Australian Family Association

QLD Branch
"Putting the fight for family in your hands"

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QLD AFA State Conference: Saturday 4 September 2004 @ Parliament House Annex, Brisbane City. Speakers include:

  • Professor Michael Good, leading international expert on immunology and Director of QLD Institute of Medical Research;
  • Bill Muehlenberg, leading family commentator in Australia and National Vice_president of AFA;
  • Peter Janetzki, presenter on Brisbane Radio 96.5 FM and professional counseller
  • Dr Kevin Donnelly, education expert and author of the recently published book "Why Our Schools are Failing"
  • David Perrin, head of Drug Advisory Council of Australia and National President of AFA
  • Bronwen Healy, ex-drug addict and prostitute, and activist and author
  • Elder Bob Cowan, counsellor and leader with the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints in Brisbane

Martin Klibbe RIP, 15 July 2004 - read Martin's speech at AFA State Conference 2003

PUBLIC VOICE - sign your e-petition!

QLD AFA is currently raising public awareness over the following matters which we believe will interest you. Click on a matter to read/send a petition using a pre-filled email. You can change the words, and the email you sign and send will be yours, not AFA's. So stand up, be counted and add yours to the public voice:

Clean up QLD education curriculum February 2004

LATEST NEWS - see also news archive, Australian Family Journal and Family Update

They said it

"There is no way to avoid the sad fact that Charlotte cannot live long after birth with this condition [anencephaly, a rare condition which inhibits brain development], but causing her to die earlier will not stop this from happening. Causing her to die earlier will only take from us the beautiful experience of knowing and loving her." Teresa Streckfuss, Sunday Mail, 20 June 2004

"We have appropriate anti-discrimination laws here already that protect the rights of gay people. In terms of marriage, I have always believed that it's a matter between a man and a woman. I'm happy to be criticised for that." QLD Premier Peter Beattie, Sunday Mail, 23 May 2004

"First and foremost I am Lawrence's wife and mother to his children ... My first priority is the kids but I support my husband 100%." QLD Opposition Leader's wife, Linda Springborg, Sunday Mail, 1 February 2004

"Everyone talks about parenthood like your life is going to shut down, you'll be incubated for 20 years, then suddenly re-emerge and get your life back. But our experience has been the opposite. I feel like so many more ways of thinking and feeling and being have been opened up to me. I love it ... Also, whenever you fall in love, like when you fall in love with your child, your are on an absolute high. People tried to describe that love to me before I experienced it. But you never can explain it." Australian Actress Cate Blanchette, Courier Mail, 17 January 2004

"I would trade all my gold medals for the life I have now, being a Mum. All the years of swimming are a lovely memory but it took me to have Jacob to realise that my earlier time wasn't the be-all and end-all of life." Swimming legend Hayley Lewis, Women's Day, February 2003

"In transforming culture so that it supports life, women occupy a place, in thought and action, that is unique and decisive. It depends on them to promote a ‘new feminism,’ which rejects the temptation of imitating models of ‘male domination,’ in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society and overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation." Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Bioethics, culture of life, culture of death

"Mother waits for baby that cannot survive" Teresa Streckfuss, The Sunday Mail, 20 June 2004
A saintly story to light up the sea of darkness that engulfs the abortion wars. Teresa Streckfuss's unborn child was diagnosed with a fatal condition that impairs brain development. Doctors gave the child only a few hours to live. Rather than abort the child, Teresa and husband Mark chose to have Charlotte Mary, and spend what little time they had reading and singing to her, joined by their other children, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Extraordinarily, the couple has been through this before. Their previous child, Benedict Oliver, survived only one day, with the same condition. "She is not a mistake – Charlotte is a person made in the image and likeness of God," said Teresa. If you ever wondered what real feminism, or "new feminism" in the words of Pope John II (see "They said it" above), is, here it is.

"Why Carry a Dying Child? A Mother's Perspective" Teresa Streckfuss, Catholic Exchange, 6 January 2004
In Teresa Streckfuss own words, why she continued the pregnancy of her baby whom she was told would not live long after birth due to a fatal condition.

