Pearls and Irritations

Frank Brennan

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Close the camps now and stop the posturing.

    Both the Turnbull government and the Shorten opposition are committed to ‘stopping the boats’. Tony Abbott’s mantra is now the political orthodoxy on both sides of the political aisle in Canberra. Labor knows it has no chance of winning an election unless its commitment to keeping the boats stopped is as firm as the government’s.

    The political difference is no longer over stopping the boats. Both sides are committed to takebacks and turnbacks, usually to Indonesia, provided the practices of the Australian Border Force and defence forces are safe, legal and transparent. The political brawl is about keeping refugees on Nauru and Manus Island without a permanent solution, and the claim that this is a necessary precondition for keeping the boats stopped.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Newstart needs a new start,

    Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be hearing a lot about company and personal income tax cuts. The Turnbull government holds the view that tax relief for companies and middle-income earners is necessary to improve the economic prosperity of Australia, offering a financial hand up to households struggling to pay their bills. (more…)

  • Public servant to the First Australians.

    Funeral Homily for Barrie Dexter CBE. Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, 26 April 2018. Listen on SoundCloud [commencing at 2:00]

    In Australia, there have been many children of the manse who have gone on to be great contributors to Australian society, regardless of their own religious faith or practice. Barrie Dexter was one of them. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Let’s be less shrill about Church-State relations

    I had the good pleasure of celebrating Easter masses out in the country — Adaminaby and Nimmitabel in the Snowy country. At Adaminaby we had a full church and a very happy baptism. At Nimmitabel, the numbers were very modest but we delighted in the peace and tranquility of the Easter full moon. Upon returning to the city I was greeted by the Murdoch headline: ‘Christianity under attack: Archbishop Anthony Fisher’. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Edging closer to a just regime in the Timor Sea.

    On Tuesday the governments of Timor Leste and Australia will sign a maritime boundary treaty in New York in the presence of Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations. This day has been a long time coming. 

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  • The apology ten years on

    Today we mark the tenth anniversary of the National Apology.  All of us remember where we were that day when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd read the words of the parliamentary motion moved by him and seconded by Brendan Nelson, the Leader of the Opposition:

    ‘The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

    ‘We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

    ‘To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.’  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. A Catholic reflection on the Royal Commission as the curtain closes on Act One.

    On Friday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has been part of the Australian political and ecclesial landscape for the last five years, will cease to exist.  The commission will present its report to the Governor-General, and the commissioners will return to private life or to their previous public offices.  The task of implementation will fall to governments and institutions such as the Catholic Church.  The task of public scrutiny will fall to parliaments and the media but without the ongoing forensic activity of a royal commission.  The commission has unearthed a continent of human suffering and mountains of institutional obfuscation.  The task of change within the Catholic Church will fall mainly to committed Catholics, and not just the clerics.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Same sex marriage and freedom of religion

    On Wednesday, the ABS will announce the results of the survey on same sex marriage. The return rate on the survey is a very credible 78.5 per cent. In Ireland only 60.5 per cent of eligible voters turned out.   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Questions Ardern can ask Turnbull about Manus.

    When Prime Minister Turnbull meets with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday, he will receive a renewed offer of help from New Zealand in relation to Manus Island.  For the last four years, New Zealand has offered to take 150 refugees from Manus Island.  Messrs Turnbull and Dutton have seen fit, unilaterally and contrary to the signed agreement with PNG, to step in (on behalf of PNG presumably) and refuse New Zealand’s offer of help.  At the same time, they continue to say that these refugees are the responsibility of PNG.  It’s hard to see how they continue to have it both ways.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. A mate’s take on Rudd’s call to arms.

    Kevin Rudd is back. Last week he was blitzing the country with a whirlwind book tour, having flown in from New York where he continues his post-prime-ministerial life as President of the Asia Society. He is promoting volume one of his autobiography entitled Not for the Faint-hearted. I caught up with him at Australian National University where he met in conversation with Stan Grant in front of a large crowd.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. SJ Towards an economy that works for all.

    The promise of riches from the trickle-down effect is at best patchy for many Australians, and non-existent for others. Continuing with the same economic and social policy settings will exacerbate the already growing divide between the rich and the poor and eventually damage the economy to such an extent that it has a detrimental effect on everyone. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Same sex marriage and freedom of religion.

     

    NZ Prime Minister Bill English was being interviewed by Fran Kelly on ABC RN Breakfast on Monday morning.  Fran asked him about same sex marriage which is now law in New Zealand. He stressed that freedom of religion is important. She observed: “You voted ‘No’ in 2013 but you’ve said if the vote was held now, you would vote ‘yes’. Does that mean that the New Zealand experience of marriage equality has been a positive one for your country?”  Prime Minister English replied: “It’s been implemented. There are a number of people taking advantage of it. We haven’t had quite the same challenges around free speech and religious freedom as here but I think it’s really important that that’s maintained. But it’s a pretty pragmatic approach really. It’s in law. I accept that that is the case: we have same sex marriage in New Zealand and we’re not setting out planning to change it.” (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. We need a Bill of Rights

    As Attorney General Lionel Bowen dedicated a lot of time and energy to a Bill of Rights. He introduced legislation which was doomed. But he outlined the principles for an Australian Human Rights Bill espousing the preconditions for the common good in contemporary Australia. He told Parliament: (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Developing an inclusive and sustainable economy (Speech launching the 2017 Social Justice Statement, 7 September 2017)

    We’re here to launch Everyone’s Business: Developing an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy. 25 years ago, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference published Common Wealth for the Common Good: A Statement on the Distribution of Wealth in Australia. Michael Costigan and Sandie Cornish who are with us this morning laboured long and hard over four years to produce that document 25 years ago. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. The Copenhagen breakthrough in the Timor Sea.

