Notes: Saturday, July 2-Wednesday, November 30, 2016

1. A couple of recent items regarding The High Court of Australia

1.1 Dr. Maley on the High Court's Gay Marriage ruling

See The Centre for Independent Studies' (C.I.S.'s) Occasional Paper 147 The High Court, Democracy and Same Sex Marriage, by Dr. Barry Maley (a Senior Fellow at The C.I.S.), published by The C.I.S., Sydney, July 2016:

https://www.cis.org.au/publications/occasional-papers/the-high-court-democracy-and-same-sex-marriage

or go straight hither:

https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2016/07/op147.pdf

(That Paper came to my attention via Dr. Maley's opinion piece "DEFINITION NOT MADE IN HEAVEN" on p. 12 in the "COMMENTARY" pages of The Australian, Tuesday, July 26, 2016, Second Edition, No. 16100, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited, available at The C.I.S.'s website under the headline "Marriage deserves a referendum, not a quickie plebiscite", with the same date:

https://www.cis.org.au/commentary/articles/marriage-deserves-a-referendum-not-a-quickie-plebiscite

Labels: Constitution, G.L.B.T., H.C.A., law, marriage

1.2 The plebiscites in 1898 and ’99 which "were held in each of the Australian colonies to ensure that the people approved of the Constitution before it was enacted in Britain" "are treated by the High Court as part of the basis for popular sovereignty in Australia."

The quotations in that headline come from the opinion piece "Plebiscite a casualty in the debate over marriage laws", by Prof. Anne Twomey (a Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Sydney), dated October 7, 2016, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/plebiscite-a-casualty-in-the-debate-over-marriage-laws/news-story/7847b6a78619996ac6435e78c30d59ec

(That article came to my attention via the version printed on p. 28 in the "LEGAL AFFAIRS" pages of The Australian, Friday, October 7, 2016, Second Edition, No. 16163, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited; if I recall correctly, the headline was "Let's not demonise plebiscites in the heat of the debate over our marriage laws".)

Labels: H.C.A., morals

2. "The Australian Business and Community Network (ABCN) Scholarship Foundation will award 20 scholarships for disadvantaged students in 2016. The ABCN Scholarship Foundation, at the request of our donors, allocates some scholarships in specific categories including Indigenous, refugee, LGBTI and State-based scholarships. … Early in 2016, the Citi Pride network proposed raising funds to support a student identifying as LGBTI, in recognition of additional challenges faced by LGBTI students in their senior years of schooling. The scholarship is funded by individual donations from Citi and other corporate employees, with Citi matching individual donations."

The quotation, excluding my ellipsis, in that headline comes from the "ABCN Scholarship Foundation Statement August 2016", available for download from the "News and Media Releases" webpage at the A.B.C.N.'s website:

https://www.abcn.com.au/about-us/news-and-media-releases

Or go straight hither:

https://www.abcn.com.au/sites/default/files/ABCN%20Scholarship%20Foundation%20Statement%20August%202016.pdf

See also item 6.3 of this issue of "Notes".

Labels: education, G.L.B.T.

3. "The first stage of the National Domestic and Family Violence Bench Book is available on the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration's website."

The quotation, including its hyperlink, in that headline comes from the media release "New resource to assist victims of family violence", dated August 18, 2016, downloaded from the official website of the Attorney-General for Australia (The Hon. Sen. George Brandis Q.C.):

https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2016/ThirdQuarter/New-resource-to-assist-victims-of-family-violence.aspx

Labels: feminism

4. H.M. Victorian Government's Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships 'learning resources' are available here:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/Pages/teaching-and-learning-materials.aspx

Or go straight hither:

http://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/ResourcePackage/ByPin?pin=2JZX4R

See also the Media Release "Victoria Leading The Way On Respectful Relationships", dated October 10, 2016, attributed to the Victorian Minister for Education (The Hon. James Merlino M.P.), downloaded from the official Premier of Victoria website:

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria-leading-the-way-on-respectful-relationships/

(and also available under the same headline (though with all the letters capitalised) and with the same date at Mr. Merlino's own website:

http://www.jamesmerlino.com.au/media-releases/victoria-leading-the-way-on-respectful-relationships/)

Labels: education, feminism, G.L.B.T., morals, multiculturalism, relativism, Victoria

5. Dr. Morrall on a supposed change in Christian political philosophy:

… The ‘conventional’ notion of many Christian thinkers about human government as part remedy, part punishment for the Fall of Man, led to a depreciatory view of political institutions and activity.
The position began to change round about the time of the economic, social and cultural revivals of the tenth and subsequent centuries. With the loss of distrust for human reason and its achievements came a gradual strengthening of belief in the natural character of political life as beneficial for man and corresponding to an inherent need of his being. Classical sources familiar to the medieval philosophers of the twelfth century, particularly Cicero and the Timaeus dialogue by Plato, had spoken of Nature as the inspiration of the life of men in society. But the biggest single source of the revival of belief in the naturalness of political activity was the return of knowledge of Roman Law as collected by Justinian in his Corpus of Civil Law. This was beginning to be studied in the Italian legal schools, particularly Bologna, in the eleventh century. Throughout the Middle Ages Bologna was to remain the great centre of legal studies for both Civil and Canon Law.
[italics in the original, my ellipsis (and deleted dashes where a word spanned two lines; for the original format of the text, see the Appendix to this post),
pp. 158 f., Ch. 6 ("EPILOGUE: MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS DILEMMA"), The Medieval Imprint: The Founding of the Western European Tradition, by John B. Morrall, published by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1970]

Labels: morals

6. Prof. van Onselen, approvingly (or at least sympathetically), on Conservativism as Retarded Progressivism: "Conservatism in its purest form is about slowing down the pace of change to ensure that adjustments in policy settings when they do happen are well thought through."

