Articles

Budget fails the fairness test

05 May 2016  |  Author: Dr Brendan Long and Dr Keiran Sharpe  | Theme: Civil society and politics;

Jobs and growth is the mantra of the 2016/17 Budget. The jobs agenda is pursued through the new internship program (PaTH) which will ultimately involve large wage subsidies of $10,000 for a sustained employment outcome. The growth agenda is pursued through a corporate tax cut focusing on smaller businesses and then progressively expanding the scope of the tax cut to medium sized businesses (by changing the definition of small business). It will probably work to stimulate output of small and medium businesses over time. So yes the Government can claim to be loyal to a promise of focusing on jobs and growth. However, where the Budget fails is to consider the commitment of working families who are in the bottom half of income tax distribution.
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Religion, Violence and the Peaceable Kingdom

04 May 2016  |  Author: Rt Rev'd Prof Stephen Pickard  | Theme: Religions and dialogue; Public theology and ethics

We live in a violent and brutal world. We are flooded through our media outlets with the latest atrocities; whether it is warring countries, genocide, terrorist groups, local domestic violence or random individual acts of violence. Some violence is state sanctioned in the name of peace and security. We live in an age of militarism. It represents a vast economic powerhouse. The investment in military armaments throughout the world is huge. The Australian Government has recently committed 30 billion dollars to an ongoing defence budget. Human beings do not have a good track record when it comes to killing one another. Some violence claims a religious legitimation. Indeed the link between religion and violence is regularly reported on. How might we begin to assess the link between religion and violence? And what are to make of the Christian Gospel of Peace? Is the hope for a peaceable kingdom realistic? The common good can hardly be sustained by a common violence!
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Occasional Address: The place of theology in University life

20 Dec 2015  |  Author: Rev'd Prof James Haire  | Theme: Public theology and ethics; Leadership and institutions

Today I ask the question: why should theology, specifically Christian theology, exist in a university? But what is this Christianity? The theological basis of Christianity is in the wonder of God’s condescension, in the intentionality of God’s solidarity with those initially unrelated to God, that is, with those who find their self-identity solely within themselves, and find their self-justification and sole solace in themselves alone, without any reference to God. The church is called to exist solely through the solidarity of Jesus Christ with those who are alienated from God, by Christ going to the extremes of alienation for humanity, so that humanity might through him come close to God. At the heart of the Christian faith is expressed the fact that God does not wish to be alone in celebrating the wonder God’s inexpressible love for humanity and the creation. From this, ultimately, all the perceptions, meanings and ethical stances of Christianity come.
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Why Pope Francis is not an anti-capitalist Greenie

25 Oct 2015  |  Author: Fr Frank Brennan  | Theme: Leadership and institutions; Public theology and ethics

I was visiting Canberra's splendid Arboretum the other day and I ran into an historian who is not one of us. He greeted me: "That new pope of yours is doing quite well, isn't he? I don't know that he will show us the road to paradise but he has definitely opened a few doors out of the wilderness." I told him that I would use this line shamelessly but he insisted that I honour his anonymity - and I do. I think Pope Francis is doing quite well. My thesis is that Francis makes no pretence to be the world's greatest theologian, economist, politician or climate scientist.
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Romantic love: what's it good for?

23 Oct 2015  |  Author: Toni Hassan  | Theme: The Arts, Sciences and Culture;

In her best-selling 1970 work The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer urged a great awakening; for women to exercise their freedoms and stop being passive. The Bachelorette put that to the test, 45 years later. Our s is a culture that urges individuality, but then pushes on us perpetual "types". Television does it best.
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