National News

SCHOOL CHAPLAINCY in regional and rural Queensland received a massive boost of funds and awareness thanks to a cattle drove through central Queensland in October. The third biennial Stock Up for Hope Charity Drove, presented by Medibank, connected kids, chaplains, cattle producers, chefs and city slicker corporates to raise $300 000 for Scripture Union Queensland (SU QLD) school chaplaincy. Drove ...

AUSTRALIAN CHURCHES Gambling Taskforce Chair, Rev Tim Costello said he has no doubt the Government will continue its poker machine reforms, despite the changes made in the House of Representatives today. Speaking shortly after Liberal Party member Peter Slipper replaced the ALP’s Harry Jenkins as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rev Costello said both Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Minister ...

CHAIR OF the Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce, Rev Tim Costello, urges Queenslanders to speak out for a safer community as Clubs Australia brings its deceptive anti poker machine reform campaign to marginal Queensland seats. “Clubs Australia has led an aggressive, misleading campaign in NSW over the past two months aimed at protecting profits and is planning a similar campaign in ...

Today The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, stood outside Tecoma Uniting Church in Melbourne to announce the Australian Government’s plans to support Australian NGO’s, including the Relief and Development Unit of UnitingWorld, in their response to the Horn of Africa crisis. The Australian Government’s Dollar-for-Dollar initiative will match each dollar donated to appeals run by AusAID-accredited ...

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Alistair Macrae, today expressed disappointment at the rugby league clubs’ opposition to the introduction of mandatory pre-commitment measures for poker machines. “I am a lifetime supporter of football clubs. But their claim that this measure will bankrupt them reveals either a very flawed business model or a lack of concern for ...

Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce Chair, Rev Tim Costello said Clubs Australia continues its campaign of deception and misinformation, this time misquoting Norwegian research, in an attempt to mislead the public on measures that will limit the impact of poker machine addiction. Rev Costello said the Norsk Tipping report at the heart of today’s Daily Telegraph story actually says that between ...

UnitingCare Australia welcomes the Federal Government’s clean energy legislation which will be tabled in the Parliament today, and encourages all politicians of goodwill to support the Bills. National Director Lin Hatfield Dodds said the legislation will help shift Australia to a low carbon future, while helping low income Australia adjust to the change. “We support this action to reduce carbon ...

DEMENTIA AWARENESS Week 16-26 September is themed “worried about your memory” and encourages people to seek information if they feel they or a loved one are experiencing memory problems . Early dementia and mild cognitive impairment does not have to mean the loss of independence in the home and a shift to higher care. Tunstall offers a range of solutions to ...

WITH THE refugee ‘issue’ in Australia, it seems like you can only be ‘bleeding heart’ pro or a ‘get lost, we’re full’ against – or so most media outlets, bumper stickers and political powers would have us believe. Three Australians keen to invest in a more constructive dialogue are Darren Hassan, Brad Chilcott and Benson Saulo. They have found their ...

THE UNITING Church in Australia has welcomed the High Court decision that held invalid the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship’s declaration of Malaysia as a safe country for the transfer of asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia. President of the Uniting Church, Rev. Alistair Macrae said, “The Uniting Church has been opposed to the arrangement with Malaysia which treated ...