(Note that by using the word 'retarded' I intend no allusion to what is these days called being developmentally delayed.) The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Fringe-dwelling reactionaries tarnish true conservatism", by Prof. Peter van Onselen, dated October 22, 2016, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/peter-van-onselen/fringedwelling-reactionaries-tarnish-true-conservatism/news-story/84662346c74564581fd974b3d61873df

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline (though with all the letters capitalised), with the same author, on p. 22 in the "COMMENTARY" pages of the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, October 22-23, 2016, First Edition, No. 16176, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: liberalism

7. "It’s always been the case that the scheme has been designed, and these changes are also designed, to try and ensure that as many mothers are participating in the workforce and are able to re-participate after the birth of a child, having provided for a fair amount of time to bond with the child after birth." (The scheme in question is H.M.A. Government's paid maternity leave scheme.)

The quotation in that headline is attributed to the Federal Minister for Social Services (The Hon. Christian Porter M.P.) in the interview transcript "ABC Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly", dated October 24, 2016, downloaded from Mr. Porter's Ministerial website:

http://christianporter.dss.gov.au/transcripts/abc-radio-national-breakfast-with-fran-kelly-0

Labels: economic rationalism, economics, family, feminism, P.P.L., tax, work

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. Andrew's Day, A.D. 2016

Appendix: Item 5's quotation in its original format:

[p. 158]
… The ‘conven-
tional’ notion of many Christian thinkers about human
government as part remedy, part punishment for the
Fall of Man, led to a depreciatory view of political in-
stitutions and activity.
The position began to change round about the time
of the economic, social and cultural revivals of the tenth
and subsequent centuries. With the loss of distrust for
human reason and its achievements came a gradual
strengthening of belief in the natural character of poli-
tical life as beneficial for man and corresponding to an
[p. 159]
inherent need of his being. Classical sources familiar to
the medieval philosophers of the twelfth century, par-
ticularly Cicero and the Timaeus dialogue by Plato, had
spoken of Nature as the inspiration of the life of men
in society. But the biggest single source of the revival of
belief in the naturalness of political activity was the re-
turn of knowledge of Roman Law as collected by Justin-
ian in his Corpus of Civil Law. This was beginning to be
studied in the Italian legal schools, particularly Bolog-
na, in the eleventh century. Throughout the Middle
Ages Bologna was to remain the great centre of legal
studies for both Civil and Canon Law.
[italics in the original, my ellipsis; note that, in the original, the first line of the second paragraph was indented,
pp. 158 f., Ch. 6 ("EPILOGUE: MEDIEVAL GOVERNMENT AND ITS DILEMMA"), The Medieval Imprint: The Founding of the Western European Tradition, by John B. Morrall, published by Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1970]

Notes: Tuesday, May 6-Thursday, July 31, 2014 (part 2 of 4)

5. "the OECD has found that paid parental leave beyond 20 weeks “appears to have a negative effect on female participation”"

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Abbott has dug himself into a hole over paid parental leave", by Dr. Anne Summers A.O., dated May 5, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/abbott-has-dug-himself-into-a-hole-over-paid-parental-leave-20140505-zr4r4.html?skin=text-only

(Originally, I was also going to quote Dr. Summers regarding her statement in that opinion piece that women who earn less than the minimum wage would be worse off under The Hon. Tony Abbott M.P.'s paid maternity leave plan compared to the current one (because the current one pays the minimum wage to those women, whereas Mr. Abbott's scheme would pay them, so Dr. Summers thought, only their pre-leave level of income) but it turns out that Dr. Summers was mistaken; see the letter published under the sub-heading "Low paid will benefit" on the Herald's letters page of May 6, 2014 ("Reconsider Bondi brawler's gaming licence") (and that letter has been appended to Dr. Summers' article, with her response to it below it.)

Labels: economics, P.P.L., work

6. A few recent items regarding divorce

6.1 The late Prof. Becker on no-fault divorce

See the opinion piece "Exposing the dangers of welfare", by Mr. Adam Creighton, dated May 9, 2014, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/exposing-the-dangers-of-welfare/story-fnc2jivw-1226910947505

Labels: divorce, law, marriage

6.2 "DIVORCE and family breakdowns are costing the national economy more than $14 billion a year in government assistance payments and court costs"

The quotation, including the capitals and bold type, in that headline comes from the article "Divorce is costing the Australian economy $14 billion a year", by Lauren Wilson and Lisa Cornish, dated July 6, 2014, downloaded from the Herald Sun's website:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/divorce-is-costing-the-australian-economy-14-billion-a-year/story-fni0dqfm-1226979027353

(That article came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Muehlenberg.)

