RSA Weekly For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia
Saturday 19 October 2024 Hi , With just days to the Queensland state election, alarm bells are ringing about the potential for an incoming LNP government to wind back hard-fought gains that decriminalised abortion
in 2018 and introduced voluntary assisted dying in 2021. Even a former LNP minister is speaking out. If you'd like to share something you've seen online or comment on articles in the RSA Weekly, feel free to email me on editor@rationalist.com.au. Si Gladman Executive Director, Rationalist Society of
Australia |
| THE GUARDIAN ‘Pro-life’ Queensland LNP candidate hints at post-election push to change abortion laws18 Oct: A Liberal National party candidate for the Queensland election has been
recorded telling a voter “I am pro-life” and claiming that abortion “can increase the risk of breast cancer”, but that she couldn’t “say anything yet because we have got to get elected”. Read the full article |
| THE ADVERTISER Adelaide Uni abortion crusader Joanna Howe accuses pro-life Liberal MP Dennis Hood of ‘abject betrayal’17 Oct: A key architect of the state’s late-term abortion
reforms has lashed a Liberal MP she says betrayed the pro-life cause during Wednesday’s dramatic late-night parliamentary sitting. Dr Joanna Howe was scathing in response to how the controversial vote unfolded, labelling it an “abject betrayal” by conservative Liberal MP Dennis Hood. Read the full article |
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| RSA Public schools choosing secular wellbeing roles over religious
chaplaincy in New South Wales17 Oct: New South Wales’ public schools are opting for secular wellbeing officers more than religious chaplains under the Albanese government’s National Student Wellbeing Program. According to data provided to the Rationalist Society of Australia by the state’s Department of Education, as of April this year 57 per cent of 233 schools that had engaged a provider had opted for the secular option, while 41 per
cent selected religious chaplains. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN News Corp says misinformation bill might restrict its news sites because of comment sections17 Oct: News Corp has raised concerns the federal government’s misinformation
and disinformation bill could inadvertently capture its news sites due to its comments section, despite the legislation exempting news organisations. News Corp Australia’s group executive corporate affairs, Campbell Reid, told the parliamentary committee examining the bill in a hearing on Thursday that the company’s websites host a range of content “not just pure journalism reporting”. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIANInside the bizarre recruitment tactics of the Shincheonji ‘doomsday’ church17 Oct: A Korean religious sect that has been labelled a cult by former members is attempting to expand its influence in
Australia by targeting young, impressionable people in cafes, on dating apps and on university campuses. Diane Nguyen, a former member of Shincheonji who is calling on the federal government to legislate against coercive control by organisations, describes the group as a “doomsday cult”. Read the full article |
| GO GENTLE The threat to Queensland's VAD law is real17 Oct: Former LNP Cabinet Minister Jann Stuckey believes Queensland's VAD law is under threat from Conservatives who have vowed
to overturn the legislation if elected. "If they get the majority that I think they’re going to get, we are in really dangerous waters," she told Andrew Denton. Read the full article |
| CATHOLIC LEADER Queensland bishop calls out ‘fear campaign’ over VAD legislation as state election heats up16 Oct: Townsville Bishop Tim Harris said a fear campaign was being spread
over the fate of Voluntary Assisted Dying legislation ahead of the next state election. In recent days, Labor MP for Thuringowa, Aaron Harper claimed an incoming Liberal National Party government might return to a private bill from the Katter Australia Party that would change the legislation. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN South Australia’s upper house narrowly rejects ‘Trumpian’ bill to wind back abortion care 16 Oct: On Wednesday South Australia’s upper house
voted on legislation that would force women seeking an abortion after 27 weeks and six days – an extremely rare occurrence – to be induced, to deliver the child alive, and keep it or adopt it out. It was narrowly defeated – nine were in favour and 10 opposed from the 22-person house. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN One Nation silent on future of Queensland election candidate who likened Covid vaccine to Holocaust 16 Oct: One Nation has refused to comment on
the future of a candidate at the Queensland state election who likened the Covid vaccine to the Holocaust amid calls for him to be stood down. Health experts and a Jewish community leader condemned the comments by Gary Williamson, a bricklayer who is running for the seat of Redlands. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Greens accuse Queensland Labor of ‘pure hypocrisy’ on abortion after Katter party election preferences 15 Oct: The Greens say Queensland Labor’s
decision to direct preferences to Katter’s Australia Party candidates in north Queensland electorates is “absolute pure hypocrisy”, amid the ongoing debate over abortion laws. On Tuesday the Greens said Labor should stop volunteers handing out how-to-vote cards in at least eight north and central Queensland electorates that direct preferences to the KAP. Read the full article |
| THE AGE Why a group of neo-Nazis stormed a tiny town in NSW 14 Oct: A group of about 50 neo-Nazis, dressed from head to toe in black and wearing face