"Inflated Promise, Distorted Facts" Eric Cohen, National Online Review 25 May 2004
Unlike Australia and other parts of the world, US federal legislation (the Dickey Ammendment 1995) prevents government funding of research for cures using human embryos, without preventing private institutes from this undertaking . In August 2001, President Bush announced new guidelines which allowed use of human embryo stem (ES) cell lines that existed prior to the announcement, but not those created after. Bush argued that this did not sanction destructive use of embryos in the future. Recently, a number of US congressman wrote a letter to the president demanding increased federal funding for more ES cell lines. Eric Cohen, editor of bioethics and culture journal, The New Atlantis, analyses the arguments put forward shows how they distort the realities the scientific realities of cure, how much is available under the current provision, and the mass-scale of supply needed given the immunological constraints of using ES-stem cells. Must reading for those tracking the debate, particularly with next year's review of our own federal government's ES research provision. (Here's an excellent precis on the science behind stem cell research).

"Suing for the Right to Live" Wesley J. Smith, The Weekly Standard 11 May 2004
Weak and vulnerable patients in the United Kingdom are having a duty to die imposed upon them by medical ethicists and the courts' approval of Futile Care Theory. Guidelines which amount to "medical futility" or "inappropriate care" are levers for hospital bioethics committees pronounce judgements about whether lives are beyond saving, and worth saving. Coming soon to neighbourhood Australia.

Marriage

"Childless couples to rise dramatically in coming years:ABS" ABC Queensland, 18 June 2004
Childless couples are on the increase due to delays in marriage (and therefore decreased propensity for children), higher divorce and separation, and increased ageing population. As early as 2010, the number of childless couples could exceed those  with children.

"Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples" Timothy J. Dailey, Family Research Council, 21 June 2004
Are the lifestyles of homosexual couples conducive to responsibility of securely raising children, the traditional function of marriage? This article demonstrates how homosexual unions fare against traditional marriages on the following factors: relationship duration; monogamy versus promiscuity; relationship commitment; number of children raised; health risks; and rates of intimate partner violence. In case you're thinking, homophobia, consider that gays intellects like Camille Paglia and Andrew Sullivan (editor of The New Republic) openly acknowledge these.

"Attack on marriage goes well beyond Play School" Kevin Donnelly, The Australian, 8 June 2004
One working day after the amendment the Marriage Act 1961 was discussed in federal parliament, ABC Play School aired a segment in its show featuring a lesbian couple. In response to criticism from family groups, a manager from Play School defended the show as reflecting broader society, citing a concern that children from gay couples had suffered ridicule in schools. Education expert Kevin Donnelly warns that Play School is the latest in the trend of public education agents to get into the act of gay activism, pointing to sources of the drumbeat - teachers unions. 

"Before the Storm" NR editors, National Online Review, 17 May 2004
"Judges have the power, indeed the duty, to vindicate individual rights that the people, acting through legislatures and the formal amendment process, have decided the government should recognize. It cannot plausibly be said that the people ever decided that two persons of the same sex have a right to marry each other. That judges nonetheless are capable of reaching this result is a testament to the way we have become used to their seizing certain constitutional terms as a warrant for freewheeling political philosophizing. That kind of amendment from the bench now threatens to take another important subject from the people's jurisdiction. We should say no, and the only way to do that is by a constitutional amendment."

"No hatred in keeping marriage laws sacred" Janet Albrechtsen, The Australian, 12 May 2004
A dissenter among local media ranks. Albrechtsen's allows the legal argument for marriage to speak; namely that marriage bonds because husband and wife to each other it implicates children. Drawing on Stanley Kurtz's insights from Scandinavia, Albrechtsen argues from empirical evidence that where accommodated, gay marriage will lead to break-down of marriage. 

"FAMILY: Fatherhood and marriage - a vital connection" Bill Muehlenberg, Newsweekly, 31 January 2004
Bill Muehlenberg is national Vice-President of the AFA and leading family apostle in Australia discusses the evidence which shows that stable marriage encourages good parenting, and vice versa. His thesis is simple: "If you are concerned about the decline of fatherhood, you should be concerned about the decline of marriage. The two are closely related, and when we do damage to the one we do damage to the other. As sociologist David Popenoe succinctly puts it, 'The decline of marriage is a disaster for fatherhood.' Or as Karl Zinmeister simply but effectively says, 'no solid marriage, no good family man'."