Labels: divorce, marriage

6.3 Mr. Creighton on no-fault divorce

See the opinion piece "Divorced wives deserve compensation for hardship", by Mr. Adam Creighton, dated July 11, 2014, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/divorced-wives-deserve-compensation-for-hardship/story-fnc2jivw-1226984851502

Labels: divorce, law, marriage

7. A couple of recent Gay/sport items

7.1 In order "to send a clear message" about discrimination, the National Rubgy League penalised, with a two-match ban and a requirement "to attend an anti-vilification education and awareness program", a player "for breaching the League’s anti-vilification policy" by calling another player "Gay" (though the player called "Gay" isn't Gay)

The first two quotations in that headline come from the article "Mitchell Moses has been banned for two matches for breaking the NRL’s anti-­vilification policy", by Mr. Dean Ritchie, dated May 5, 2014, downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/mitchell-moses-has-been-banned-for-two-matches-for-breaking-the-nrls-antivilification-policy/story-fni3fbgz-1226906300123

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the headline "Young Wests Tiger's two-week ban for homophobic slur", by the same author, on p. 67 in the "NRL" pages of the "SPORT" section of The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, May 6, 2014, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.) The third quotation comes from the press releases "NRL suspends player for homophobic remark" and "Moses banned for two games for homophobic comment", neither of which has a byline, both dated Monday, May 5, 2014, both downloaded from NRL.com:

http://www.nrl.com/nrl-suspends-player-for-homophobic-remark/tabid/10874/newsid/78159/default.aspx

http://www.nrl.com/moses-banned-for-two-games-for-homophobic-comment/tabid/10874/newsid/78160/default.aspx

See also the opinion piece "NRL bosses are totally gay", by Miranda Devine, p. 13, The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, May 7, 2014, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., available online under the same headline, by the same author, but dated Tuesday, May 6, 2014, at Ms Devine's blog:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/nrl_bosses_are_totally_gay/

Labels: G.L.B.T., sport

7.2 "Our sponsorship of the Bingham Cup [a rugby union competition for gay players] has been a catalyst for change: we were able to use our leverage as a major advertiser to persuade the main sporting codes to sign up to an anti-homophobia policy, which they all did at the bank a few weeks ago."

The quotation, including the square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the appendix "SMASHING THE GLASS CLOSET" to the article "Don't ask, don't tell", by Jane Wheatley, dated June 7, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/dont-ask-dont-tell-20140602-39d0g.html?skin=text-only

(The sub-section (presumably minus any editorial interpolations) from which that quotation comes is attributed to Andrew Hall, "head of corporate affairs at the Commonwealth Bank", so the pronoun "we" and the possessives refer to the Commonwealth Bank.)

(That appendix and article came to my attention via the versions printed under the same respective headlines, with the same respective authors, on, respectively, p. 25 and pp. 22-25 of Good Weekend magazine, June 7, 2014, published by Fairfax Media Publications Pty. Ltd., inserted in The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, June 7-8, 2014, Issue No. 55118, ISSN 0312-6315, published by Fairfax Media Publications Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., sport

8. Some recent items regarding abortion

8.1 "UP to 23,000 abortions take place in Victoria each year", as at 2008, and "180 late-term abortions were carried out in 2005 on healthy fetuses for "psycho-social" reasons"

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Victoria is Australia's abortion 'capital'", by Laurie Nowell, dated June 1, 2008, downloaded from the Herald Sun website:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victoria-abortion-capital/story-e6frf7kx-1111116500184

(That article came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Gaynor.)

Labels: abortion, Victoria

8.2 "In 2009 there were 154 stillbirths related to termination of pregnancy for congenital abnormality and 42 neonatal deaths where the parents decided to have labour induced early resulting in the early birth of their infant (Table 96)."

The quotation in that headline comes from p. 111 of the Annual report for the year 2009, by the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity, ISSN 1327-4473, authorised and published by H.M. Victorian Government, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, July 2012, © Copyright, State of Victoria, Department of Health 2012, downloaded from the "Document library" at the official website of the Department of Health, Victoria, Australia:

http://docs.health.vic.gov.au/docs/doc/Annual-Report-for-the-Year-2009-%28including-Births-in-Victoria%29--Full-Report

or go straight hither:

http://docs.health.vic.gov.au/docs/doc/C3F3B2341D9B4F99CA257A5C00099475/$FILE/1202025_CCOPMM_AR_2009_WEB.pdf

(That report came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Gaynor.)

Labels: abortion, Victoria

8.3 "Of the 51 neonatal deaths[ in South Australia in 2008], 42 (82.4%) were lowbirthweight babies and 10 resulted from terminations of pregnancy."

The quotation, excluding the squate-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from p. 24 (p. 28 in your reader) of Maternal, Perinatal and Infant Mortality in South Australia 2008, by the Maternal, Perinatal and Infant Mortality Committee of the Pregnancy Outcome Unit of SA Health, H.M South Australian Government, ISSN 1032-4801, published by SA Health, H.M South Australian Government, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, November 2009, © SA Health, downloaded from the official SA Health website:

http://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/6f561300440868f38a40aa5fc19a2cbb/mortalityreport-operations-sahaelth-2008.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=6f561300440868f38a40aa5fc19a2cbb

(That report came to my attention via the comment by Heidi on May 10, 2014 at 6:52 pm in the combox of a blog post by Mr. Gaynor.)

Labels: abortion, S.A.

8.4 Some up-to-date figures on contraception and abortion in Australia

See pp. 149 ff. and 195 ff. (but add 18 to desired page numbers when typing them into your reader's page number field) of the report Reproductive and sexual health in Australia, no author credited, ISBN 978 1 877026 29 4, published by Family Planning NSW, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, 2013, © Family Planning NSW 2013, downloaded from Family Planning NSW's website:

Warning: Given the subject matter, beware of potentially scandalous terminology:

http://www.fpnsw.org.au/688423_21_13559012.html

Or go straight hither:

http://www.fpnsw.org.au/rshinaust_book_webedition_1.pdf

(That report came to my attention via this or this Herald article.)

