1. Some items connected with the 2015 Australian Federal Budget
1.1 Mr. Morrison on workforce participation as the whole, or at least the principal, purpose for Federal subsidies of childcare
See the transcript of Mr. Neil Mitchell's interview of The Hon. Scott Morrison M.P. (Federal Minister for Social Services) on May 1, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Morrison's Ministerial website:
http://scottmorrison.dss.gov.au/transcripts/3aw-with-neil-mitchell-1may2015
(Mr. Morrison's statements came to my attention via the article "More help for more work as childcare subsidies tightened" by Mr. David Crowe, dated May 2, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/more-help-for-more-work-as-childcare-subsidies-tightened/story-fntfa2d0-1227330846433
or the version printed under the headline "More help for more work", by Mr. David Crowe and Ms Tessa Akerman, on p. 2 in "THE NATION" section of The Weekend Australian, May 2-3, 2015, Second Edition, No. 15718, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax, work
1.2 "Tony Abbott’s families package is not child-friendly. The government will punish mothers financially if they can’t find a job, don’t have time to study or prefer to care for their own kids while they are young."
The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Budget 2015: Families package punishes children", by Ms Natasha Bita, dated May 13, 2015, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/budget-2015/budget-2015-families-package-punishes-children/story-fntfbo7f-1227352625754
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax, work
1.3 "Big families at present qualify for a supplement for their fourth and subsequent children, but from July 1, 2016, will lose $321 a year for their fourth child and every subsequent child."
The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Federal budget 2015: Large families to lose out amid big boost to childcare funding", by Ms Judith Ireland, dated May 12, 2015, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/federal-budget-2015-large-families-to-lose-out-amid-big-boost-to-childcare-funding-20150512-1mzhke.html?skin=text-only
Labels: family, tax
1.4 "The Australian Government will also establish a $50 million competitive gender equality fund to strengthen gender equality and women's economic empowerment in our region."
The quotation in that headline comes from the media release "2015 Foreign Affairs Budget", dated May 12, 2015, downloaded from the Ministerial website of The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P. (Minister for Foreign Affairs):
http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150512.aspx
(The gender equality fund came to my attention via an opinion piece by Ms Miranda Devine.) See also the following webpages at H.M.A. Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website:
Note also that, according to Ms Bishop recorded in Hansard (Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 1328-1333 hours), "initiatives supported under the gender equality fund will complement gender activities currently funded through country and regional programs"—complement rather than replace, I take it. (And see the rest of that portion of Hansard for further information on Australia's overseas Feminist propaganda.)
Labels: feminism, foreign affairs
1.5 The Jobs for Families childcare package is "going to be financed by cuts to the only govern-ment support for single income families, and that’s FTB"; (Family Tax Benefit part B "is currently paid until a family’s youngest child turns 16" but is "set to cease when the youngest child turns six; substantive-ly dismantling the Howard government’s support for single-income households")
The quotations, including the dashes where a word spanned two lines, in that headline come from the article "Budget move on child care ‘punishes those who look after kids at home’", by Mr. Robert Hiini, on p. 5 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, May 17, 2015, Vol. 73, No. 4775, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd., apparently not available online; the first quotation was attributed to Ms Terri Kelleher of the Australian Family Association.
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax
1.6 "Shorten backs plans to abolish tax break for non-working spouses"
The quotation in that headline is the headline of an article by Ms Katherine Towers, dated June 9, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/shorten-backs-plans-to-abolish-tax-break-for-non-working-spouses/story-fn59niix-1227389648458
See also the article "Labor cuts deal with Coalition to end tax break for spouses", by Mr. Phillip Coorey, dated June 8, 2015 (updated June 9, 2015), downloaded from The Australian Financial Review's website:
http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/labor-cuts-deal-with-coalition-to-end-tax-break-for-spouses-20150609-ghiqfm
A transcript of the interview in which The Hon. Bill Shorten M.P. (Leader of H.M.A. Opposition) confirmed Labor's support for the policy in question is available under the headline "Doorstop: Melbourne – Retirement of Chris Judd; Tony Abbott’s cuts to Family Tax Benefit payments Dependent Spouse Offset", provided by Mr. Kieran Barns-Jenkins, dated Tuesday, June 9, 2015, at Mr. Shorten's website:
http://billshorten.com.au/doorstop-melbourne-retirement-of-chris-judd-tony-abbotts-cuts-to-family-tax-benefit-payments-dependent-spouse-offset
Labels: family, marriage, tax
2. Some recent Gay-related data
2.1 Some recent data on the Queer proportion of the population
2.1.1 "In 2014, over half a million people or 3.0% of the adult population identified as gay, lesbian or 'other'. This includes 268,000 people who identified as gay or lesbian and 255,000 people who identified as having an 'other' sexual orientation."
