Newmania: Independence Day

In November 2014, Newmania will host a meeting of the G20. As an Australian first and a Newmanian second, I find this wholly appropriate. Of course, Australia should host a meeting of the G20. Our economy is about the only one to survive the GFC, and we have the highest GDP per capita of any country in the world. Furthermore, the meeting should be held in Newbane, because Newbane is our New World City according to the marketing chaps, and home to our national Treasurer.

Plus, the weather’s nice.

The G20 is a national and international Big Deal. It’s not in the class of the Sydney Olympics, but it’s big. There will be leaders, treasurers, advisors, support staff, hangers-on, media, security and hospitality. It’s a time for Aussies to show off and be proud in front of leaders from the other G20 members: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.

Not everyone is delighted, though. Brad Hazzard, New South Wales Minister for GrumpArsery and Sore Loserism is appalled. He says Sydney is Australia’s only genuine World City, and therefore, Sydney has some divine right to host all of the important stuff. Gee, Melbourne is gonna be annoyed! He’s also accusing Wayne Swan of choosing Newbane for political gain. Well, let's see what happens in 2014 when in all likelihood, Swanny will be guest lecturing and serving on a few boards, and Joe Hockey will be Treasurer.

But here’s something to ponder, Mr Hazzard. It’s not a competition. It’s not same-sex marriage, or State of Origin, for quack’s sake! Newbane getting the G20 doesn’t make Sydney any less beautiful, less worldly, and less desireable; it just means that in November of 2014, Sydney won’t be in crazy lockdown mode. In fact, it has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Hazzard or New South Wales.

What’s worse is that Newmania’s own King Campbell is withholding some of his happiness about this opportunity to show off his beloved River City to the world’s biggest bigwigs. There’s already a stoush developing because King Campbell won’t commit any resources to the G20 Event, and Treasurer Swanny thinks he should. If New South Wales’ Brad Hazzard is the Minister for Sore Loserisms, King Campbell must be the Minister for Sore Winning. And then there's Lord Mayor Quirkie and a rumour about Council funded security? It's bizarre.

Note to King Campbell: Your state won the right to host a prestigious international event. Just be happy.

It’s starting to look as though King Campbell doesn’t want Newmania to be part of Australia any more. When Prime Minister Julia brought her Big and Important Economic Forum to a venue literally up the road from King Campbell’s Parliamentary Palace, he refused to attend. He said he was too busy…but he may have been flossing, or locked in the Shredder Room with Queen Lisa of Mooch for all we know.

In any case, we should prepare ourselves for Separation. Clive Palmer has no doubt advised King Campbell that even the very best hole-digging equipment won’t be able to dig a big enough moat between Newmania and those other states, so we’ll have to be all European about it and just pretend there’s a border.

All financial relationships with the Commonwealth will be severed. Don’t worry about missing out on all that lovely GST revenue; King Campbell will be able to continue sacking public servants until he’s saved enough money to provide the services we need: army, navy, airforce, customs, border protection, quarantine, foreign affairs…wait. Something doesn’t add up. Doesn’t matter – that’s Treasurer Timmy’s problem.

Newmania’s Spiritual Leader will be no surprise. Wendy Joy Of the ACL will lead the state in prayer through good times and bad, from her base in WendyJoy (But Not Too Much Joy and None of That Gay Stuff) Land. Newmania only needs one religion, and hers is fine for Bruce and Clive, so that’ll do for the rest of us. (Unfortunately, some residents of the former Sunshine Coast may feel uncomfortable with this decision; King Campbell recommends moving* to the Gold Rainbow Fun Coast, where everyone is mostly welcome, for a price.)

King Campbell anticipates very little disruption to business and industry as a result of the Great Separation. With the abolition of all trade unions, businesses will thrive and productivity will soar. The Big Holes in the centre of the new Sovereignty will be particularly successful, bringing much deserved fortune to struggling politician Clive Palmer and media Girl-About-Town Gina Rinehart. Of course the Carbon Imposition and Mining Success Levies will be stopped on Day 1, allowing our industries to emit as nature intended. After all, how can Newmanians be expected to take pride in our productivity if we can’t see signs of activity?

King Campbell has decided to make Way Out West a loving memorial to Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen, with one of the last remaining members of the Bjelke-Petersen Government. Katter Kountry, as it will be known, will be a generous area of real-life, real-straight Newmania, with free admission in return for volunteer work driving cattle, controlling reptiles and fixing farm equipment.