Labels: abortion, contraception

9. "the more children a family has, the less likely it is that both parents will remain in paid employment. Therefore, encouraging larger families will increase the number of future workers and taxpayers, including women."

The quotation, including its italics, in that headline comes from the article "CHILD CARE INQUIRY: Should parents or paid strangers raise children?", by Mr. John Ballantyne, dated May 10, 2014, downloaded from News Weekly's website:

http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=56572

Labels: economics, families

10. "The early moderns wanted to get rid of formal and final causes as immanent features of nature, and thus replaced them with the notion of “laws of nature” conceived of as externally imposed divine decrees."

The quotation in that headline comes from the blog post "School’s out forever?", by Dr. Edward Feser, dated Friday, May 2, 2014, downloaded from his eponymous blog:

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2014/05/schools-out-forever.html

Labels: philosophy, science

11. "a quarter of our students[, i.e., of pupils in nominally Catholic schools in New South Wales,] are not Catholic", and "[a]t 44 per cent, SA Catholic schools have the highest proportion of students from non-Catholic backgrounds of any mainland state" ("[t]he national average is 29 per cent")

The first quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the letter published under the heading "Not weeds, flowers", from Dr. Brian Croke ("executive director, Catholic Education Commission NSW"), on the May 22, 2014 letters page (headline: "Tony Abbott lacks John Howard's bravery in facing Deakin University protesters"), downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/tony-abbott-lacks-john-howards-bravery-in-facing-deakin-university-protesters-20140521-zrjwl.html?skin=text-only

The last two quotations, excluding my square-bracketed replacement of capital letters with lower-case ones, in that headline come from the article "Big growth in number of non-Catholics attending Catholic schools in SA", no byline, dated June 1, 2014, downloaded from news.com.au:

http://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/big-growth-in-number-of-noncatholics-attending-catholic-schools-in-sa/story-fnii5yv4-1226939166470

(That article came to my attention via this CathNews post.)

Labels: Catholic schools

12. "It is significant that at a time when the federal Coalition government is cutting support for single-income two-parent families by cutting Family Tax Benefit B and increasing costs of medical treatment and pharmaceuticals, it is increasing spending on institutionalised child care (primarily used by two-income families), on top of its paid parental leave scheme which is also a subsidy for two-income families."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "CANBERRA OBSERVED: Single-income families bear the brunt of Budget pain", no byline, dated May 24, 2014, downloaded from News Weekly's website:

http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=56587

Labels: childcare, economics, families, tax

13. Mr. Muehlenberg with some recent items regarding Gaiety

See the blog post "Truth-Telling and Homosexuality", by Mr. Bill Muehlenberg, dated June 9, 2014, downloaded from his CultureWatch blog:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/06/09/truth-telling-and-homosexuality/

(And read the comments there, especially the one by Dr. van Gend.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., mental health

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor, A.D. 2014

Notes: Wednesday, September 11-Tuesday, December 3, 2013

1. The N.S.W. Department of Family and Community Services funded ACON-delivered "workshops that explore[d] lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) sensitivity in service provision for people with disabilities."

See the "LGBTI Sensitivity and Disability Training" page at ACON's website:

http://www.acon.org.au/ageing/training/lgbti-sensitivity-and-disability-training

Labels: G.L.B.T., N.S.W.

2. "Rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion are relatively high in Australia (19.7 per 1,000 women aged 15-44) compared to northern Europe (17 per 1,000)", and "reports from the US found that almost half of all unintended pregnancies come about because, basically, women forgot to take the pill."

The quotations in that headline come from the article "OOPS. I'M PREGNANT.", by Gabrielle Jackson, dated September 10, 2013, downloaded from The Hoopla website:

http://thehoopla.com.au/oops-pregnant/

(Those figures came to my attention via the article "Preventing abortions", no byline, p. 11, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, September 3, 2013, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd. (note that the Tele no longer gives volume and issue numbers), but "Preventing abortions" was very short so I have quoted from "OOPS. I'M PREGNANT." in order to avoid violating copyright. The Medical Journal of Australia paper to which both articles refer is presumably "Australian women need increased access to long-acting reversible contraception" by Dr. Kirsten I. Black et al., and is available online here:

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2013/199/5/australian-women-need-increased-access-long-acting-reversible-contraception)

Labels: abortion, contraception

3. Three reasons why new mothers need at least six months off work: To recover from giving birth, to cope with sleep deprivation, and to breastfeed.

Those reasons were given by Prof. Hannah Dahlen (a Professor of Midwifery), as reported in the article "MEDICOS BACK LONGER LEAVE", no byline, p. 07, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, September 3, 2013, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., apparently not available online.

Labels: breastfeeding, economics, pregnancy

4. Mr. McDonald on "esoteric art"

See "Occult figures" (a review of the Windows to the Sacred: An Exploration of the Esoteric art exhibition at the S. H. Ervin Gallery), by Mr. John McDonald, dated September 14, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

Warning: Some readers might find the following material disturbing:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/occult-figures-20130912-2tla9.html?skin=text-only

(That review came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, with the same byline, on pp. 14-15 of the "SPECTRUM" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, September 14-15, 2013, No. 54892, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Freemasonry

5. Cardinal Pell on, among other things, paid paternity leave

See the opinion piece "The importance of good fathers", by His Eminence The Most Rev. The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney A.C., dated September 4, 2013, downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=12740&class=Copyright&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, by the same author (it was that week's installment of His Eminence's "CARDINAL'S COMMENT" column), on p. 6 of The Catholic Weekly, Vol. 72, No. 4689, September 8, 2013, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: George Pell, P.P.L.

