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August 2011
Big Ideas - IQ debate: If we keep populating we will perish
The demographers tell us the number of Australians will increase substantially over the coming decades. Can the continent accommodate more people? Should there be a limit to growth?
The ABC Big Ideas programme recently broadcast highlights of an Intelligence Squared Debate on the motion "If we keep populating we perish". Speaking against the motion was Fr Frank Brennan. You can listen to the debate highlights here.
2011 MercyCare Oration
Fr Frank Brennan delivered the 2011 MercyCare Oration on Monday, 22 August 2011, at the James Nestor Hall, Catholic Education Office,Perth.
'We need to break down the silo mentality between health, welfare and education. This exists in church agencies as much as elsewhere in society. We must be committed to providing first rate health care to our patients, but also to creating a more equal society.'
To read the oration in full please download it here (PDF, 64KB)
Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Police
Dr Gary Johns presented a one-day workshop on August 18 in Cairns to Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander police on Aboriginal public policy. For information on what was discussed at the workshop please download it here (PDF, 174KB). While in Cairns he addressed local Rotary clubs on his book, Aboriginal Self-Determination.
Accountability Forum
Pictured at the Accountability Forum: John Nethercote and Professor Scott Prasser.
Professor Nicholas Aroney,Gerard Carney and Jim Fouras.
The Public Policy Institute of the Australian Catholic University held a Forum on accountability in Queensland on Monday 1 August at the Marque Hotel, Brisbane. The Forum was supported by the Accountability Roundtable, the EIDOS Institute Policy think tank, the Brisbane Institute and the Centre for Public International & Comparative Law of the University of Queensland's T.C. Beirne School of Law.
The Forum debated the proposed changes to Queensland's parliamentary committee system based on release the Committee System Review Committee Report in December 2010. There is special concern that some of these proposals erode the Speaker's independence and represent too great an intrusion by executive government to the running of parliament.
These matters were especially relevant because legislation embodying the changes, the Parliamentary Services and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2011, was before Parliament that was resuming the day after the Forum – 2 August.
The Forum was a timely opportunity for all sides to have their views heard and for members from the wider community including academia and former members of parliament to participate in the discussion.
The Forum included:
• The Hon Judy Spence MP, Leader of the House who chaired the Committee System Review Committee and a strong advocate of the changes;
• The John Mickel MP, Speaker of Queensland Parliament, a critic of the changes;
• The Hon Kevin Rozzoli AM, former Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and currently President of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group;
• Professor Gerard Carney leading constitutional law academic Bond University who had provided advice to the Queensland Parliament's Scrutiny of Legislation Committee on this matter;
• Evan Moorhead MP, State Labor member for Waterford and a member of the Committee System Review Committee who was a strong advocate of the changes.
For more information please download the report here (PDF, 69KB)
ADELAIDE LAUNCH of Aboriginal Self-Determination The Whiteman's Dream by Gary Johns
To be launched by the Hon Jack Snelling MP (Treasurer, South Australia) and to be chaired by Christopher Pearson (Opinion Writer - The Australian) at 6pm,Wednesday,10th August 2011 at the Balcony Room, Parliament House,North Terrace, Adelaide, SA. For more information please see the invitation (PDF, 122KB)
Social Justice Sunday
The 25th of September is Social Justice Sunday. This year the Catholic Bishops' Social Justice Statement is on the theme "Building Bridges, Not Walls: Prisons and the justice system". Archbishop Philip Wilson has written the introductory letter which can be read here. The Statement will be released the week beginning the 19th September and the order form can be downloaded here. Australian Catholic Social Justice Council writes regularly on Social Justice issues, to read more of their publications please visit their website here.
Insight
An extract from the graduation speech given by Fr. Frank Brennan to the Health Science students in Sydney was recently featured in the Australian Catholic University magazine Insight. To read it in full please view it here (PDF, 504KB).
Prof. Scott Prasser was also feature in the current edition of Insight with a piece on 'Dispelling the Private School Myth'. To read the article in full please view it here (PDF, 402KB).
Do We Really Need This Carbon Tax?
On Wednesday 3rd August Dr Gary Johns spoke at the Tattersalls Club in Sydney for the Spectator Australia event 'Do We Really Need This Carbon Tax?'. Gary spoke on the 'No to carbon tax' side, with Lord Nigel Lawson and Ian Plimer against John Hewson, Benjamin McNeil and Mark Latham.
Greg Craven on Universities
The PPI supports the principles of independent thinking outlined by ACU's Vice Chancellor in relation to its work on policy analysis. To read the article from The Australian in full, please view it here (PDF,690 KB).