Newmania’s glorious tourism industry will blossom. The Gold Rainbow Fun Coast will attract all types of visitors – including those types – and provide basically what it does now. WendyJoy (But Not Too Much Joy and None of That Gay Stuff) Land will become a Mecca, but not the same Mecca as the one for Muslims. A different Mecca. Protestants will flock to be part of the flock. The jewel in King Campbell’s tourism crown, the Great Barnaby Reef, will be a throbbing hub of happy tourists, boozy coconuts drinks, grey nomads, sunburnt back-packers, frenzied commercial shipping and truckloads of tailings from Clive’s and Gina’s Big Holes.

There’s no need to worry about the sludge though – King Campbell himself is an Engineering God, and he has promised to build tunnels from the Big Holes all the way to the Reef, where he will erect state of the art under-sea chicken-wire fences to contain the watery sludge and protect the sanctity of the reef. As King Campbell explained, the added advantage of choosing chicken wire is that it makes it hard for the scuba-diving graffiti artists.

Welcome to the New Newmania. God help us all.

*Resettlement Costs are the Resident’s Responsibility.

Sticks & Stones

Ooooo-Aaaah.

The Australian Christian Lobby issued a media release earlier this week, claiming that it was unhappy with the way the Greens and gay activists were using strong language in their battle with the ACL over equal rights. Apparently the ACL don't take kindly to being called 'haters' and 'extremists'. 

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace claimed to be both hurt and deeply offended by being referred to as a 'gay hater':

“I and the ACL do not hate anyone, let alone same-sex attracted people. Using pejoratives like ‘haters’ and ‘extremists’ to describe ACL is tantamount to intimidation tactics designed to cause us and others to stand aside from the debate,” Mr Wallace said.

I won't call Mr Wallace and his colleagues names. I'll suggest, quietly and with all due respect, that they're a bunch of self-aggrandising sooky-lalas with a narrow agenda and a fringe perspective. 

Better?

Has Mr Wallace considered how the LGBT community, single people and their supporters feel when accused of gross child abuse if they choose surrogacy as a means to parenthood? I can tell Mr Wallace right now that being accused of gross child abuse leaves "hater" in the shade, yet, on June 1st, the ACL issues this media release,
headlined "Single and same-sex surrogacy a gross abuse against of the rights of the child".

It was a carefully worded release, short on facts, designed to evoke the kind of imagery associated with pedophilia and the Roman Catholic Church. Mr Wallace says they run their campaigns without resorting to words of hate. Who needs words when you can evoke those images?

As discussed previously, the ACL hasn't offered any examples of this gross child abuse they're linking to gay (and single) parents,  or even a source from which they get their definition of what a child's rights might be. The rights of the child remain a convenient distraction for the ACL. 

This week's press release suggests that the ACL aren't too fond of being called extremists either. Well, I guess if their policy (singular) to repress gay rights wasn't so unpopular and so extreme, they wouldn't have to wear the title. According to the release, Mr Wallace and his team of non-haters don't hate people who are "same-sex-attracted". 

I challenge Mr Wallace on that. There has been exactly no evidence that I can find of any engagement with or compassion to the LGBT community by the ACL. None. Instead, there has been a wall of anti-gay commentary and persistent lobbying against anything that could bring this segment of our a step closer to equality.

Why? For the sake of the children, of course...except that there's no evidence of that either. 

Speaking of children, the vitriol directed at ACL's Wendy Francis following her high profile campaign against the Rip & Roll Safe Sex billboards is indefensible. No excuses.

Having said that, the ACL and their followers need to accept that every time they issue a media release, send a tweet or appear on media speaking out against rights for the LGBT community, there will be a response. Just as the ACL doesn't like being called 'haters', gays don't like being labelled abnormal, perverted, deviant, sick, or dangerous. The ACL has no right to be playing the victim card.

Still, if Mr Wallace wants to lose the "hater" tag, how about exercising some Christian love and acceptance by putting some of his, and the ACL's resources towards promoting an LGBT cause. They could choose any gay cause that doesn't conflict with their restrictive, anti-gay agenda: how about a campaign to address homophobia in public schools? Or a campaign to secure funding for the Queensland Association of Healthy Communities? 

If the ACL can't - or won't - find a pro-gay cause that it can support, then the homophobia and gay-hater labels are likely to stick...as they should.

As for the Greens and gay activists using words like 'hater' and 'extremist' to intimidate, Mr Wallace knows better than that. He's a retired soldier, a former commander of the SAS Regiment. This won't be the first time in his life that he's been told to "Harden up, Princess." I'll also encourage him to enjoy a nice big cup of reality; words aren't all that intimidating out here in the real world, and Brigadier Jim Wallace (Ret) knows it.