6. Some recent items regarding socio-economic trends

6.1 "Today, of all male employees, just 9 per cent are the sole earner in a couple with children. (Four per cent are women.)"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "More people are choosing to opt out of working full-time", by Clay Lucas, dated September 12, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/more-people-are-choosing-to-opt-out-of-working-fulltime-20130911-2tkrn.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, families, social trends, work

6.2 "women are now out-earning men in a quarter of double-income households"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Family finances shifting as women become the main breadwinners", by Mark Schliebs, dated October 23, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/family-finances-shifting-as-women-become-the-main-breadwinners/story-e6frg8zx-1226744873052

The AMP-National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling research (AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Report Issue 34 - Modern Family: The Changing Shape of Australian Families, by Ms Rebecca Cassells et al., published October 2013) to which that article refers is available here:

http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/publications/?publication=modern-family-the-changing-shape-of-australian-families

The media release there gives a lot of useful summary information relevant to the subject labels of this item.

Labels: economics, families, G.L.B.T., marriage, social trends, work

6.3 The latest Australian births figures

See the following "3301.0 - Births, Australia, 2012" pages at the Australian Bureau of Statistics's (A.B.S.'s) website:

"Births, Summary statistics for Australia"

"Number of teenage mothers lowest in a decade"

"BIRTHS"

"FERTILITY RATES"

See also the article "Baby boom for over-forties", no byline, p. 03, the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Friday, October 25, 2013, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., in which (article) Mr. Bjorn Jarvis, the A.B.S.'s Director of Demography, is reported as saying that the factors contributing to the number of births to women over forty now exceeding the number of births to women in their teens include "education, legislation, employment opportunities", and "economic conditions".

Labels: birth rates, social trends

6.4 "Women's incomes suffer more than men's after divorce, regardless of who decides to end the marriage, a study has found."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Wives' first move in divorce is costliest", by Daniella Miletic, dated September 27, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/wives-first-move-in-divorce-is-costliest-20130926-2uh2h.html?skin=text-only

Labels: divorce, economics, families, marriage

6.5 Mrs. Phillips on distributive injustice towards Australian families

See the letter "Home mums lose out", by Mrs. Roslyn Phillips, dated October 9, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/letters/home-mums-lose-out/story-fn558imw-1226735032305

Labels: economics, families, tax

6.6 "MORE than a third of mothers with children under 15 are not working, most saying they prefer to look after their children."

The quotation—including its bold type (it was an article's first paragraph)—in that headline comes from the article "Third of mums prefer minding kids to work", by Patricia Karvelas, dated November 20, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/third-of-mums-prefer-minding-kids-to-work/story-e6frg6nf-1226763803286

The research report—Australian mothers' participation in employment: Analyses of social, demographic and family characteristics using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (the Australian Institute of Family Studies Research Paper No. 52), by Dr. Jennifer Baxter, published September 2013 by the Australian Institute of Family Studies—to which that article refers is available here:

http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/rp52/index.htmland its accompanying media release ("A third of Australian mothers not working", no author credited, dated November 20, 2013) is available here:

http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/media/media131120.html

Labels: economics, families, social trends, work

6.7 Mrs. Shanahan on recent Australian social and economic trends

See the opinion piece "Case of wishful thinking as reality of family life is lost", by Mrs. Angela Shanahan, dated November 16, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/case-of-wishful-thinking-as-reality-of-family-life-is-lost/story-fn562txd-1226761292101

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the headline "Case of wishful thinking as reality of family life is lost amid political and economic imagery", by the same author, on p. 19 in the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, November 16-17, 2013, First Edition, No. 15268, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: economics, families, G.L.B.T., marriage, social trends, work

7. The latest figures regarding attendance at nominally Catholic churches

See the article "A thinning flock of Catholics at all-time low", by Mr. Barney Zwartz, dated September 23, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/a-thinning-flock-of-catholics-at-alltime-low-20130922-2u81i.html?skin=text-only

Labels: Mass-going

8. "According to the latest Australian estimates, about 4.1 per cent of women who gave birth here in 2010 received some form of ART[, i.e., Assisted Reproductive Technology,] treatment"

The quotation in that headline comes from the feature article "Miracle or medical negligence?", by Sarah Elks and Sean Parnell, dated October 12, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/miracle-or-medical-negligence/story-e6frg6z6-1226738601481

The National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit report to which that article refers is available here:

http://www.npesu.unsw.edu.au/surveillance/assisted-reproductive-technology-australia-new-zealand-2011

("Miracle or medical negligence?" came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, with the same authors, on p. 13 in the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, October 12-13, 2013, First Edition, No. 15238, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: A.R.T.

9. "public hospitals in NSW carried out 119 medical abortions for women who had passed the 20th week of pregnancy"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Law on foetal rights 'will put many women at risk'", by Kirsty Needham, dated October 27, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/law-on-foetal-rights-will-put-many-women-at-risk-20131026-2w8i8.html?skin=text-only

Labels: abortion, N.S.W.

