From Pauline Hanson’s “Please Explain”, brilliant political parody
Australia
Easter And Anzac
April is a great month for public holidays and awesome autumn weather.
Next weekend, of course, we celebrate Anzac Day. Born of the tragic losses of life in the so-called Great War, this holiday calls us to remember the sacrifices made by those who have fought in the various services for the safety of our nation. The Australian War Memorial web-site lists over 100,000 deaths in the two world wars alone.
Seeing the images coming from Ukraine over the last month or so has been a sobering reminder of the reality of the destruction brought by tyrants and dictators who seek to expand their own influence. We celebrate Anzac Day in the hope that those who died in war and the service men and women who returned safely fought so that we don’t have to.
Last weekend we celebrated Easter. Far from being just a four day long weekend, for Christians Easter is the pinnacle of the year. On Good Friday, we remember that Jesus died on a cross. This sacrifice set us free from the burden of shame and guilt each of us accumulates in our lies, lusts and selfishness.
Easter culminates with the celebration of the fact that Jesus did not stay dead. He was raised to life as a sign that His death conquered the power of the grave. Now everyone who trusts Him will live for ever with God.
To be a follower of Christ means to set aside our own life for Him. Jesus said that to follow Him, we have to take up our cross daily. That means my desires, my plans and my ambitions have to be “put to death”, or surrendered to God’s will. In the same way that a soldier loses his right to his life while he or she is serving the nation, the follower of Jesus also puts their life aside for the sake of something greater.
Anzac Day and Easter both encourage us to take our eyes from our own lives and look to something beyond, something more important.
The Guy Who Decides Cycling
The Question That May Not Be Answered
It seems that nobody knows what a woman is any more.Despite calls for “equality” and respect for women, nobody can tell us what a woman is- not a US Supreme Court judge, not political leaders, not even the Australian Department of Health.
Remember when we were promised that the redefinition of marriage was not a slippery slope, the thin end of a woke wedge? Well here we are in 2022 in a crazy world where people dare not answer the queston, “What is a woman?”
From the Canberra Declaration
Senator Alex Antic Asked ‘What is a Woman?’ and the Department of Health Couldn’t Answer
With one simple question, Senator Alex Antic this week revealed just how real the ‘slippery slope’ is. Five years ago we undefined marriage. Now Australia’s top medical minds can’t define a woman.
Can Australia’s Department of Health define what a woman is? This was the burning question that Liberal Senator for South Australia Alex Antic took to Senate estimates in Canberra this week.
The response given by the department’s head revealed just how far Australia has drifted from reality since the undefinition of marriage took place in 2017.
“I can’t seem to get a bureaucrat in this building to define what is a woman,” Senator Antic explained to his followers on social media soon after the exchange. “Today, I took it right to the top, straight to the Department of Health, and [received] one of the most extraordinary responses I’ve seen to date.”
Defining a Woman: ’Pretty Basic Stuff’
In a short one-minute video that has had over 150,000 views on Twitter since Wednesday, Senator Antic asks a panel of five of Australia’s top medical experts:
I’m going to finish up … with a very simple question for the department, and that is one which has troubled me for a great deal of time with the bureaucracy here. Can someone please provide me with a definition of what a woman is?
After a period of silence and blank stares, Antic probes further. “Department of Health,” he says incredulously. “Definition of a man. Definition of a woman. Anyone?”
“It’s pretty basic,” someone off camera can be heard saying. “Basic stuff,” Antic adds.
Professor Brendan Murphy, the Secretary of the Department of Health, begins moving uncomfortably in his chair, realising that he is the most senior figure in the room.
“There, look, I think there are a variety of definitions, and I think… Perhaps to give a more fulsome answer we should take that on notice,” he tells the Senator.
Antic is taken aback, asking, “You’re going to take on notice the question of what a woman is?”
“No, well there are a variety of… it’s a very, it’s a very, ah… it’s a very contested space at the moment Senator,” Professor Murphy continues. “There are definitions in terms of how people identify themselves so we’re happy to provide our working definition on that.”
Antic’s response couldn’t have been more appropriate. “I’ve only been here two years,” he remarks. “That’s the best thing I’ve seen thus far. Thank you so much.”
The Slippery Slope is Real
For thousands of years and until very recently, it was universally understood that a woman is an adult human female. The definition of “female” was also set in stone: the sex that can give birth to young or produce eggs.
These definitions were present across cultures, but in the West they were grounded in Scripture. The Bible sheds immense light on the dignity, value and calling of men and women. The foundational text is Genesis 1:27, which declares, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Bible-believing Christians and other conservatives warned that by introducing same-sex “marriage”, Western nations would de-gender marriage and lay the groundwork for the abolition of gender altogether.
Within just years, this “slippery slope argument”, once mocked by progressives, turns out to have been entirely accurate. Gender is now widely seen as a mere social construct, not grounded in objectivity.
Unmoored from a biblical understanding of reality, the West is losing its moral and intellectual compass.
Read the rest of the article here
I Still Call Australia home
Very classy…
Is There Nothing A Mask Cannot Do?
Brian Houston Quits
This is a sad end to what had been an illustrious ministry. Brian has done a lot for the church, more than just the Hillsong denomination.
None of us is perfect. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
From Eternity News:
Brian Houston has resigned as Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church following a finding that he had breached the church’s code of conduct for pastors in two instances of inappropriate conduct towards women.
The move was announced in a letter to church members released by the Hillsong global and Australian board on Wednesday.
“We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church and the board has accepted his resignation,” the email reads.
“We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings. Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace, and love of Jesus Christ.
“Hillsong Church was birthed out of Brian and Bobbie’s obedience and commitment to the call of God and we are extremely grateful for all that Brian and Bobbie have given to build His house. We ask that you continue to pray for them, and the entire Houston family, during this challenging time.”