It's well past time that the ACL accepted that they aren't the victims in this battle, and they don't control the moral high ground. There is no moral high ground in a war to sideline, to undermine, to marginalise your fellow humans to preserve your own superiority.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. - His Holiness Dalai Lama

Jim Wallace's Very Bad Week

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." - Mahatma Ghandi

I wouldn't want to be Jim Wallace this week. I wouldn't want to be Jim Wallace any day, but this week must've been spectacularly hard. This week, his moral crusade - the Australian Christian Lobby - is under attack on all fronts.

It was this week's surprise announcement that Sunrise was teaming up with Marie Claire and GetUp! in support of same sex marriage that triggered their latest campaign. The ACL, with their broad fiction linking the existence of homosexuality to endangering the welfare of children, jumped up and down and tried to convince their supporters to email-bomb Sunrise and it's advertisers. 

The ACL even approached ACMA (the Australian Communication and Media Authority) complaining that a "news and current affairs" programme should not be allowed to support a position. I guess they haven't seen The Bolt Report or listened to 2GB lately.

Sunrise saw the gathering controversy ahead of time, and invited Jim Wallace to debate Dr Kerryn Phelps on the show. Jim's nightmare continued. In fairness, the ACL's supporters felt he did a good job in hostile circumstances. I don't know that I'd categorise the environment as hostile - well, not until Mr Wallace compared the gay rights movement to Nazi Propaganda Meister Josef Goebbels. 

In that few moments, and with a national audience, he transformed the ACL from an annoying lobby group with rich, conservative friends in high places, to the an organised group of crazy extremists who represent the minority view.

The Australian published an editorial this morning in which Greg Callaghan commented:

In 2012 it is no longer acceptable to suggest that gay people are abnormal or unnatural, as the ACL regularly does, by separating us from "normal" heterosexuals in their nomenclature. Even columnist Andrew Bolt, a very vocal opponent of gay marriage, never descends to this, writing recently that "it offends me to hear someone say gays and lesbians are not normal".

The Fairfax press was also on the story today. 

Canon Richard Tutin from Queensland Churches Together, a body which represents 12 Christian churches including Catholics and Anglicans, said people from different churches were frustrated by the ACL.

"They totally have an agenda," he said.

"They're more interested in upholding a very, very traditional view of marriage and that's derived in their eyes from scripture and societal practice."

I hear you wondering if the ACL knows just how far it has travelled from the mainstream. The answer is that they believe they are speaking for the majority, and that those in favour of same sex marriage are a noisy minority with an evil agenda - hence Mr Wallace's reference to Goebbels. Statistically, the opposite is true. 

In February 2012, a Galaxy Poll reported 62% of voters supported gay marriage. So there it is - only 38% of Aussies agree with the ACL's position on same sex marriage...and I'd bet far fewer than that would have approved of Mr Wallace's Nazi inference. In fact, the ACL's position on gay marriage is more aligned with the fundamental Moslem position than with many Christian groups.

But remember that the ACL is a lobby group, not a church. Sure, they'd love for you to join their supporters, but their primary focus is in influencing our governments, whether that's by getting their candidates elected, or by influencing those already in parliament. For that, they need money.

Doug Pollard's blog is shining a light on the ACL executive: who are they, what are their backgrounds, and who funds them. This information isn't nearly as easy to find as it should be, given the ACL's status as a political lobby group, but Doug has learned that Goldings, a Queensland construction company, contributed in the order of six figures to ACL. Gloria Jeans, the coffee chain previously associated with Hillsong, has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the ACL.

Jim Wallace and the other members of the ACL team probably won't be surprised to hear that there's talk on Twitter of boycotting Gloria Jeans stores to protest their support of the ACL.

Yeah,  it's been a bad week for the ACL: a frontal assault in the form on the Sunrise "I Do" campaign, Mr Wallace's cringeworthy appearance on the debate, the offensive Nazi reference, an opinion piece against them in a national newspaper, a news story in Fairfax publications about other Christians distancing themselves from the ACL, bloggers digging into their activities (including this one) and now murmurs of a boycott of one of their key donors? 

Their war might be against gays and gay rights, but the ACL should consider choosing their battles. Taking on a national television show, a magazine and experienced activist group and the weight of public opinion armed with nothing but a website and Jim Wallace was not their finest moment. 

