Friday 29th of March 2024

family planning...

baby baly
MRS MAHONEY OF SURRY HILLS: Father, you’re goin’ already, but you haven’t seen my last baby...

   FATHER MORRISON OF THE SHIRE:  sure, I know I’ve not seen the last of ‘em, yet…



Mischief by Gus from a cartoon published in the Bulletin, 1890.

By: Jerome Doraisamy 

The leading advocacy group for human rights law in Australia has called on the federal government to better ensure the country is meeting its international obligations to protect women and girls when it comes to processes such as abortion. 
Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) spoke earlier this week in response to comments from Nationals MP George Christensen and incoming Senator Amanda Stoker, who – at an anti-abortion rally held in Queensland this past Sunday – said they would lobby Treasurer Scott Morrison to cease funding of family planning services that include abortion, both in Australia and internationally.

At present, the federal government provides $9.5 million in funding for an initiative called the Sexual and Reproductive Health Program in Crisis and Post-Crisis Settings (SPRINT), in partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

The initiative operates in the Indo-Pacific region delivering services including safer birthing environments, assistance to survivors of rape and violence, and HIV prevention and treatment.

Mr Christensen reportedly described this funding as a “disgraceful act”.

And while ALHR have welcomed comments from Defence Minister Marise Payne, on behalf of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, reaffirming Australia’s commitment to the partnership, the organisation says more is needed.

ALHR Women and Girls’ Rights Committee co-chair, Associate Professor Rita Shackel, said the organisation was concerned that members of the federal government appeared to be supporting the denial of access to abortion services, as well as the continued criminalisation of such services.

“Such a position is inconsistent with Austalia’s human rights obligations. Reproductive rights are recognised by international law as belonging to all women and girls everywhere and include the right to access safe and legal abortions,” she said.

“Numerous United Nations human rights bodies have provided states with clear guidance on reproductive rights. They have emphasised that ensuring access to safe and legal abortion services is part of a country’s obligations to eliminate discrimination against women and girls and ensure their right to health as well as other fundamental rights.”

Anna Kerr, ALHR Women and Girls’ Rights Committee co-chair, agreed with Associate Professor Shackel’s comments, adding that the government should be “unambiguously supporting” women and girls’ right to autonomy over their own bodies and health.

“Those who seek abortions should not be treated as criminals and nor should organisations devoted to protecting women and girls, especially victims of violence, be targeted for their pro-choice policy positions,” she argued.

Ms Kerr went on to say that one in three Australian women have abortions in the course of their lifetimes, and the criminalisation of such acts across states and territories needs to change.

“The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes found that 81 per cent of Australians believe a woman should have the right to choose to have an abortion, with 77 per cent of those who identify as religious also supporting a women’s right to choose,” she said.



Read more:

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/politics/22941-alhr-government-must-do-...

father morrison of the shire...

Before he entered parliament, Morrison was a wheeler and dealer in Liberal right politics in New South Wales and was always going to go places.

He was managing director of Tourism Australia and likes to joke he created Lara Bingle, the model now married to the Australian actor Sam Worthington, by featuring her in Australia’s notorious ad campaign that featured the slogan “Where the bloody hell are you?” It was banned on UK television as too risqué.

On arriving in Canberra in 2007, Morrison quickly made it clear he was ambitious and by 2009 was rewarded with the controversial portfolio of immigration and citizenship by then leader Tony Abbott.

Abbott described Morrison as a “great talent”, and he quickly became a battering ram in the Coalition’s strategy to win government. The message was simple: the Coalition would be much, much tougher than Labor on dealing with asylum seekers arriving by boat.

Under pressure, Labor reopened the offshore detention centres on Manus and Nauru as the 2013 election loomed. When Abbott became prime minister he doubled down on offshore detention. Morrison was unflinching in the plan to “stop the boats”. Operation Sovereign Borders included a policy of turning back boats that attempted to reach Australia. “If people seek to get here the wrong way, they won’t get here,” he said.

In June 2014, he took his message directly to the refugees on Manus and Nauru in a controversial video. “If you choose not to go home then you will spend a very, very long time here,” he said.

 

Read more:

 

We know that "OSB" made the Australian Navy break international seafaring rules many times... It's ironic that ScoMo worked at getting people here to Australia, then those who came got deported to Nauru and Manus Island...

bloody hell

 

contraceptives...

Two-thirds of Australian women of reproductive age use birth control.

Oral contraception is by far the most popular method, followed by condom use, and vasectomy.

Very few women use long-acting reversible contraception, such as contraceptive implants, which are the most effective in preventing pregnancy.

