Remembrance Day certainly gives one pause to think about the world and the life we live in it. It has been a few weeks since RSL members gathered in the Cathedral for an early Remembrance Day service followed by the commemorations in the park and my mind is still affected by this annual day of importance. Read More »

Sometimes I read things that I really don’t know what to do about, things that seem to me to be so significant that I feel I have to let others know, even if the reaction I get is anger. And I’m allowed to speak up like that. It is one of the strengths of free speech. Free speech allows us to raise concerns even when they’re not always welcomed. In Dr John Whitehall’s Quadrant article of July 2018 he drew my attention to the draft platform prepared by the Australian Labor Party for its National Conference later this year which, in Chapter 10 (“Strong democracy and effective government”), includes, for the first time, a specific provision regarding gay conversion therapy. Paragraph 83 says, “Labor opposes the practice of so-called conversion and reparative therapies on LGBTIQ people and seek [sic] to criminalise these practices.” Read More »