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

Child abuse reports increase but less than half investigated: report

Rachel Browne - SMH

The number of child abuse reports increased by 15 per cent over the past two years, but more than half of all reports were never investigated by authorities, according to new figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Almost 273,000 reports were made about children at risk nationally in 2012-13, up from a low of 237,000 in 2010-11.

Record number of of children in care

Natasha Bita - The Australian 

Fifty thousand Australian children were in foster care at some time in the past year, including 11,341 children removed from neglectful and violent families. National Children’s Commissioner Megan Mitchell yesterday proclaimed it a “national shame’’ that a record number of children were living without their parents.

Classification

Watchdog dismisses complaint suggesting ad for video game Watch Dogs was ‘intimidating’

Mumbrella

The Ad Standards Board has dismissed a complaint against an outdoor ad for controversial Ubisoft video game Watch Dogs which claimed it was “intimidating” and normalised guns.

Donor Conception & Surrogacy

UK: Majority sidelined as Govt backs three-parent babies

The Christian Institute

Proposals to allow three-parent babies will be pushed forward by the Government, despite more than 60 per cent of people opposing the plans in a consultation. Health Minister Jane Ellison announced the move yesterday, as the responses to a twelve-week Government consultation were released.

Drugs & Alcohol

Majority of Australians support medical marijuana

Henrietta Cook and Bridie Smith - The Age

Almost two-thirds of Australians support the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes, according to a new poll which coincides with a renewed push to relax the laws. A ReachTel survey of more than 3400 Australians shows that the majority back medicinal marijuana, with support highest among 51 to 65-year-olds.

Education

Access Ministries revamps training for religious instructors in schools

Benjamin Preiss - The Age

The main provider of the controversial Christian religious instruction in state schools has revealed plans to shake up training for instructors, with accredited courses offered through a private college. Acting chief executive Dawn Penney has outlined her plans for the provider, including a more open and communicative relationship with the 12 Christian denominations that belong to the group.

Euthanasia

Death coaching: a mourning mother's rage at son's 'assisted exit'

Victoria Laurie - The Australian 

The term "death coaching" is how Judi Taylor describes the tragic suicide of her 26-year-old son Lucas in a deserted park in Germany. “It was death-coaching, not life coaching, that killed him,” says the Melbourne mother of three sons. Lucas, a talented linguist, ended his life after taking a ­euthanasia drug he had bought in Peru.

Overseas Aid

Geldof slams Australian foreign aid cuts

AAP

Sir Bob Geldof has criticised the Australian government over its foreign aid spending. Australia has broken a promise to the world's poorest people by cutting its foreign aid spending, activist Sir Bob Geldof says.

Politics

We’re on the right track: Campbell Newman

The Courier Mail

Premier Campbell Newman and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie are seeking a meeting with the state’s second most senior judge, Court of Appeal president Justice Margaret McMurdo, following a day of peace brokering with the legal community.

Religious Freedom & Persecution

Christian sentenced by Iranian judge to have his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during Ramadan

Daily Mail

An Iranian judge sentenced a Christian man to have his lips burnt with a cigarette for eating during the day in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The barbaric punishment was carried out in public in a square in the city of Kermanshah.

Other

'Inconvenient' truth: bosses tell pregnant women to abort

Natasha Bita - The Australian 

Some employers have advised pregnant workers to consider abortions to avoid "inconvenient" maternity leave, the Human Rights Commission revealed yesterday. The mistreatment of pregnant women — including one who miscarried after being forced to scrub floors against doctor’s orders — is outlined in a study that reveals half the nation’s pregnant women and new mothers have suffered discrimination at work.