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.
Abortion
US: Late-term abortion ban is worthy GOP goal
Star Parker – The Patriot Post
In a poll done by Gallup earlier this year, the biggest complaint lodged against the Republican Party was “inability to compromise.” When I read the daily headlines, I see this theme continue. Republicans, particularly tea party Republicans, are portrayed as obstructionist, extreme, unreasonable, and unwilling to compromise. But let’s get perspective.
Children & Family
ALP pledges $450m for school care
Ben Packham – The Australian
Labor has announced a $450 million boost for before and after hours schools-based care for children. Announcing the policy today, Kevin Rudd said the measure would boost productivity and ease household costs.
Classification
Child porn images being left on websites by hackers, researchers reveal
Metro
Dozens of websites are being hacked to host images of child sexual abuse which are being inadvertently viewed by internet users, a charity has warned. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it had received 227 reports of hijacked websites in the last six weeks. The charity said legal pornographic sites had also been attacked to redirect visitors to the illegal material. Images included those of newborn babies and the rape and violent sexual abuse of very young children, it said.
Donor Conception & Surrogacy
Woman deals with shock, pain after learning her father was a sperm donor
Leslie Fain – Life News
The day after Stephanie Blessing learned she had been conceived with the assistance of a sperm donor and that the man she knew and loved as her father for 32 years was not her father, she went into shock. She remembers sitting in her rocking chair, staring into space. It was so bad, her husband had to remind her to do something as basic as changing their baby’s diaper. “I was just catatonic,” she said.
Drugs & Alcohol
National Asthma Council Australia welcomes tobacco tax hike
Kirrilly Burton – Pharmacy News
The National Asthma Council Australia has backed the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in supporting the Federal Government’s proposed increase in tobacco excise. Stephen Hughes, National Asthma Council Australia Director, and a community pharmacist representing the PSA on the Council’s Board, said that raising the tobacco tax was an important initiative not only to give people with asthma a better chance of achieving good asthma control but to improve health outcomes for all Australians.
Education
Islamic student numbers soar
Amy McNeilage – SMH
Islamic schools are the fastest growing school sector in the state, with some expanding so quickly they have had to freeze waiting lists or consider limiting new enrolments to siblings. The number of Islamic schools in NSW has tripled over the past 15 years to 22. And, while the number of students in the state’s public schools dropped slightly over the past decade, the student population of Islamic schools has doubled to more than 10,000.
Queensland’s last chance for education deal approaches
Daniel Hurst – Brisbane Times
The federal government is running out of time to lock in a school funding deal with Queensland ahead of the election, as last-minute demands and counter-demands fly thick and fast. Ministers are racing to settle an agreement ahead of caretaker mode beginning on Monday afternoon, after Victoria’s Coalition government agreed to sign up to the federal reforms on Sunday.
Euthanasia
Very few doctors in Canada would kill a patient by euthanasia
Alex Schadenberg – National Right to Life News
What do we know about the willingness of Canadian physicians to participate in euthanasia? Here are two authoritative polls. An article published earlier this year by Postmedia News reported on a survey by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) that found very few Canadian doctors are willing to kill a patient by euthanasia, if requested.
Homelessness & Poverty
Mission to end homelessness going places
Patricia Karvelas – The Australian
Cairns mother of four Shianne Temple had hit rock bottom. Struggling with grief after the death of a loved one, she was drinking to numb the pain.
Marriage
Same-sex laws may be ruled invalid: MP
Catholic Weekly
The High Court of Australia could rule that legislation allowing NSW to become the first Australian state to legalise same-sex marriage is “invalid and inoperative”, says Labor MP Greg Donnelly. The report for the inquiry into Same-Sex Marriage Law in NSW, tabled in the Legislative Council on 26 July, found NSW has the power to introduce its own law, although this was likely to be challenged in the High Court by opponents of gay marriage, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
Politics
Who will play the porn card during Australia’s election?
Adam Turner – SMH
With porn filtering planned for the UK, will the filtering debate reignite in Australia in the run up to Rudd versus Abbott on September 7? British Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently called on ISPs to introduce ”family-friendly” filters for all customers by 2014. Of course only last year Australia scrapped the idea of mandatory filtering after a three-year debate, but the major difference with the UK plan is that it’s not mandatory — homes will have the ability to opt-out at any time if they so choose.
Voters walk away from Greens
John Ferguson – The Australian
More than 150,000 voters have deserted the Greens in the wake of the party’s turbulent alliance with Labor after the 2010 election. An analysis of the Greens’ long-term lower-house vote using Newspoll data shows the trend is moving against the minor party from a high in the March 2011 survey of 15 per cent. The most recent poll published exclusively in The Australian yesterday recorded Greens’ support of 9 per cent as it approaches the election.
Gay lobby vows to get personal
Patricia Karvelas – The Australian
The Australian Marriage Equal ity lobby group will this week launch a website dedicated to exposing the position of every candidate in the election to give people a guide on “how to vote for marriage equality”. The strategy — to be funded partly by the corporate sector and through donations — will mark the first time the gay lobby has promoted Coalition candidates and places direct pressure on ALP MPs who are not in favour of gay marriage.
Refugees
Immigration Minister Tony Burke concedes refugees won’t become Nauru citizens
ABC
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has confirmed refugees resettled on Nauru will not have the option of becoming permanent residents there, but he believes it is still a secure arrangement.
Kevin Rudd yet to get PNG to sign formal agreement on asylum seekers
Gemma Jones – News Limited
The PNG asylum deal is under a cloud with the country still not ready to sign a formal agreement and there were new questions over a resettlement arrangement with Nauru. Labor was unable to finalise the deal with a Memorandum of Understanding covering “detailed administrative arrangements” yet to be signed when the government entered caretaker mode. Signing the new memorandum is already almost a week overdue with Kevin Rudd nominating a July 31 deadline, sparking Coalition claims the deal is unravelling.
Religious Freedom & Persecution
Obama ignored Syrian Christian requests for weapons
Daniel Greenfield – Front Page Mag
What does it take to pry some weapons out of Obama’s clenched little fists? He’ll give weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt, but not to its military. He’ll give weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood militias in Syria, but not the Syrian Christians who are only asking for weapons to defend themselves.
Shameful: Even Putin calls to end Christian persecution, as Obama is ‘silent’
Tom Tillison – Biz Pac Review
To borrow from the musical group The Kinks, you know “it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world” when Russian president Vladimir Putin becomes the leading voice for stopping the violent persecutions against Christians while the president of the United States stands silent.
Other
Muslim focus for $2.5m program
Patricia Karvelas – The Australian
Young Muslims in southwestern Sydney will be the target of $2.5 million in funding from the Rudd government to promote community cohesion. The Lebanese Muslim Association will receive the money to run a three-pronged strategy to help some of the country’s most marginalised youth.
Minister arrested for calling homosexuality a sin
David Epps – The Citizen
Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff and former chaplain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was arrested in London, England and charged with “using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult.” Miano had been preaching on a London street corner during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships with a ministry group called Sports Fan Outreach International. According to the report, Miano was preaching about immoral living – and cited homosexuality as an example of lifestyle choices that are contrary to biblical teaching.
View your life with a fresh perspective
Clare Van Ryn – The Examiner
When I heard that Launceston’s own City Park was named as one of the top 10 Australian parks in the Travellers’ Choice Attractions awards, I was dubious. Don’t get me wrong – I love my home town and I’m the first to espouse the calibre of its attributes.