Weekend Wrap for 6 October 2024

Nail Aykan: Silent voices: Multifaith and multicultural leadership at a crossroads
"Twelve months after the tragic events of 7 October, the silence from Australia’s faith communities is deafening. Confronted with the devastating war on Gaza and the ongoing suffering of Palestinians, faith leaders had a moral duty to speak out against these injustices. Yet, they have largely remained absent, their influence fading into obscurity. Once-vital institutions for multiculturalism and interfaith dialogue have had their voices effectively muted. Despite this, we continue to tout our success as a multicultural nation – an increasingly hollow claim in the light of such failures of leadership." (27 Sep 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Rory McClaren: A debate on abortion laws has reignited, shedding light on smoldering SA internal party tensions
"Three issues have dominated social policy debate across recent South Australian parliamentary terms — voluntary assisted dying, the decriminalisation of sex work and abortion. They've sparked multiple rallies on North Terrace, late night sittings, thousands of signatures on petitions, as well as dividing opinions within political parties. Laws around two of the three issues — voluntary assisted dying and abortion — were significantly changed last term, when the Liberal party was in power. Yet a conservative member of the now-opposition argues abortion legislation needs to be revisited once more, despite having only been in operation for just over two years." (29 Sep 2024)
Read more at ABC News

Nour Haydar with Caitlin Cassidy: When will Australia’s public schools be fully funded? – Full Story podcast
"The commonwealth’s offer of a 2.5% funding boost to each state would increase how much it gives to public schools by $16bn over the decade. And, while Tasmania and Western Australia have signed up, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are holding out for more. But time is ticking for state and federal education ministers to reach a deal, with the deadline fast approaching. Nour Haydar speaks to education reporter Caitlin Cassidy about why everyone agrees public education is underfunded but can’t agree on who should fork out the funds." (30 Sep 2024)
Listen to this podcast episode at The Guardian

Lyndsay Connors: Australia’s school system: losing common ground
"As long ago as 2007, Cardinal George Pell acknowledged that Catholic schools were no longer serving their previously high proportion of poorer families. Fewer than four per cent now have concentrations of the disadvantaged and almost 12 per cent have concentrations of the advantaged. ... It is time to ask fundamental questions about the role of government when, as reported in the recent report, A Decade of Inequity, from the Australian Education Union, 'a decade of special deals and transitional funding arrangements for private schools, in combination with the entrenched underfunding of 98% of public schools, has resulted in more than 56% of private schools receiving more government funding than public schools of similar size that educate very similar cohorts of students, an increase from 45% in 2013.'" (2 Oct 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations

Paul Gregoire: “Parliamentarians Have Taken Us For Granted”: An Interview with Muslim Votes Matter’s Dr Naser Alziyadat
"Muslim Votes Matter came to the attention of the wider public around the time that now Independent Senator Fatima Payman resigned from the Labor Party in early July, after she’d crossed the floor to vote on a Greens motion to recognise the state of Palestine. Muslim Votes Matter went on to launch nationally at Broadmeadows Town Hall in Melbourne on 1 September. But there continues to be misunderstanding as to whether Muslim Votes Matter is a political party or an advocacy group." (2 Oct 2024)
Read more at Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Sarah Basford Canales and Amy Remeikis: Labor’s 11th-hour decision on LGBTQ+ census questions prompted weekend scramble, documents reveal
"The Albanese government’s last-minute rejection of proposed questions on sexuality and gender diversity in the upcoming 2026 census sent bureaucrats into a weekend scramble, new documents show. In the late hours of Friday 23 August and Saturday 24 August, officials at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) agreed to cancel a scheduled media briefing on Monday 26 August and the rollout of its “large-scale” test census to 50,000 households from Tuesday 27 August as a result of the 11th-hour decision. Documents released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws show how the independent statistics agency scrambled to ditch its plans within a weekend after a delayed final decision by the government. The surprise decision was made public on the Sunday following a Sky News report, prompting strong criticism from the LGBTQ+ community and health and demography experts." (2 Oct 2024)
Read more at The Guardian

John Ward: Voluntary assisted dying in dementia – compassion in adversity
"The current law around Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) does not allow its application in dementia. In the case of neurodegenerative disease, to be eligible for VAD, the person has to be within 12 months of death but have capacity to understand the request for VAD and its process. They also need to have capacity at the time of death to reconfirm their wish to proceed. Advanced Care Planning (ACP) allows a person to define the types of treatment they wish in the event of illness or disability. This becomes invalid as soon as a person with dementia loses the capacity to reconfirm and understand the ACP." (5 Oct 2024)
Read more at Pearls & Irritations