The quotation in that headline comes from the webpage "General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia, 2014" (catalogue no. 4159.0), dated June 29, 2015, downloaded from the Australian Bureau of Statistics's website:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4159.0
Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.
2.1.2 Judging by the latest version of the HILDA Statistical Report, between 1.8 and 4.8% of men are Gay and between 1 and 4.7% of women are Lesbian.
See p. 85 of The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey: Selected Findings from Waves 1 to 12, by Associate Prof. Roger Wilkins, released on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, ISSN 2205-0566 (Online), © Commonwealth of Australia 2015, downloaded from the HILDA Survey webpage:
https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/
or go straight hither:
https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/hilda/Stat_Report/statreport_2015.pdf
Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.
2.2 "International research has shown that compared with the general population, HIV-negative Gay and Bisexual men are up to 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with anal cancer"
The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Anal Cancer Webinar Reduces Stigma Around Overlooked Disease", dated July 1, 2015, downloaded from acon's website:
http://www.acon.org.au/about-acon/latest-news/#anal-cancer-webinar
Labels: G.L.B.T., health
3. Australia refused to support a recent U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution "because it ascribed rights to the family as a unit instead of to individuals and failed to recognise the diversity of families, including same-sex families."
See the article "Julie Bishop makes stand for same-sex families", by Mr. Dennis Shanahan, dated July 18, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julie-bishop-makes-stand-for-same-sex-families/story-fn59niix-1227446546090
(That article came to my attention via the version printed on pp. 1 f., under the headlines "Bishop’s stand for same-sex families" for the first part and "Bishop in same-sex stand at UN" for the second, by the same author, in "THE NATION" pages of The Weekend Australian, July 18-19, 2015, Second Edition, No. 15784, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)
Labels: family, feminism, foreign affairs, G.L.B.T., human rights, U.N.O.
4. "Archbishop [Stephen ]Langton wholeheartedly embraced the scriptural thesis that civil government is not God’s original plan for humankind but rather a result of original sin."
The quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the article "MAGNA CARTA AT 800 Magna Carta understood as its drafter intended it to be", by Dr. Augusto Zimmermann, dated August 1, 2015, downloaded from News Weekly's website:
http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=57014
Labels: law, morals, States
5. A couple of recent items regarding H.H. The Pope
5.1 One of the official presenters of Laudato si' at the press conference for that Encyclical's presentation was "Professor John[ or Hans Joachim] Schellnhuber, founder and director of the Institute for Climate Impact in Potsdam, Federal Republic of Germany, representing the field of natural sciences, with which the encyclical enters into profound dialogue, and who was recently appointed as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences".
The quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the item "Press conference for the presentation of the Encyclical Laudato si'", dated June 18, 2015, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 18, 2015, Year XXII, No. 114; that item is also available under the same headline, with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/press-conference-for-the-presentation-of-the-encyc
H.H. The Pope's appointment of Prof. Schellnhuber as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of (the) Sciences was reported in the item "Other Pontifical Acts", dated June 17, 2015, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 17, 2015, Year XXII, No. 113; that item is also available under the headline "Pontifical Acts - 17 June", with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/other-pontifical-acts-677
Labels: Francis Bergoglio
5.2 "The Pope receives B'nai B'rith International and recalls the work of St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II to promote friendship between Jews and Christians"
The quotation in that headline is the headline of an item dated June 25, 2015 in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 25, 2015, Year XXII, No. 119; that item is also available under the same headline, with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/the-pope-receives-bnai-brith-international-and-rec
Labels: B'nai B'rith, Francis Bergoglio, Freemasons, Jews
Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Lawrence, Martyr, A.D. 2015
1.1 Mr. Morrison on workforce participation as the whole, or at least the principal, purpose for Federal subsidies of childcare
See the transcript of Mr. Neil Mitchell's interview of The Hon. Scott Morrison M.P. (Federal Minister for Social Services) on May 1, 2015, downloaded from Mr. Morrison's Ministerial website:
http://scottmorrison.dss.gov.au/transcripts/3aw-with-neil-mitchell-1may2015
(Mr. Morrison's statements came to my attention via the article "More help for more work as childcare subsidies tightened" by Mr. David Crowe, dated May 2, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/more-help-for-more-work-as-childcare-subsidies-tightened/story-fntfa2d0-1227330846433
or the version printed under the headline "More help for more work", by Mr. David Crowe and Ms Tessa Akerman, on p. 2 in "THE NATION" section of The Weekend Australian, May 2-3, 2015, Second Edition, No. 15718, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax, work
1.2 "Tony Abbott’s families package is not child-friendly. The government will punish mothers financially if they can’t find a job, don’t have time to study or prefer to care for their own kids while they are young."