“We acknowledge that change is needed.” – Hillsong Australian and global board
The email acknowledged that there was still much to be done by the church leadership, which continues to seek God’s wisdom as they set the course for the future.
“We acknowledge that change is needed. We have committed to an independent review of our governance structure and processes, understanding that this is a time of humble reflection and we are committed to doing what is necessary to ensure God is honoured, and our eyes are fixed on Jesus.”
On Sunday, Hillsong’s interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley issued an emotional apology to the two women who had made complaints against Houston over the past ten years.
This followed an email sent to Hillsong Church members on March 18 by the church’s global board, which detailed the two complaints of inappropriate conduct against Houston.
Houston had entered the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while “disoriented” after mixing alcohol with a higher-than-prescribed dose of anti-anxiety medication during the church’s annual conference in 2019.
It remains unclear if Houston and the woman had sex. Houston doesn’t recall having sex, and the woman has not said if they had sex.
The earlier incident involved an “inappropriate text message” Houston sent to a staff member in 2013, which Dooley said was “along the lines of, ‘If I was with you I would like to give you a kiss and a cuddle or a hug.’” The woman resigned soon afterwards and Houston personally paid her the equivalent of two months’ salary.
Read the full article here
Great News For Cotton
The drought emptied dams and left cotton growers, and other farmers, in a parlous state. After a very wet summer, things are turning around.
From Stock Journal:
IT HAS been a roller-coaster growing season for Australia’s cotton producers but leading into the defoliation period prior to harvest the industry is upbeat about prospects.
“We were a little nervous at Christmas, it had been cool and we were worried about missing out on some of that optimum flowering period but things turned around nicely and the crops are now looking good in the final part of the growing season,” said Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD) NSW extension and development manager Jorian Millyard.
Mr Millyard’s sentiments have been backed by the latest report from the Australia Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) crop report, which found that there is likely to be a monster jump in Australian cotton production in 2021-22.
RELATED: US concern at cotton disease
RELATED: Insurance alliance for sustainable cotton
ABARES is forecasting a 91 per cent year on year increase in production, to 1.16 million tonnes, with a 75pc increase in Queensland and a 94pc rise in NSW, on the proviso of a relatively dry finish.
Mr Millyard said there were good plantings on the back of high allocations of irrigation water, while the wet summer has meant dryland cotton has also come into its own.
He said gross margins were likely to be healthy based on current high cotton prices.
Cotton producers received another boost this week with hefty gains in international futures on the back of a big lift in US exports to China.
With cotton from China’s major production region in Xinjiang province under embargo in many places China is being forced to look elsewhere for demand for its textile industry
This includes imports from the US at present and most likely Australia once our crop comes on line.
However, while things are looking rosy now, Mr Millyard said there had been plenty of nervy moments along the way.
“Different valleys have had different issues, but we’ve had a few issues with flooding and the associated disease pressures you see with these wet years.”
“In terms of the flooding the Namoi was probably the worst hit along with the western Gwydir, while up into Queensland we’ve obviously seen the issues in the Lockyer Valley in recent weeks and there was some nasty hail late last year that caused isolated severe damage, however overall things are good.”
Mr Millyard said while there had been slightly less than optimum heat on the crop the absence of extreme temperatures had made up for it.
“We’ve had a really mild summer and the crop hasn’t had to withstand that intense heat we can sometimes get, so that has been a real positive for growth in terms of things like flower development and boll size.”
Read the rest of the article here
Who Do You Trust?
The last few weeks have brought terrible events in which large numbers of people have lost everything, some even dying.
On February 24th Russia invaded Ukraine, wreaking death and destruction right through the much smaller nation. Then on the 28th, much closer to home, floodwaters rolled through Lismore and many other towns on the NSW North Coast.
Both these events were, in some ways, expected. That doesn’t reduce the shock or the devastation of the destruction that takes place.
In both situations it has been inspiring to see the ways that ordinary people have moved to serve their neighbours in the midst of chaos.
We intuitively believe that our homes are places of safety, and that we are protected there. We derive a lot of security from the belief that our possessions will help us cope with anything life will throw at us.
What happens when it all gets taken from you by force or by nature? Where do you turn for your security then?
In Psalm 27, King David writes: “The Lord is my light and my salvation – so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”
Our response to devastating situations shows where we put our trust.
God doesn’t promise to protect us from floods and fire, but He does promise to go with us through tough times, and give us peace in the middle of chaos.
Great News About Climate Litigation
From the IPA:
IPA TODAY
Federal Court Decision A Welcome Move Against Climate Litigation
Written by Morgan Begg
15 March 2022
The Institute of Public Affairs has today welcomed the Federal Court of Australia’s finding that the federal Minister for Environment does not owe a duty of care to protect Australian children from climate change.
“Today’s decision was a long overdue display of common sense from Australian courts,” said Morgan Begg, the Director of the Legal Rights Program at the Institute of Public Affairs.
“The Australian courts should never have entertained the farcical attempt to prohibit mining and energy projects through the judicial backdoor.”
“The Full Court of the Federal Court today unanimously overturned a May 2021 Federal Court decision that found the federal Minister for Environment, when deciding whether or not to grant approval to a coal mine development, owed a duty of care to Australians under the age of 18 to avoid causing them personal injury as a consequence of increased carbon dioxide emissions.”
“The Justices were putting it lightly when they said the duty would have been “incoherent and inconsistent” under the legislation.”
“It would also be incoherent and inconsistent with a system where decisions about economic development and energy security are made as part of a democratic process,” said Mr Begg.
Morgan Begg
Morgan Begg is the Director, Legal Rights Program at the Institute of Public Affairs
New Life Narrabri 