Weekend Wrap for 30 June 2024

Trevor Cobbold: Private schools serving richest NSW families over-funded by millions
"New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of NSW Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just 52 highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. ... The new figures show that 52 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be over-funded by $353 million over seven years from 2022 to 2028 inclusive by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just 13 of these schools will be over-funded by $178 million. The 52 schools will receive $2.4 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period. ... The over-funding estimated from official government figures is just the tip of the iceberg because of defects in the Commonwealth system of funding private schools. The Direct Measure of Income (DMI) method introduced by the Morrison Government is fundamentally flawed because it under-estimates the income capacity of families to pay school fees and therefore over-estimates the need for taxpayer funding." (24 Jun 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Lucy Hamilton: Australian Libertarians and Theocrats unite in Albury
"The Triple Conference took place in Albury in March. Conspiracists and hustlers appeared alongside the well-meaning and self-important to inform a small audience of largely white-haired elders about the North Korean conditions overtaking Australia. We are dark in politics and spirit. The uniting of theocrats with libertarians and “cranks” is not a novel phenomenon. The unsavoury Right has exerted a longterm influence on fusion conservatism, despite the intellectual conservatives’ boast about exiling the outliers and bigots. ... [The libertarians'] theocrat friends are ensuring the fertility of the poor is uncontrolled, for religious freedom’s sake. So the desperate will replenish the stock of slave-labour workers, obliging the Christians’ libertarian donors." (24 Jun 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Yvonne Patterson: Exemptions in discrimination law: ‘safe spaces’ to act out prejudice towards LGBTIQ people
"Australia’s Federal Discrimination Laws, the Marriage Act and the WA State Equal Opportunity Act (1984) and others, license religious groups to perpetrate their choice of discrimination against primarily LGBTIQ people, if it’s disguised as a ‘chosen religious belief’. The ‘exemption’ is a ‘licence to discriminate’, a ‘safe space’ where the lives of LGBTIQ people can be denigrated and destroyed. It absolves the perpetrators of real accountability. Victims are hung out to dry. ... Why are governments reneging on repealing exemptions? It is not just the arcane calculus of seeking votes, even from bad actors; not even cowardice as some politicians have claimed; not just that religious groups seek to protect their tax exemptions and to bond congregations through prejudice against LGBTIQ people. The core reason is that prejudice toward LGBTIQ people lurks at the heart of Australian governments’ policy. If prejudice was absent, these exemptions would have been repealed in full, years ago." (24 Jun 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

David Stephens: Anzac religion unfitting in multicultural Australia
"Recently, Defence Minister Richard Marles gave a speech at the Defending Australia Summit, held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The Minister referred to the Memorial as 'Australia's most sacred public site'. Describing the Memorial in such a way is common for politicians. According to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2018: 'The Australian War Memorial, the soul of the nation. That is what is housed within its stone and brass walls. It is sacred to us all. It transcends politics, it transcends all of us.' Where did this commemorative cliché come from and what does it signify? (27 Jun 2024)
Read more at Independent Australia

Lucy Hamilton: The Right's war to control education
"The corporate world is afraid of youth demanding change, particularly as rapacious business practices look set to drive us over the climate cliff into a frightening future. One solution the Right has implemented is the Christian Classical Education movement. ... There are several CCE schools in Australia currently. They are also fostered by the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies, a Catholic 'intellectual society' in Hobart. David Daintree, its director, organises anti-trans activities and shares climate denial material with his mailing list. CCE is affiliated with other problematic movements." (29 Jun 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Angus Thomson: Narelle watched her husband die a painful death, so she chose hers
"In November, NSW became the last state in Australia to allow terminally ill patients to die with the help of doctors. In the program’s first three months, 517 people requested access to VAD, and 131 people died, according to the program board’s first report released on Friday. Two-thirds of applicants were from regional NSW. ... Critics of voluntary euthanasia have argued palliative care is already a decent and dignified option for those at the end of their lives. But Dr Wade Stedman, an intensive care specialist charged with leading its implementation in NSW, says the past six months have shown VAD is a complement, rather than an alternative, to palliative care." (29 Jun 2024)
Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald