National News

Australia’s major church health and community service providers are today lodging submissions on the Welfare Review Interim Report, and are encouraging the reference panel to keep top-of-mind some key themes and principles when reviewing feedback. National Director of UnitingCare Australia, Lin Hatfield Dodds said it is positive that the McClure Review is looking at the adequacy of welfare payments. “Welfare should give ...

The repeal of the carbon tax will reportedly reduce household electricity bills by up to 50c per day, but is the long-term cost worth it? Rohan Salmond reports. Bucking global trends, Australia became the first nation to repeal its carbon price legislation when bills cleared the Senate in July. In a joint media release, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Minister ...

The 19 June High Court decision that the funding model of the national school chaplaincy program is unconstitutional may not mean what you think it does. Mardi Lumsden explores. The High Court decision to overturn the current funding model for school chaplains is not a criticism of the program itself, said Peter James CEO of Scripture Union (SU) Queensland, Australia’s ...

The Attorney General George Brandis is refusing to make public any of the 5,557 submissions the Government has received for and against the controversial proposed changes to free speech laws. In what some have described as “about as ironic as it gets”, in a Senate Estimates Committee Senator Brandis refused to even say how many submissions opposed the proposed changes, ...

The 2014 Budget was a major concern for the Uniting Church and its agencies. Mardi Lumsden reports. The federal government’s 2014 Budget was met with frustration and concern by many different parts of the Uniting Church in Australia in May. Uniting Church President Rev Dr Andrew Dutney said the church’s main concern is how Australia’s most vulnerable are affected by ...

The Age has reported that Indonesian officials reported that two boats of asylum seekers were intercepted by Australian naval or Customs vessels in recent days and their 20 passengers put together onto one wooden vessel and pushed back towards Indonesian waters. The asylum boat’s crew reportedly told Indonesian navy investigators that two Australian warships put three extra people on board ...

In 1998 Patrick Coleman made a speech in Townsville’s pedestrian mall without a permit, in breach of a local government by-law. He was fined and subsequently detained by police for 5 days for non-payment of the fine. The UN Human Rights Committee found that his speech was on subjects of public interest (human rights, land rights and mining) and his ...

As part of 50th anniversary celebrations, L’Arche Brisbane hosted a jubilee dinner with guest speaker Eileen Glass—the first Australian International Vice Leader of L’Arche International. Her speech is a fascinating exploration of the challenges and opportunities presented by diversity. The weakest and most frail are not a burden, she says, they enrich our communities. Eileen begins: One of the significant challenges ...

In a historic moment in the Uniting Church journey, First and Second Peoples gathered together in front of Parliament House in Canberra, calling for justice and reconciliation. Matt Pulford reports. On 18 March, on the lawns in front of Parliament House in Canberra, around 300 members of the Uniting Church in Australia gathered for an act of public worship. The ...

While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are living 10-17 years less than other Australians UnitingCare Queensland CEO Anne Cross talked about the commitment of the organisation to engage constructively in actions that help “Close the Gap”. On National Close the Gap Day which focuses on the gap in life expectancy education, incarceration rates, family well-being and health between Aboriginal ...