The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Budget 2015: Families package punishes children", by Ms Natasha Bita, dated May 13, 2015, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/budget-2015/budget-2015-families-package-punishes-children/story-fntfbo7f-1227352625754
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax, work
1.3 "Big families at present qualify for a supplement for their fourth and subsequent children, but from July 1, 2016, will lose $321 a year for their fourth child and every subsequent child."
The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Federal budget 2015: Large families to lose out amid big boost to childcare funding", by Ms Judith Ireland, dated May 12, 2015, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/federal-budget-2015-large-families-to-lose-out-amid-big-boost-to-childcare-funding-20150512-1mzhke.html?skin=text-only
Labels: family, tax
1.4 "The Australian Government will also establish a $50 million competitive gender equality fund to strengthen gender equality and women's economic empowerment in our region."
The quotation in that headline comes from the media release "2015 Foreign Affairs Budget", dated May 12, 2015, downloaded from the Ministerial website of The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P. (Minister for Foreign Affairs):
http://foreignminister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2015/jb_mr_150512.aspx
(The gender equality fund came to my attention via an opinion piece by Ms Miranda Devine.) See also the following webpages at H.M.A. Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website:
- "Gender equality and empowering women and girls":
http://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/gender-equality-empowering-women-girls/Pages/gender-equality-empowering-women-girls.aspx
- "Australia's assistance for gender equality":
http://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/gender-equality-empowering-women-girls/gender-equality/Pages/australias-assistance-for-gender-equality.aspx
- "Gender initiatives":
http://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/gender-equality-empowering-women-girls/gender-equality/Pages/gender-initiatives.aspx
Note also that, according to Ms Bishop recorded in Hansard (Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 1328-1333 hours), "initiatives supported under the gender equality fund will complement gender activities currently funded through country and regional programs"—complement rather than replace, I take it. (And see the rest of that portion of Hansard for further information on Australia's overseas Feminist propaganda.)
Labels: feminism, foreign affairs
1.5 The Jobs for Families childcare package is "going to be financed by cuts to the only govern-ment support for single income families, and that’s FTB"; (Family Tax Benefit part B "is currently paid until a family’s youngest child turns 16" but is "set to cease when the youngest child turns six; substantive-ly dismantling the Howard government’s support for single-income households")
The quotations, including the dashes where a word spanned two lines, in that headline come from the article "Budget move on child care ‘punishes those who look after kids at home’", by Mr. Robert Hiini, on p. 5 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, May 17, 2015, Vol. 73, No. 4775, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd., apparently not available online; the first quotation was attributed to Ms Terri Kelleher of the Australian Family Association.
Labels: childcare, economics, family, tax
1.6 "Shorten backs plans to abolish tax break for non-working spouses"
The quotation in that headline is the headline of an article by Ms Katherine Towers, dated June 9, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/shorten-backs-plans-to-abolish-tax-break-for-non-working-spouses/story-fn59niix-1227389648458
See also the article "Labor cuts deal with Coalition to end tax break for spouses", by Mr. Phillip Coorey, dated June 8, 2015 (updated June 9, 2015), downloaded from The Australian Financial Review's website:
http://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/labor-cuts-deal-with-coalition-to-end-tax-break-for-spouses-20150609-ghiqfm
A transcript of the interview in which The Hon. Bill Shorten M.P. (Leader of H.M.A. Opposition) confirmed Labor's support for the policy in question is available under the headline "Doorstop: Melbourne – Retirement of Chris Judd; Tony Abbott’s cuts to Family Tax Benefit payments Dependent Spouse Offset", provided by Mr. Kieran Barns-Jenkins, dated Tuesday, June 9, 2015, at Mr. Shorten's website:
http://billshorten.com.au/doorstop-melbourne-retirement-of-chris-judd-tony-abbotts-cuts-to-family-tax-benefit-payments-dependent-spouse-offset
Labels: family, marriage, tax
2. Some recent Gay-related data
2.1 Some recent data on the Queer proportion of the population
2.1.1 "In 2014, over half a million people or 3.0% of the adult population identified as gay, lesbian or 'other'. This includes 268,000 people who identified as gay or lesbian and 255,000 people who identified as having an 'other' sexual orientation."