10. "In 2006-7, 25 per cent of Australians aged 18-34 had experienced the divorce or permanent separation of their parents before they were 18."

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "A family that prays together . . ." (ellipsis symbol in the original), by His Eminence The Most Rev. The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney A.C., dated November 6, 2013, downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=12972&class=Copyright&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, by the same author, as an installment in His Eminence's weekly "CARDINAL'S COMMENT" column, p. 6, The Catholic Weekly, November 10, 2013, Vol. 72, No. 4698, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: divorce, families

11. The latest figures on divorce in Australia

See the media release "How long can we wait before tying the knot?", no author credited, dated November 27, 2013, downloaded from the A.B.S.'s website:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/118F4A846EEB21F8CA2576200025DF55?Opendocument

(Those figures came to my attention via last Thursday's Sydney Daily Telegraph.)

Labels: divorce, marriage

12. "For the first time in the history of the world, a national sporting league will include a gay sporting trophy in its national trophy cupboard. Yes'm, the Australian Rugby Union has made the historic decision to include the Bingham Cup, the World Cup of gay rugby, in the same cupboard that has held other international trophies, including the World Cup of rugby. … The trophy itself will be handed over to the ARU by the Sydney Convicts, the holders of the Bingham Cup, on Wednesday, December 4," 2013.

The quotation—excluding the ellipsis symbol—in that headline comes from the article "Witty banter is OK, but threats just not cricket", by Mr. Peter FitzSimons A.M., dated November 30, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/witty-banter-is-ok-but-threats-just-not-cricket-20131129-2ygs0.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the headline "Witty banter is OK, threats not so", by the same author (it was the latest installment of his "The Fitz Files" column), on p. 20 of the "Weekend Sport" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, November 30-December 1, 2013, No. 54958, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., sport

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Francis Xavier, Confessor, A.D. 2013

Notes: Friday, June 21-Tuesday, June 25, 2013

1. On Garter Day (the Monday in Royal Ascot week) 2013 (in 2013, Garter Day was the seventeenth of June), H.M. The Queen held a Chapter of the Order of the Garter in Windsor Castle's Throne Room, during which Her Majesty invested Lord Stirrup with the Insignia of a Knight Companion of that Order. In the afternoon of that day, in St. George's Chapel, The Queen installed His Lordship in the same Order.

See the Court Circular of that day.

Labels: Graham Stirrup, Order of the Garter

2. In "a recent petition by the Polyamory[ sic] Action Lobby[,] … the group said: "We demand nothing less than the full recognition of polyamorous families"."

That quotation, excluding my ellipsis symbol and square-bracketed interpolations, comes from the article "Bernardi: I was right on gay marriage and polygamy", by Jonathan Swan, dated June 18, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/bernardi-i-was-right-on-gay-marriage-and-polygamy-20130618-2offe.html?skin=text-only

See also the Poly Action Lobby's (sic—the group's name seems to be, as of March 1, 2013, "Poly Action Lobby", not "Polyamory Action Lobby") submission (No. 1224) in relation to the Parliamentary "Inquiry into Same sex marriage law in NSW", which (submission) "was received on 1/3/2013 by the Social Issues Committee":

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/7773A58712584B87CA257B2B0004EE96

Labels: polyamory

3. "there are still almost 80 countries around the world which criminalise same-sex relations"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Does Australia deserve a place at the world's top human rights table?", by Mr. Phil Lynch, dated June 20, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/world-commentary/does-australia-deserve-a-place-at-the-worlds-top-human-rights-table/story-e6frg6ux-1226667020964

Labels: G.L.B.T., law, vice

4. Prof. Williams on anti-death-penalty legislative victories in Australia

See the opinion piece "Chances of return to death penalty remain almost nil", by Prof. George Williams, dated June 18, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/chances-of-return-to-death-penalty-remain-almost-nil-20130617-2oeie.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty, law

5. "About 60 per cent of those in custody in Australia have been imprisoned before."

The quotation, including its hyperlink, in that headline comes from the webpage "Recidivism" at the website of the Australian Government's Australian Institute of Criminology:

http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_community/communitycrime/recidivism.html

(That figure came to my attention via the opinion piece "Why we shouldn't call Adrian Bayley a Monster", by Alecia Simmonds, dated June 19, 2013, downloaded from Fairfax's Daily Life website:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/why-we-shouldnt-call-adrian-bayley-a-monster-20130618-2og5v.html?skin=text-only

Labels: crime

6. Ms Maley on Coalition-Labor co-operation to end legislative discrimination against sodomite-catamite couples and to prevent capital punishment in Australia:

[The Hon. Robert ]McClelland[ M.P.], for instance, gave a shout-out to his opposition shadow[ Federal Attorney-General] Senator[ The Hon.] George Brandis[ Q.C.], who came across to the House of Representatives to watch McClelland's valedictory. He thanked Brandis for his ''vital'' co-operation in amending some 80 pieces of legislation to remove discrimination for same-sex couples, and in legislating to prohibit capital punishment from ever being reintroduced in Australia.

