porn use is surely it. Never has the youthful human brain been battered with so much erotic novelty during such a critical window of sexual development, and cracks are definitely appearing. However, judging from the board of the upcoming Porn Studies Journal, this particular publication will lack the detachment and expertise to fulfill this critical role.

Other

Your cheap clothing has a high price

Karl D. Stephan - Mercator Net

When the Rana Plaza garment factory building collapsed on April 24, crushing hundreds of workers under a pile of concrete and machinery that used to be an eight-story factory building, it was like lifting a rock in your garden and finding a snake’s nest full of baby rattlers. Something that most of the world preferred to keep out of sight was exposed to full view. The latest body count as of this writing is 640, but that is sure to rise as more bodies are pulled from the wreckage. (Ed: It is now more than 1,100.) Despite the tragedy of the collapse, there is hope that something else died in the wreckage too: the type of criminal negligence that leads to such catastrophes in the first place.

Troubled suburbs

James Thomas - Today Tonight

The shock waves of the religious war between the Sunnis and the Shias in Syria are being felt 14,000km away in the suburbs of Australia.