The quotation in that headline comes from the webpage "General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia, 2014" (catalogue no. 4159.0), dated June 29, 2015, downloaded from the Australian Bureau of Statistics's website:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4159.0
Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.
2.1.2 Judging by the latest version of the HILDA Statistical Report, between 1.8 and 4.8% of men are Gay and between 1 and 4.7% of women are Lesbian.
See p. 85 of The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey: Selected Findings from Waves 1 to 12, by Associate Prof. Roger Wilkins, released on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, ISSN 2205-0566 (Online), © Commonwealth of Australia 2015, downloaded from the HILDA Survey webpage:
https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/
or go straight hither:
https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/hilda/Stat_Report/statreport_2015.pdf
Labels: demography, G.L.B.T.
2.2 "International research has shown that compared with the general population, HIV-negative Gay and Bisexual men are up to 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with anal cancer"
The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Anal Cancer Webinar Reduces Stigma Around Overlooked Disease", dated July 1, 2015, downloaded from acon's website:
http://www.acon.org.au/about-acon/latest-news/#anal-cancer-webinar
Labels: G.L.B.T., health
3. Australia refused to support a recent U.N. Human Rights Commission resolution "because it ascribed rights to the family as a unit instead of to individuals and failed to recognise the diversity of families, including same-sex families."
See the article "Julie Bishop makes stand for same-sex families", by Mr. Dennis Shanahan, dated July 18, 2015, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julie-bishop-makes-stand-for-same-sex-families/story-fn59niix-1227446546090
(That article came to my attention via the version printed on pp. 1 f., under the headlines "Bishop’s stand for same-sex families" for the first part and "Bishop in same-sex stand at UN" for the second, by the same author, in "THE NATION" pages of The Weekend Australian, July 18-19, 2015, Second Edition, No. 15784, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)
Labels: family, feminism, foreign affairs, G.L.B.T., human rights, U.N.O.
4. "Archbishop [Stephen ]Langton wholeheartedly embraced the scriptural thesis that civil government is not God’s original plan for humankind but rather a result of original sin."
The quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the article "MAGNA CARTA AT 800 Magna Carta understood as its drafter intended it to be", by Dr. Augusto Zimmermann, dated August 1, 2015, downloaded from News Weekly's website:
http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=57014
Labels: law, morals, States
5. A couple of recent items regarding H.H. The Pope
5.1 One of the official presenters of Laudato si' at the press conference for that Encyclical's presentation was "Professor John[ or Hans Joachim] Schellnhuber, founder and director of the Institute for Climate Impact in Potsdam, Federal Republic of Germany, representing the field of natural sciences, with which the encyclical enters into profound dialogue, and who was recently appointed as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences".
The quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the item "Press conference for the presentation of the Encyclical Laudato si'", dated June 18, 2015, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 18, 2015, Year XXII, No. 114; that item is also available under the same headline, with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/press-conference-for-the-presentation-of-the-encyc
H.H. The Pope's appointment of Prof. Schellnhuber as an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of (the) Sciences was reported in the item "Other Pontifical Acts", dated June 17, 2015, in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 17, 2015, Year XXII, No. 113; that item is also available under the headline "Pontifical Acts - 17 June", with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/other-pontifical-acts-677
Labels: Francis Bergoglio
5.2 "The Pope receives B'nai B'rith International and recalls the work of St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II to promote friendship between Jews and Christians"
The quotation in that headline is the headline of an item dated June 25, 2015 in the Holy See Press Office's Vatican Information Service's daily e-mail bulletin of June 25, 2015, Year XXII, No. 119; that item is also available under the same headline, with the same date, at NEWS.VA:
http://www.news.va/en/news/the-pope-receives-bnai-brith-international-and-rec
Labels: B'nai B'rith, Francis Bergoglio, Freemasons, Jews
Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Lawrence, Martyr, A.D. 2015