These legislative results were achieved ''in substantial part as a result of [Brandis'] support and decency'', McClelland said …
[my ellipsis symbol and square-bracketed interpolations, except for "[Brandis']",
"Now they tell us …[ sic] pollies hide virtues till the end", by Ms Jacqueline Maley, dated June 22, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/now-they-tell-us-8230-pollies-hide-virtues-till-the-end-20130621-2onu5.html?skin=text-only]

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, with the same byline, on p. 11 of the "News Review" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, June 22-23, 2013, No. 54820, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: A.L., death penalty, discrimination, G.L.B.T., L.P.A., law, Nationals

7. "A new study published in the journal Psychological Science found some crucial, fascinating insights into how extremists can shift their positions to more moderate stances. The researchers, from the University of Colorado Boulder, Harvard Kennedy School, UCLA and Brown University, found that people's positions became less severe once they were asked to actually spell out their policies, and once they realised they did not know as much as they thought they did on the subject."

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "The silence of the moderates", by Dr. Julia Baird, dated June 22, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-silence-of-the-moderates-20130621-2onnp.html?skin=text-only

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, with the same byline, on p. 12 of the "News Review" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, June 22-23, 2013, No. 54820, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Presumably Dr. Baird was referring to the article "Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding", by Assistant Professor Philip M. Fernbach et al., the abstract of which is available here:

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/6/939.abstract

Labels: extremism

8. "The ACTU has provided evidence that one in three women leave the workforce permanently while pregnant or after having a child."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Gillard launches gender inquiry", by Mr. Michael Gordon, dated June 22, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-launches-gender-inquiry-20130621-2oo81.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version printed on p. 1 of the "NEWS" section of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, June 22-23, 2013, No. 54820, ISSN 0312-6315.)

See also the article "HRC to look at leave discrimination", no byline (though its source is the A.A.P.), downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website, which (article) says that the A.C.T.U.'s president, Ms Ged Kearney,

said Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed almost one third of working women with a child under two left the workforce permanently while pregnant or after having a child.
[http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/hrc-to-look-at-leave-discrimination/story-fni0xqi3-1226667945055]

(For more on the inquiry in question, see the media release "Inquiry into parental leave discrimination: Fairer workplace practices to benefit families and the economy", issued jointly by The Hon. Mark Dreyfus Q.C. M.P., The Hon. Jenny Macklin M.P., and The Hon. Bill Shorten M.P. (respectively the Federal Attorney-General, the Federal Minister for Families, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs, and for Disability Reform, and the Federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations), dated June 22, 2013, downloaded from the Federal Attorney-General's website:

http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2013/Second%20quarter/22-June-2013---Inquiry-into-parental-leave-discrimination-Fairer-workplace-practices-to-benefit-familes-and-the-economy.aspx

See also the webpages "Pregnancy and return to work research begins" and "Prevalence of experiences of discrimination relating to pregnancy at work and return to work after parental leave" at the Australian Human Rights Commission's website.)

Labels: discrimination, families, P.P.L., pregnancy

9. "BOYS as young as five will be encouraged to envisage becoming nurses and girls soldiers under a French primary school program designed to break down age-old stereotypes", which (programme)", called the ABCD of Equality, will be introduced into 500 primary schools from September before being made part of the national curriculum a year later."

The quotations, including the bold and capitals, in that headline come from the article "French gender-bender blue", no byline (its source is The Times of London), dated June 22, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/french-gender-bender-blue/story-fnb64oi6-1226667762224

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline on p. 10 in the "WORLD" section of The Weekend Australian, June 22-23, 2013, First Edition, No. 15147, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: feminism

10. "100,000[ Australians] ceased calling themselves Catholic between 2006–2011"

The quotation in that headline comes from the installment of His Eminence The Most Rev. The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney A.C.'s "Cardinal's Comment" column titled "Numbers up, percentage down", dated June 16, 2013 (sic—presumably that was the date of its printing in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph), downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=12307&class=Features&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

(That article came to my attention via the version printed on p. 8 under the same headline in the same "CARDINAL'S COMMENT" column in The Catholic Weekly, June 23, 2013, Vo. 72, No. 4678, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company.)

Labels: demography, social trends

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. William, Abbot, A.D. 2013

Notes: Wednesday, April 24-Monday, May 20, 2013

1. "France's INSEE statistics agency says about 200,000 people declared themselves as living in same-sex couples in a 2011 study."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "France legalises gay marriage", no byline, dated April 24, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/france-legalises-gay-marriage/story-e6frg6so-1226628357668

Labels: France, G.L.B.T.

2. "THE QUEEN has been graciously pleased to appoint the undermentioned[, namely, "Air Chief Marshal The Right Honourable Graham Eric, Baron STIRRUP, G.C.B., A.F.C., A.D.C.",] to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter"

The quotations in that headline come from Notice No. 1812598, category "State", sub-category "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105), The London Gazette, Issue No. 60489, p. 8277, Friday, April 26, 2013 (but the notice in question is to be dated April 23, 2013):

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/60489/pages/8277

One can also find the text of that notice here:

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/60489/notices/1812598/

See also the press release "New appointment to the Order of the Garter", issued by the Press Secretary to H.M. The Queen, undated (presumably April 23, 2013), downloaded from Her Majesty's official website:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2013/NewappointmenttotheOrderoftheGarter.aspx

Labels: Graham Stirrup, Order of the Garter

3. A couple of recent items regarding cohabitation (among other things, in the case of the second of the two items)

3.1 Some recent figures regarding cohabitation in the U.S.

See the article "Cohabitation first is new norm for unmarrieds with kids", by Sharon Jayson, dated April 4, 2013, downloaded from the USA TODAY website:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/04/cohabitation-families-pregnancy/2050073/

(That article came to my attention via the version posted at the Religion News Service website, and that version came to my attention via this CathNews post.)