The effectiveness of different contraceptives ranges from more than 99 per cent (less than one pregnancy per 100 women in one year) to 76 per cent (up to 24 pregnancies per 100 women in one year).

That's because many contraceptive methods are affected by human error, such as forgetting to take the pill, or putting a condom on incorrectly.

Birth control may be highly effective with "perfect use" (when it is used correctly all the time), but significantly less effective as "typically used" (what generally happens in real life).

With no method of contraception, 85 per cent of women in their 20s will become pregnant within 12 months.

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-28/chart-of-the-day-birth-control-eff...

scomo's school dangerous daze...

 

 

From Jane Caro 

An award-winning public school principal I know responded wistfully to the extra $4.6 billion in education funding Prime Minister Scott Morrison is giving exclusively to fee-charging schools. Of course, she could have used some extra money, but it was our new PM’s grandiose claim that this extra dosh will “end the schools funding wars” that hit her hardest. Morrison’s complete lack of interest in the fight public schools and their supporters have waged for fairer funding over decades was devastating. Either he doesn’t know or doesn’t care. Either conclusion is deeply dispiriting for those who care about public schools. It ought to be just as troubling for all the rest of us. It certainly is not the attitude of a prime minister governing, as he likes to claim, for “all Australians”.

The principal remarked that the thing that hurt her most when she thought about the very disadvantaged community her high school works so hard for, was that Morrison and Education Minister Dan Tehan are acting as if public schools – and the 70 per cent of Australian kids they teach – don’t really exist.

THERE IS SIMPLY NOTHING SPECIAL OR IMPORTANT ABOUT PRIVATE EDUCATION AS AN IDEA.

“My students don’t matter to them,” she said. “It’s as if their future, their potential and those of us who do our level best to encourage them are beside the point. Our schools simply don’t count, and we can be safely ignored.”

There is a terrifying arrogance among those who have no understanding of the importance of public education in ensuring the strength and resilience of both an advanced economy and a functioning democracy. Caught up with their own personal agendas – proselytising a particular religion on the part of those who run such schools or buying an advantage for their own children on the part of those who choose them – they totally miss the bigger and more important picture. Worse, it seems as if almost every member of the federal Coalition has no understanding of the importance of public education. Some of them might deign to turn up to speech night at the public schools in their electorate to placate a few voters. Many don’t even do that. In the 13 years my children attended a comprehensive public high school in Tony Abbott’s electorate, he didn’t once turn up. I know because both my daughters were singers – not award winners, sadly – and I attended every single speech night to watch them perform.

There is simply nothing special or important about private education as an idea. It’s been around since kings hired tutors for their children. Any tin-pot dictatorship can, and does, create a highly educated elite. There is nothing difficult or clever about that. What is difficult, what requires a commitment by every member of the community – particularly, one would think, those who lead it – is a strong, well-supported, well-resourced public education system open to every child in their own right, regardless of who their parents are. That is what differentiates a civil society from one where inherited privilege trumps equality of opportunity.


...


 

It is the secular nature of public education that Morrison and his fellow conservative believers don’t like. That’s why unexceptional teaching resources such as the anti-bullying Safe Schools program cause such a disproportionate kerfuffle. It’s why media furphies over Christmas carols and nativity plays in public schools are as ubiquitous as tinsel and reindeers every December. It’s why conservative prime ministers from John Howard onwards have sneered at the lack of values in public schools. What they really mean is the lack of their particular brand of rigid Christian values. It’s the greatest strength of public education that they reject – inclusivity, the fundamental belief that there are as many ways to live a good life as there are people living lives.

In fact, it’s not that Morrison doesn’t care about public schools, the people who teach in them or the kids who attend them. It’s worse than that. He sees them as his ideological enemies.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on Sep 29, 2018 as "Schools of thought police". Subscribe here.

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2018/09/29/enemies-public-schooling

 

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jesus never went to public school...

Australia has an unelected Prime Minister who believes the religious faith he professes is good enough for everybody else. 

His faith is modelled on Christianity, but some people are having difficulty rationalising the teaching of Christ with Scott Morrison’s demonstrated vilification of the children of asylum seekers held in offshore concentration camps.

The PM and his cahoots have suddenly determined that secular Australia does not need to provide adequate funding for teachers and classrooms and toilets and playgrounds for Australia’s state run schools. Instead, they decided that selected faith based schools will receive a disproportionate funding windfall to give privileged children an even greater start to life.

The joyful recipients of this largesse don’t seem to appreciate that this sets a precedent for other groups to hijack government revenue for their own ends.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-ancient-s...

 

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