Articles
The Manus Island horror story stains us
03 Nov 2017 | Author: Toni Hassan | Theme: Civil society and politics; Public theology and ethics
The closure of Australia's detention camp on the poor Papua New Guinea province of Manus Island happened on Halloween, of all days. The symbolism wasn't lost on those of us appalled by what's been an Australian-government-orchestrated horror story.
This fluid crisis could have been avoided well before the PNG Supreme Court ruled the camp was illegal. Hundreds of men, many found to be genuine refugees, are now truly forsaken. Only about 60 have agreed, under some pressure, to move to three incomplete so-called transit centres that will lead to destinations unknown. Many more, about 600, would rather stay in the shell of the detention centre with no electricity, water or food than to "transfer" or walk into the Manus Island community and face violence at the hands of locals or police.
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Stephen Pickard's response to The Making of the Mahatma - The Markings of the Outsider-Writer
12 Oct 2017 | Author: | Theme: Public theology and ethics; Civil society and politics
It is an honour to be invited to give this brief response to Professor Nandan’s address tonight. Thank you Professor Nandan for bringing Gandhi alive for us. In his address Professor Nandan has identified some of the key elements of Mohandas Gandhi’s remarkable impact and continuing legacy not only for the people of India but the world. Gandhi galvanized the Indian nationalist movement through the force of his life and practical non-violent resistance to British rule. And as Professor Nandan reminds us Gandhi’s legacy was not only in the political realm but also as a writer with over 100 volumes of collected writings and an influence that touched one of Australia’s great writers Patrick White.
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The Making of the Mahatma - The Markings of the Outsider-Writer
12 Oct 2017 | Author: Professor Satendra Nandan | Theme: Civil society and politics; Public theology and ethics
In 1939 a couple of things happened that touched my later life in one of the smallest islands in the largest ocean: an Australian writer published his first novel that year and went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973; in September the Second World War began and a member of my family joined the colonial Fijian Army.
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Church-related social welfare agencies in Australia
04 Sep 2017 | Author: Doug Hynd | Theme: Civil society and politics; Leadership and institutions
In this paper, I provide an account of the development of church-related social welfare agencies from European settlement to the commencement of the contracting era in the 1990s. In doing so, I explore the ideological, ecclesiastical and geographical influences that contributed to what emerged as a ‘mixed economy of welfare’, in which the state, while a significant actor, shares the provision of welfare with not-for-profit agencies. I then turn my attention to the constitutional arrangements underpinning church-state engagement in Australia that sit in the background to this structure.
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Journeying with those in need as they complete the great circle of life and death
03 Aug 2017 | Author: Dr Brendan Long | Theme: Public theology and ethics; Civil society and politics
The political representatives of the people of Victoria are now pushing forward, with speed, to make a fundamental change to the most critical aspect of the relationship between the people and the State. About 250 years ago, key thinkers in the English, French and Spanish speaking world, started to develop ideas about how the rule of sovereigns could be replaced with a sovereignty enjoyed by the people, for the people, paving the way for the development of modern democracies. While the emergence of the modern democratic states did not occur without violence, the decisive battles were not fought with arms but with ideas. We came to the view that all people have, by their nature, created by God, certain basic rights which were inalienable: not inhering to them because of social status or invested in them as part of a polity, but rights they held by virtue of their dignity as free human persons.
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