Writings

A collection of 345 posts

Writings

Put an End to Abortion Whispers

As Prime Minister John Howard put it: “You can’t have a situation where every time somebody dares to express a view, they’re jumped upon from a great height and it’s said the issue is back on the agenda.” He’s right. The country needs to take a

Writings

After the DNA, will Abbott get a Reality Check?

Having found a lost a “son”, the Minister should be less critical of others The message from Health Minister Tony Abbott remains unequivocal: Kathleen Donnelly, the mother of his wrongly assumed son, Daniel O’Connor, is a “nice” girl. As the latest twist in the ongoing adoption reunion story broke

Writings

Fighting for Virile Values - This is Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott is said to be likeable. I believe it, though I’ve only met him once. Introduced by a Crikey! journalist in Parliament House Canberra, where I had gone to advocate against Abbott’s continued ministerial control over the fertility control drug RU486, the Health Minister refused to shake

Writings

Womb Watching While Rome Burns

Climate change, soaring petrol and food prices, one in seven Australian children living in poverty and catastrophic levels of violence in some indigenous communities. These are just some current issues of national importance that most Australians would see as legitimate topics for debate. Sadly, the womb watchers think otherwise. It

Writings

Tony Abbott Has a Poor Track Record on Respecting Medical Privacy for Teens

A recent legal case in Melbourne, combined with the increased likelihood of an Abbott prime ministership, has resurrected fears about young people’s medical privacy. Seventeen-year-old “Shannon” sought support from a counsellor for issues arising from domestic violence and her mother and stepfather’s mental illness. Without Shannon’s consent

Writings

Senator’s choices could mean none for women

There’s only one thing I have to say about Queensland National’s Senator Barnaby Joyce. I hope he’s telling the truth. “About Tesltra?” you might ask. Or Voluntary Student Unionism, where Joyce has sworn to vote against any Coalition bills that will reduce student services. Or perhaps you

Writings

Leslie and 44 Other Signatories Warn That Quest for Women’s Equality Will Be Turned Back Under PM Tony Abbott

The gender divide in support for Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott is significant. Media analysis views it as women supporting a woman. This sidesteps the real concerns women have about Abbott’s views and past policies. Tony Abbott wants to take divorce laws back to the 1970s, with an idea

Writings

Note to the PM: Politics Don’t Belong in Medicine

For those who have been watching the debate about RU486, this coming Tuesday is the moment of truth. That’s because Tuesday is the day the Coalition party room meets to discuss whether they will support or oppose a promised Democrat’s amendment to the Therapeutic Goods Act that will

Writings

Abbott v Gillard: Believing in What’s Awful, or Nothing at All

Here’s a question exercising some voters: What is worse? Casting one’s vote for a man who strongly believes in what’s awful, or for a woman who believes in nothing except getting herself elected? The conundrum exposes the two central items on our wishlist for political leaders: that

Writings

Letters Page, The Australian, RU486

What woman would want to have an unsafe, illegal abortion when she could have a safe and legal one? Health minister Tony Abbott (Opinion, 6/2) claims to be worried that making RU486 available in Australia would lead to backyard miscarriages and an internet-based black market. Yet Australian history tells

Writings

Why Australians Need a Right to Die

Senator Bob Brown has been trying for some time to repeal the Euthanasia Laws Act, a federal law that denies the Northern Territory and the ACT the right to legislate for assisted suicide. But the new-found power of the Greens and federal parliamentary arrangements arising from the hung parliament will

Writings

Let’s Keep the Counsellors Honest and True

Pregnancy counsellors must declare their stance on abortion. Australian women have just inched one step closer to gaining access to RU486. Last week, Cairns-based obstetrician Dr Caroline De Costa received word that her application to become an authorised prescriber of the medication had been approved by the national drug regulator,

Writings

Abbott playing fast and loose with the truth

Since becoming Federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott has demonstrated a casual, at times even antagonistic, relationship with facts that don’t support his moral views. This week’s performance on Insiders continued this lamentable tradition. The Minister claimed that non-Government politicians supported “human cloning”, that the Government’s own expert

Writings

No Non-Violent Political Action Please. We’re Australian

Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights… it’s all wrong. Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom gone wild. God damn it! First one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom. Lyrics from “B Movie” by Gil Scott-Heron. Over the long weekend just past,

Writings

We Can Only Wish Teen at Heart of Dikileaks Scandal Our Best

We are now entering the second year of the DikiLeaks scandal. The story began in February last year when St Kilda AFL player Sam Gilbert and other players attended a school clinic in Melbourne where they met a 16-year-old student. A month later, in another city while competing in an

Writings

Across Australia, Law Reform is Unfinished Business

Australian women do not, in law, have a right to choose in any state other than the ACT, and Victoria (if they are not more than 24 weeks pregnant) and – in a more compromised fashion and only up to 20 weeks pregnancy – Western Australia. I want to be really clear

Writings

Why Women Don’t Always Support Other Women

A few months back I was a guest on a morning talk show. “Dr Cannold,” one of the hosts asked, “Why is it that older women often don’t support younger ones?” I cleared my throat but was cut short. We were out of time. Later, however, my inbox and

Writings

Religiously Defending the Right to Remain Secular

This column is about lawlessness, and what your government is doing in your name. Or, more accurately, how it’s spending your money while dodging the oversight of Parliament in direct contravention of the law. It is about the High Court challenge to the National School Chaplaincy Program and the

Writings

Retrospective Legislation and Donor Conceived People

The danger with retrospective legislation, which some seek to identify sperm donors, lies in its potential for injustice. Hard cases make bad law. This is as true of the common law and acts passed by Parliament as it is of the moral law. That is why whatever sympathies we have

Writings

Should Parents Allow Mixed Sex Sleepovers?

Since reaching adolescence my boys have been keen to have girls who are “just friends” sleep at our house, and I have been just as keen to avoid it. Boys sleeping over have never been a problem. Over the years I have happily purchased bunk and trundle beds, as well

Writings

There’s No Shame in Being Too Posh to Push

Mention Australia’s caesarean section rate and collective tongues start wagging. Our rate is too high, the experts say, partly because some mothers are too posh to push. It is true that Australia’s caesarean rate is high and, until recently, climbing. In 1997, 20 per cent of women gave

Writings

Did Jesus Have a Sister?

Years ago, I was watching a documentary series on ABC TV called Son of God. The program set out to find the historical person that Christians now revere as Jesus Christ. At one point in a spell-binding narrative, we were told the names of all of Jesus’s brothers, and

Writings

What the Lindy Chamberlain, Patsy Ramsey, Kate McCann & now Keli Lane Case Says About Us

Last week journalist Michael Duffy wrote that there was “a great disconnect” between “what we know [Keli Lane] did – even putting aside the murder allegation – and the fact that by literally all public accounts she was a normal, happy and sociable northern beaches girl with a supportive and loving family,

Writings

Why Negative Ads Don’t Work, but Sticking to Principle Does

It all comes down to Bentleigh, a Liberal strategist told me on Saturday night. He was close to swaying from exhaustion and the release of tightly coiled stress. Or near-release, as the outcome was not yet decided. It still isn’t. Counting will continue today, but so far the Libs

Writings

Small-L Liberals Skewer Progressives on Horns of a Dilemma

Should progressive voters act to ensure the right side of politics is liberal, not conservative? In the wake of the chess-like analysis of the Victorian Liberals’ decision to preference Labor before the Greens in next Saturday’s state election, Victorians voters must now confront their own tactical conundrum. In particular,