The ACL Agenda

This morning, Sunrise hosted a short debate on same sex marriage. The participants were Dr Kerryn Phelps, a married lesbian, and Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby. Time constraints, and a lack of debate structure hampered the ability of either side to land a killer argument, although each had a theme. For Dr Phelps, it's all about equality. For the ACL, it's all about the children...and something entirely inappropriate about Nazis, but let's concentrate on his focus: children.

Mr Wallace failed to make any explanation as to why same sex marriage had anything to do with children, other than to suggest that all marriage is about children. That, Mr Wallace, is bollocks.

There was a graph floating around on Twitter yesterday, showing the disproportionate focus of the ACL on homosexuality. The graph illustrated that the number of anti-gay press releases and self-reported media mentions from January-June outnumbers the sum of press releases and mentions for all other topics. (I'm unsure who put this together, but whoever you are, thank you.) I'd go so far as to suggest that a large chunk of the ACL press releases and media mentions about homosexuality also make mention of children, children's rights, and protecting the children from the dangerous influences of gay people. 

So, let's take Wendy Francis's suggestion, and think of the children.

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, children – defined as a human under the age  of 18 - have rights. The Convention of the Rights of the Child include these four core principles:

·         The right to survival and development;
·         Respect for the best interests of the child as a primary consideration;
·         The right of all children to express their views freely on all matters affecting them; and
·         The right of all children to enjoy all the rights of the CRC without discrimination of any kind.

According to a media release from Jim Wallace just last week, single and same-sex surrogacy is a gross abuse against the rights of the child.

Jim Wallace and his ACL are so completely disengaged from the real world that they themselves are the danger, as we saw during Jim's semi-coherent debate appearance this morning. Jim's a former Army Officer - he should know better than to liken his "enemies" to Nazis. But he did pivot back to his point, that it's all about children.

In fact, the ACL has an entire programme called ForKidSake dedicated to serving the best interests of Australian children.

Each of the three key recommendations from the ACL's ForKidSake campaign comes from a research project commissioned by the ACL and conducted by Professor Patrick Parkinson, professor of law at Sydney University. There is a handy link from the ForKidSake section of the ACL website to Professor Parkinson’s 126 page report, yet the ACL website includes only the summary that the ACL wants you to see. Their cherry-picked summary makes for annoying reading: it includes “Some of the research findings”, and “some significant recommendations”. Any half-awake reader would know that it was incomplete. 

"Some of the recommendations" might be good enough for the ACL, but the rest of us demand the complete picture. I have read the three recommendations published on the ACL Website, and I have read the 14 Recommendations in Professor Parkinson' Report, and I suggest that you do too. This is a solid and inclusive piece of work which emphasises the importance of family and community as they relate to the development of children, and suggests an overall responsibility is at the Federal Government level, cascading through levels of government into the community.

The report does not, however, define the ideal family. It does not exclude non-traditional families, single parent families, blended families, mixed-race families, polygamous families, 1960s hippy communes, extended families or families that include same sex parents. Equally, it doesn't shy away from exploring the higher proportion of problems encountered by children in non-traditional family structures.

I suspect the reason that Professor Parkinson has neither detailed the ideal family structure nor discussed the ACL-suggested dangers of non-traditional families is because the research doesn’t support the notion that every traditional nuclear family is better for the children that any other option. 

In fact, the Report accepts the existence and legitimacy of LGBT groups within the community as early as Recommendation 1(c).

To encourage Parents and Citizens’ Associations, community organisations such as Rotary or Lions Clubs, churches, other faith-based communities, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse organisations, gay and lesbian organisations and any other interested group to offer relationship education programs free of charge in their local community or in workplaces, or in universities, utilising trained volunteer educators, or educators paid on a sessional basis.

So sustained is the ACL's campaign against gay marriage and gay parenting, we wonder if, in ACL-World, it is better to have a perfect Mum plus Dad plus two-point-whatever kids (biological offspring of the aforementioned Mum and Dad), even if Mum drinks a bottle of vodka before breakfast, even if Dad feeds his entire income through the pokies every payday, even if the home hides domestic violence, emotional abuse, incest and worse, than to have two parents of the same sex. Yes, this is gross exaggeration, yet there are no asterisks in the ACL literature.

Still, according to last week's press release from Jim Wallace, gay parenting (and single parenting) resulting from surrogacy would be gross abuse against the rights of the child.

That kind of homophobic nonsense is simply not true, and Professor Parkinson's report did not suggest that it was.

