JourneyOnline
What’s happening this week?
The inaugural Queensland Youth Week will be held from Friday 6 April to Sunday, 15 April.
The week is designed to give Queenslanders aged 12 to 25 the opportunity to have their voice heard and make a difference.
To find out more, visit the QLD Youth Week website.
Sustainable peace and development in a polarising world
From 9-11 April, The Centre for Interfaith & Cultural Dialogue at Griffith University’s Nathan campus will host the first ‘Commonwealth Conference’ from April 9-11, exploring the role of the Commonwealth of Nations in achieving sustainable peace and development.
Setsuko Thurlow who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in 2017 will be guest speaker during the opening night dinner. Tickets to the conference are available here.
The Death of a King
The Reverend Doctor Noel Preston, AM will deliver a lecture titled “The Death of a King: an Australian reflection on the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” on Monday, 23 April at St Matt’s Anglican Church, Holland Park.
Bookings are essential. Please email stmattshp@iprimus.com.au
Week in review
Have we got our priorities wrong?
In an opinion piece for news.com.au, Alana Schetzer takes a look at the recent scandal affecting Australian cricket, reflecting on something much darker about the Australian psyche.
The denunciations to this “un-Australian” act have been as wide as they have been savage. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — a man who has often been criticised for failing to demonstrate passion for anything, including his own leadership — called the incident on Sunday “bitterly disappointing” and that it “beggar’s belief”.
What guns are to America, pokies are to Australians
As a wave of anti-gun violence protests energise American young people, Tim Costello has the answer to the question “What should Aussies be protesting?”
“We saw a win in one sense. For the first time every secular journalist suddenly had an ‘aha’ moment. Massive amounts of pokies money, actually buying an election (in Tasmania),” Costello told Eternity.
GetUp! announces priorities for 2018
The Australian reports that GetUp! has prioritised shutting down the Adani coal mine in Queensland as the number one objective for 2018 and elevated “evacuation” of asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru.
More than 22,000 members of the advocacy group helped set the GetUp! agenda for the coming year by participating in a so-called “vision survey” to gauge how Australia could become more “fair, flourishing and just”.
Asylum seekers left with no avenue to challenge decisions
Fairfax newspapers report that the Nauruan government has abolished appeals from the country’s Supreme Court to the High Court of Australia, leaving asylum seekers and political protesters with no avenue for challenging unfavourable decisions.
The High Court in Canberra has been the Pacific island’s final court of appeal since 1976, when a bilateral treaty was struck between Australia and Nauru. The agreement reproduced an arrangement that had been in place before Nauru became an independent republic in 1968.
Action
India’s top court has ruled that sex with a child is always rape, quashing a clause that allowed men to have sex with underage girls (under 18) if they were married to them. Global Citizen is requesting people take action to encourage Bangladesh to tighten their laws. There, 15 million girls aged under 18 are married each year and girls can be married off at any age in undefined “special circumstances”.
