Writings

A collection of 345 posts

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

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

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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

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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

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What is so wrong with having truthful advertising?

The removal of the Federal Health Minister’s veto over RU486 last February was hailed as a victory for women, and a portent of what could be accomplished if politicians and grass roots activists worked together across party lines. In the wake of the conscience vote, female politicians suggested the

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Baby Leave is not a Women’s Issue

The politics are stupendous. Tony Abbott, a former employment minister who swore that paid maternity leave would become policy over the Howard government’s “dead body”, has a radical change of heart. Now Opposition Leader, he promises to introduce 26 weeks of paid parental leave in the first term of

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Does she or doesn’t she? And why does she always lie?

There’s always a moment of truth. For me, it came a few weeks ago, on my return from the States. “You look” an acquaintance gushed as we watched our sons tumble across the football field. “Rest and sunshine really suits you.” Yeah, sorta. And the relaxers and fillers I

Writings

Women’s Rights? Don’t Make Me Laugh

It wasn’t true then, and it still isn’t now. In fact, it’s a big, fat porky pie. I’m talking about women’s rights and the scary potential that, however flaccidly they are enshrined in law now, things are about to get worse. Remember the salad days?

Writings

Parents Left in the Lurch

Parental leave – or maternity leave, as we tiresomely insist on thinking about it – is back in the news. Australia’s National Employment Standards now includes the right of workers to request 12 months of unpaid parental leave in addition to the year to which they are already entitled. A right

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

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

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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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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,