In recent years we have seen: an expansion of gambling facilities in all Australian states the entrance of significant commercial players to the industry increasing reliance on gambling revenue for state budgets diversion of resources from families to the gambling industry increased access to gambling for people at risk of addiction In 2010, the Productivity …
Gambling reform in NSW
Gambling reform has been headline news again this week with independent MP Andrew Wilkie and the Greens claiming they won’t support the Gillard Government’s reform bills, putting at risk the proposed trial of pre-commitment technology in the ACT. But to be successful, gambling reform must engage the states. NSW has around 50 per cent of …
Politicians and the uses of faith
Freedom of religion and the separation of church and state are two fundamental pillars of Australian culture and society. But as soon as Mr Abbott, or Mr Rudd, or the Rev Fred Nile, make any link between politics and faith, angry mobs write venomous articles and letters to the editor, denouncing them. And it only …
Choosing the butter
A sermon on 2 Kings 2:1-18 One of my favourite French atheist philosophers is a man of about my own age called Michel Onfray. When he was 28, Onfray nearly died of a heart attack brought on, in part, by his love for classic French cuisine. As he recovered, his doctor spoke those words we …
Bethlehem’s Child is Lord and God
In William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, Malvolio says to Fabian, “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Jesus Christ, whose birth Christians celebrate on this day each year, was great in all three ways. King Herod referred to him as “the one who …
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