Labels: cohabitation, demography, social trends, vice

3.2 Some points of interest from the article "For better or worse", by Ms Bettina Arndt, dated May 11, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/for-better-or-worse/story-e6frg8h6-1226637650904

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the headline "FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE", by the same author, pp. 22-25, The Weekend Australian Magazine, May 11-12, 2013, inserted in The Weekend Australian, May 11-12, 2013, First Edition, No. 15113, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

The text in each of the following bullet points is a quotation from the article. Any italicising or bolding is that of the article.

• … Almost half of all American first births are now to unmarried women due to a recent leap in the number of children born to cohabiting parents or single mothers. The median age at which first children are born in the US (25.7) now falls below the median age at first marriage (26.5). …

• The Knot Yet report highlights "non-decisions" as the major difference between cohabiting and marital relationships. People tend to slide into living together rather than making a mutual decision to commit to a combined future. The report notes the high incidence of unplanned pregnancy in these arrangements, with half of all births to unmarried 20-something women "unintended". …

• There's another group of people disadvantaged by these changed relationship patterns - low-income men. Dr Bob Birrell and colleagues from Monash University highlighted this issue in Men and Women Apart, their 2004 report on partnering in Australia. They reported growing numbers of low-income men not living with a partner - almost a third in their early 30s with incomes less than $31,000 lived with their parents. The 2011 census figures confirm this trend, with 45 per cent of men in their early 30s earning $31,000 or less being partnered, compared to 76 per cent of men earning over $52,000. While it may be that low-income men are becoming less "marriageable" because their incomes are increasingly insecure, Birrell adds that almost half of the less-educated, unpartnered women these men are likely to meet are single mothers. Low-income men can't compete with the financial incentives offered by the government to lone mothers who remain single.

Labels: cohabitation, demography, marriage, social trends, vice

4. Mr. Obama on the Planned Parenthood organisation

See the transcript "Remarks by the President at the Planned Parenthood Conference", April 26, 2013, downloaded from the White House's official website:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/04/26/president-obama-speaks-planned-parenthood-gala

(That webpage came to my attention via this blog post by Mr. Muehlenberg.)

See also the article "Obama takes swipe at pro-life activists, ignores Gosnell during Planned Parenthood speech", by John Jalsevac, dated Friday, April 26, 2013, downloaded from the LifeSiteNews.com website:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-takes-swipe-at-pro-life-activists-ignores-gosnell-during-planned-pare

(That article came to my attention via Mr. Muehlenberg's comment of 27.4.13 / 12pm in the comments section of this blog post by him.)

Labels: Barack Obama, abortion

5. "White Britons on verge of minority in 50 years, projections show"

The quotation in that headline is the headline of an article by Richard Ford, dated May 2, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/white-britons-on-verge-of-minority-in-50-years-projections-show/story-fnb64oi6-1226633712800

Labels: demography, U.K.

6. Fr. Fallon on Gay relationships

See the opinion piece "The unions are not the same", by The Rev. Fr. Michael B. Fallon M.S.C., dated May 3, 2013, downloaded from The Canberra Times' website:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/the-unions-are-not-the-same-20130502-2ivnf.html?skin=text-only

The article is also available at Fr. Fallon's website under the headline "Gay Marriage and the Catholic Church":

http://mbfallon.com/articles/gay_marriage&catholic_church.html

(Fr. Fallon's scandal came to my attention via this blog post by Miss Edwards.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., Michael Fallon

7. The archives of the Sydney newspapers The Freeman’s Journal (1850-1941) and The Catholic Weekly (1942-present) are available online here:

https://www.catholicweeklyarchives.com.au/

(That website came to my attention via the article "Cardinal launches CW archives", by His Eminence The Most Rev. The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney A.C., p. 4, the Sydney Catholic Weekly, May 5, 2013, Vol. 72, No. 4671, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: newspapers

8. "The Therapeutic Goods Administration told the Senate last year that since 2006 there had been 832 adverse impacts on women as a result of RU486 with 599 of these women requiring surgery to remove a poisoned embryo."

The quotation in that headline was attributed to Wendy Francis (speaking for the Australian Christian Lobby) in the article "Support better than cheap abortion drug", by Damir Govorcin, dated May 5, 2013, downloaded from the Sydney Catholic Weekly's website:

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleID=12114&class=Latest%20News&subclass=CW%20National

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, by the same author, on p. 3 f. (the part on p. 4 had a different headline, namely, "Subsidy for drug ‘ignores human rights of unborn’"), the Sydney Catholic Weekly, May 5, 2013, Vol. 72, No. 4671, published by The Catholic Press Newspaper Company Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: RU486, abortion

9. "The Coalition plan provides six months' parental leave, during which time the mother - or father, if nominated as the primary carer - are to be paid the mother's replacement wage - capped at $150,000 a year, so amounting to a maximum of $75,000. A spokesman for Tony Abbott says the reason this is, oddly, pegged to the mother's wage, is ''To avoid creating an incentive to make fathers the primary carer when they earn higher wages/salary than the mother.''"

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Baby love is worth the expense", by Julia Baird, dated May 11, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/baby-love-is-worth-the-expense-20130510-2jd3p.html?skin=text-only

(That opinion piece came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, by the same author, on p. 12 of the "News Review" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, May 11-12, 2013, No. 54784, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: L.P.A., Nationals, P.P.L.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Whitmonday, A.D. 2013