coverings, stormed the small regional NSW town of Corowa, just across the border from Victoria, on Saturday. They congregated in front of the town’s war memorial and were seen holding a sign that read: “White man fight back.” Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Minns backs LGBTQ+ reforms but students and teachers at religious schools could still face discrimination 14 Oct: Transgender people in
New South Wales could soon be able to change their sex on their birth certificates without getting surgery, but gay teachers will still be able to be fired from some schools after a watered-down proposal received the premier’s support. Premier Chris Minns will this week ask the Labor caucus to back independent MP Alex Greenwich’s equality bill after a raft of amendments were made, including dropping changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act governing schools. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Thousands rally at Christian nationalist event in DC to ‘turn hearts back to God’ 13 Oct: Tens of thousands of Christians poured onto the
National Mall on Saturday to atone, pray and take a stand for America – which, in their view, has been poisoned by secularism and must be ruled instead by a Christian god. It’s the first of a series of Christian nationalist gatherings in DC to rally believers to the Capitol ahead of the 2024 election. Read the full article |
Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari, historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author, about his new book, Nexus. Harari says the book starts with the key question: "If humans are so wise, why are we so stupid?" What do you think? Email your comments to: editor@rationalist.com.au |
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| RATIONALE Are our choices
pre-determined? Jonathan Meddings: As I write these words, could I be writing something else? It seems intuitive to think I could. If I wanted to I could delete these words and start again, as I have done several times already. But even then one might ask if it could have been any other way? Those who believe in free will would say it could have been, that as John Searle argued, “each thing we do carries the
conviction… that we could be doing something else right here and now, that is, all other conditions remaining the same”.... Read the full article |
| ABC Abortion has become a surprise topic ahead of Queensland's election. What are the rules across Australia? Emma Pollard: Abortion has become
a surprise subject of debate in the Queensland election – putting an issue that many Australians might have thought was settled, back on the national agenda. If the polls are correct, the Liberal National Party (LNP) will sweep Queensland Labor out of office on October 26, re-electing a swathe of MPs who voted to keep abortion in the criminal code in 2018 and ushering in some candidates who've publicly expressed anti-abortion views. Read the full article |
| THE GUARDIAN Abortion wasn’t on the Queensland election agenda. So why is it now a threat to the LNP campaign? Ben Smee: On front doorsteps in
Brisbane’s middle suburbs, Liberal National party candidates campaigning for the upcoming Queensland election have started getting questions about abortion. “It’s becoming an issue … in places we thought we might win,” says one party member.. Read the full
article |
| ABC RADIO The money and influence of Opus Dei While reporting on the collapse of the Spanish bank Banco Popular in 2017, journalist Gareth Gore was
surprised to find long-standing connections between the bank and the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei. This prompted a deeper investigation into the order's history and finances, and an examination of how Opus Dei exerts its power and influence today. Listen to the episode here |
| CRIKEY Islam, net zero and ‘woke’: Welcome to the Tony Abbott risk to Western civilisation scale Charlie Lewis: Two former prime ministers
met in Sydney last week, with Tony Abbott attempting to help Liz Truss’ book 10 Years to Save the West inch above the Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook on the bestseller list by “launching” the tome a mere six months after its release. So just what is threatening the West according to these colossal figures in the world of second-hand embarrassment? According to their agreed-upon thesis, the threats can be traced back to “the various mind viruses”, as Abbott put it. Read the full article |
| ABC “Spirituality is too opaque”: How Nick Cave and Stan Grant point us back to Christianity’s strangeness Geoff Thompson: The singer-songwriter
Nick Cave and award-winning writer and journalist Stan Grant have emerged as unexpected contributors to Australia’s ongoing conversation about faith, religion, Christianity and even theology. What is perhaps most striking is the way both push back against the common “spiritual but not religious” trope — and they do so in quite similar terms. Read the full article |
| FREETHINKER The radical atheism of the American revolutions: interview with Matthew Stewart Daniel James Sharpe: For Stewart, the American
founding was inspired by ‘essentially atheistic and revolutionary’ philosophical ideas stretching back at least to Epicurus and wending their way through Giordano Bruno, John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, and many others: a secret thread of radicalism, often difficult to detect but very much present in the work of most of the great minds who made modernity. Read the full article |
| ABC Compassion and consent, not a return to sexual shame: Learning from the crimes of the Newcastle Diocese Bishop Peter Stuart: The Australian
community will be better the more we prevent sexual violence and child abuse. I welcome Professor Patrick Parkinson’s important contribution to this vital discussion in his recent article. It is helpful to review where we were and where we now are, and to that end I welcome the scrutiny of the wider community that his article affords. Read the full article |
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