Mr Wallace’s statement last week said:

“Evidence heard at recent enquiries and a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria into donor conception and surrogacy has shown it is harmful to children to be deliberately severed from their biological mother or father.”

This argument suggests that all surrogacy is equally detrimental to the child, due to the severing of connection to a biological parent. It's not just gays and singles. Heterosexual couples who use a surrogate face the same risks and dangers that Jim Wallace links to single and gay parents. Is that what the ACL really thinks? Professor Parkinson noted the separation as an issue in his report, yet again, did not mention gay parents specifically.

And what is this about severing relationships in the specific context of surrogacy? That’s an assumption by Mr Wallace. The non-custodial biological parent may be a treasured  member of an extended family, which would surely align with Professor Parkinson’s recommendations. 

Given the ACL's objection to abortion, where does it stand on adoption? Adoption forces separation between a child and it's biological parents. Wouldn't that be risking harm to he child? Maybe the ACL would prefer that all pregnant women just shut up and keep their babies? What if the mother is single? The ACL won't like that! The entire argument is so circular, so nonsensical, that the only solution that would be acceptable to the ACL would be for no-one to ever be pregnant outside the structure of traditional hetero-sexual monogamous marriage.

This does not reflect the reality we live in.

The ACL is an all-or-nothing political lobby groyp. Their mantra is "Won't Someone Think Of The Children?" Good question, because I can't see where the ACL places children first. It looks to me as though the ACL is using children as a convenient smokescreen to disguise their real purpose: the anti-gay agenda. 

The Big Step Backwards

News reports this morning confirm that Queensland Premier Campbell Newman will repeal the Civil Partnerships legislation passed just six months ago by the Bligh Government. This is no great surprise, as it was raised as a probability during the LNP campaign.

The timing is surprising. This morning's Sunday Mail has released a Galaxy Poll in which 50% of the population support gay marriage, and only 33% oppose it. Even amongst LNP voters, 42% support gay marriage and 44% oppose it. And don't forget that Premier Newman himself supports gay marriage, yet is willing to overturn this legislation to appease the noisy 42%.

But it doesn't end there. If you're gay in Queensland, there's more bad news this Sunday morning. It appears $2.6m in funding has been withdrawn from Queensland Association of Healthy Communities, according to various Twitter sources. Such funding would come from the Queensland Heath Department, yet there is no media statement announcing these funding changes.

There is, however, a newspaper report quoting Queensland's new Health Minister Lawrence Springborg stating that funding will be redirected a new AIDS Council. The Queensland Association of Healthy Communities was established in 1984 as the Qld AIDS Council. Mr Springborg believes that by lobbying for equal rights, the QAHC has strayed from its it's original charter as an advocate for gay men's health. God knows what the LNP is thinking; Speaker of the House Fiona Simpson still thinks homosexuality can be cured!

Nothing but this shameful victory will matter to Wendy Francis, head of the Queensland chapter of the Australian Christian Lobby. She'll be dancing up and down the aisle at church this morning. Ms Francis spearheaded the ACL's campaign to have the Rip N Roll posters removed from bus shelters, so that children wouldn't be corrupted by the idea of two adults choosing to take care of each other's health. The Rip N Roll campaign was funded, at least in part, by the Brisbane City Council, which was at the time headed by Campbell Newman.

Ms Francis is also vehemently opposed to civil unions, and was seen leaving Parliament House in tears the night that Andrew Fraser's Civil Partnerships bill was passed. Prior to the 2010 Federal election in which Ms Francis was standing for the Senate, she infamously tweeted

@Wendy4Senate Children in homosexual relationships are subject to emotional abuse. Legitimising gay marriage is like legalising child abuse.

Remember back in February, prior to the Qld State Election, LNP Members including Campbell Newman addressed ACL meetings, hoping to sound far enough to the right to appeal to the extreme conservatives. It's no surprise, then, that the Newman Government is honouring commitments made to a tiny group of far right conservatives, against the beliefs of the majority of the population.

Is the Queensland Government's approach to "rainbow issues" to simply pretend they don't exist, or is the LNP trying to drive gays south, thereby making them someone else's problem?

More importantly, who is pulling the strings? Queensland voted overwhelmingly for a government lead by Campbell Newman, yet in repealing the Civil Partnerships legislation, Newman is ignoring the majority view, and acting against his own beliefs.  This might be what Bruce McIver, Wendy Francis and Fiona Simpson want,  but it's not what Queenslanders - or their Premier - want.

Add your voice to the chorus signing a petition in support of equal rights in Queensland.