"The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage" Tim Leslie, Crises magazine, 8 January 2004
A further antidote against the knee-jerk charge that to be against gay marriage and adoption is homophobia. The article surveys familiar arguments against traditional marriage proponents and offers insights from gays writers and activists, showing clearly that concerns are hardly anti-gay. For instance, studies shows, and gay writers themselves insist, that promiscuity is largely alien in gay relationships. Some gay writers suggest that marriage with its formalisation of commitment would thereby strengthen gay unions. With the clerical sexual abuse that hit the Catholic Church in mind, and with it high correlation with homosexual priests (90% of abuse cases in the US), Leslie warns against naive deference. Other gay writers like Andrew Sullivan say that gay inclusion into marriage itself will have to adapt for polygamous arrangements - indeed heterosexual marriage could draw confidence that marriage can endure and even accommodate infidelity. A unique statistic, and one which will be awkward for proponents for gay marriage/adoption, is the disproportionately high incidence of sexual abuse by gay parents of their children - 29%. 

Parenting, child-care and education

"Pity for for parents if Bill's flaws are ignored" Jane Fynes-Clinton, The Courier Mail, 17 June 2004
Federal Health Minister Tony Abbot's Parental Access to Information Bill2004,  to give parents the right to apply for access to their children's medical records up to the age of 16, was withdrawn after strong rejection from the backbench. Here is a considered if not flawless analysis of this delicate issue, in which parental responsibility is delicately balanced against teenagers enticed into seeking help through privacy. Fynes-Clinton says the bill is good for parents finding out if their child is thinking about suicide, but bad if they find out whether the morning-after pill has been sought.

"Child-focussed sexual abuse prevention programs: how effective are they in preventing child abuse" Crime and Misconduct Commission QLD, 5 June 2004
A study of the current approaches for child sexual abuse prevention, identifying the following flaws: inadequate sex education background compromising an adequate description of sex abuse; overemphasis of "stranger danger" and under emphasis of "familiar" adult as abusers; inadequate grooming against abusers, in particular resisting adult authority when it comes to harmful acts; inadequate discernment of sexual abuse, including the fact that all not all abuse involves physical acts; inadequate catering for boys. A useful study which is by not means the last word. Contact the CMC with any feedback.

"Teach but don't preach" Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun, 5 May 2004
Our education crises has been largely shaped by teachers and education curricula that extend the duty of teaching into social consciousness in which facts and legitimate debates take a backseat to feelings and bias. Said otherwise, teaching is becoming the podium for left-wing political indoctrination. To cultural Marxists in the new education game,  Andrew Bolt is poison. The acidic key of Bolt is to tell is as it is, and here he samples emails sent to him by school children, to tell it as it is. Must reading for parents. 

Health

"Abbot wants to clamp on morning-after pill" CathNews, 8 June 2004
Federal Health Minister Tony Abbot is considering measures to restrict access to the morning-after pill (Postinor-2) following reports that it has been sold to young teenage girls. Since January this year, the drug has been available over the counter. The Australian Medical Association welcomed Mr Abbot's move, having raised warnings about the safety of the drug. The AMA has said availability of the drug over the counter trivialises women's health.

Society and culture

"QLD 2020: A State for All Ages" QLD Department of Families, March 2004

"Amazing Grace and The Lord of the Rings" James G. Dixon III, Vision and Values Consise March 2004
J.R.R Tolkien, a devout Catholic, and a spiritual mentor to C. S. Lewis, insisted in a letter that “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work” but that he deliberately cut “all references to anything like religion.... For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.”

Tax and benefits

"Nappy Families" Peter McDonald, The Courier Mail, March 2004
A reflection of the family stimulatory policy of Federal Budget 2004, which according the Australia's leading demographer, Professor Peter McDonald, will enhance the prospects of families to produce children.

Media / Internet

"Act won't slam the door on spam, but it will help" Edward Mantla, The Australian, 20 April 2004
The Spam Act was passed earlier this year. It forbids bulk email advertising, without a prior relationship between and an opt-out of receiving mail. Since most spam comes from overseas, and since most anti-spamming laws overseas have failed, the act is unlikely to have a major impact on most mail "inboxes." Here's some tips from the Australian Computer Society, mainly applying to business users, where the act will have impact. Alas, for parents and the community at large, pornographic spam will continue to be a problem. 

Copyright © 2003-2004 QLD Australian Family Association - email: QLD AFA