Peter Whiting. The new minimum wage rate has come into effect on 1 July. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently announced an increase of $18.29/hour, or approximately 3.3%. Inevitably, the decision failed to satisfy any of the vested parties within the Australian Industry Group representing employers seeking to limit the increase to $10.10/hour, citing weak […]
Jason Davies-Kildae. A cursory scan of just about any set of prisoner demographics quickly reveals a catalogue of social disadvantage. Our prison populations show disproportionately high numbers of people with health problems, including mental illness, addictions, intellectual disability, and acquired brain injury. Other over-represented groups reflect lifelong social barriers, such as coming from a place […]
Frances Penington. It’s easy to become overrun by bad news, by reckless and callous policy decisions, and by stories of conflict and horror. Successive cuts to Australian foreign aid mean that our aid now makes up only 0.22% of our gross national income (well below the UN foreign aid target of 0.7%), and the proposed United […]
Tony French. Will the presidency of Donald Trump herald the slowing down or even reversal of US social inequality? I doubt it. Highlighted awareness of the gross social inequality in the US clearly had him elected, however. The Donald has grandiloquently promised that, from ‘Day One’ of his presidency, he will “bring back our jobs”. […]
Gary Harkin. Antonio Guterres has recently been appointed the Secretary General designate of the UN. He hails from Portugal, was born in 1949 (aged 67), and has a strong background in public service and administration at the highest level. He has a reputation for advocacy and dialogue, and is fluent in Portuguese, English, French, and […]
Tony French. Over the last few months, I have been walking regularly at night down Swanston Street in the City. What is noticeable is the great number of people, invariably male, with blankets and bags sleeping rough in doorways and on the pavement. My initial reaction was, what a miserable place to doss for the […]
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara Among the various church and community groups helping support disadvantaged groups in Melbourne, the soup vans of the St Vincent de Paul Society have for over […]
Augustine Doronila. The 2015 encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Sí: On care for our common home, is considered a rallying point, not only for Catholics, but also for people from different faith traditions, and for those of goodwill. It has spoken powerfully about how our religious and spiritual consciousness has a vital role to play […]
Susan Connelly RSJ. “It is amazing that Australian taxpayers’ money is being used to fight a small neighbour over where the fence-line should be. And it’s a bit of a laugh that, with all the talk about ‘border protection’, there isn’t a border between Australia and Timor”, says Josephite Sister Susan Connelly. If you own […]
Reviewed by Kevin Peoples. This politically-charged book reads like a great dramatic novel. The drama is fixed in a clash of values. On one side are the powerful free-market fundamentalists. They are the rich and powerful of the world, committed to wealth, consumerism, and materialism, the articulate voices for profit-driven growth. Their actions rape the […]
Michael Walter. When I first volunteered to help at Vinnies Kids Camps, I naively viewed the camps as not very different from the holiday camps I attended as a child. The activities were the same, we led the same chants, and the kids had fun in both instances. What has changed for me, after three […]