    There has been an agreed breakthrough in the long running dispute between Australia and Timor Leste in relation to maritime boundary demarcation and control of the resources in the disputed area in the Timor Sea.  The breakthrough came on 30 August, the 18th anniversary of the bloody referendum at which the Timorese voted for their independence from Indonesia.   The terms of the deal remain confidential.  But the Permanent Court of Arbitration which is overseeing the Conciliation Commission convening the two parties meeting in Copenhagen has issued a press release noting that they have ‘have reached agreement on the central elements of a maritime boundary delimitation’ and they have agreed to ‘the establishment of a Special Regime for Greater Sunrise’. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Compulsory drug testing is no silver bullet.

    Christian Porter, the Minister for Social Services, has been trying to make his mark as an upcoming minister in the Turnbull Government.  Porter thinks he might have found the perfect silver bullet: mandatory drug tests for unemployed welfare recipients.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. The bi-partisanship shame of refugee policy

    What possessed Filippo Grandi, the relatively new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to go public last week, having a go at Australia for our government’s treatment of unvisaed asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat? He repeated UNHCR’s demand that Australia terminate offshore processing of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island and that we not outsource our responsibilities to others.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN, TIM COSTELLO, ROBERT MANNE and JOHN MENADUE. Stopping Boats and Saving Lives Four Years On …

    How much longer will we continue to punish proven refugees who are our responsibility while they await interminable, uncertain futures in Nauru and Manus Island?  Everyone knows that not all the proven refugees will be resettled in the USA even once the USA resumes taking refugees in October 2017.   Kevin Rudd first announced the most recent plan for removing unvisaed asylum seekers offshore on 19 July 2013, seven weeks out from the 2013 election.  Richard Marles helped with the negotiation of the deal.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Seeking Clarity on Boat Turnbacks and the Utility of Offshore Refugee Warehousing

    Erika Feller (former Assistant High Commissioner UNHCR) and Michael Pezzullo (Secretary, Dept of Immigration and Border Protection) spoke at this year’s ANU Crawford Australian Leadership Forum on borders and the movement of people.  The convenor of the forum is ANU Chancellor Gareth Evans. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. The origins and incoherence of Australia’s asylum seeker policy

    During Refugee Week 2017, I would like to offer a historical perspective on how we got to where we are in the hope that we might be able to convince one or both of our major political parties to reset their policy, which is needlessly destroying lives, including the lives of children who are proven refugees still living in the no man’s land of Nauru. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Uluru: Take Time to Get This Right

    Fifty years on from the successful 1967 referendum, we have all heard the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Aboriginal and Torres Strait representatives have told us that ‘in 1967 we were counted, in 2007 we seek to be heard’. Australians of good will acknowledge that sovereignty is a spiritual notion for Indigenous Australians and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration and separation of children are indicators of ‘the torment of (their) powerlessness’. We affirm the aspiration of the Indigenous leaders gathered at Uluru: ‘When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.’   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. Gonski in An Age of Budget Repair

    School funding is a very complex issue in Australia. It’s now a poisonous political cocktail. David Gonski who had been the poster boy for Julia Gillard’s bold education reforms has now been showcased by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham announcing their new deal for school funding.   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN. The invidious choice for refugee advocates

    Robert Manne’s latest piece on the future policy options for refugees on Nauru and Manus Island is now available here. The moral-political question is about the choice confronting those of us advocating a change of policy by the major political parties. (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Let’s amend 18C to say what it means

    The debate over section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act (18C) has gone on for far too long. I welcome the Turnbull government’s attempt to amend the provision, while being disappointed yet again at the petty politics played on both sides in Canberra in relation to a matter of principle which needs to be handled sensitively for the good of all citizens in our multicultural Australia.   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. The Catholic wrap-up at the Royal Commission.

    But in the past, these spiritual leaders were also professing their commitment to an institution which commanded their hierarchical obedience and clerical acquiescence in protecting the institution’s public reputation and its coffers.   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. The Catholic wrap-up at the Royal Commission

    Last Monday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse commenced its three-week examination of the causes of child sexual abuse and cover up in the Catholic Church in Australia over the last 60 years. The statistics were horrifying.  (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN, TIM COSTELLO, ROBERT MANNE and JOHN MENADUE. We can stop the boats and also act decently, fairly and transparently

    The only way forward in dealing with Manus Island and Nauru is for bipartisan commitment to keep the boats stopped while settling refugees in Australia.

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  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Timorese have had a win but could still lose big-time

    Without any media fanfare, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop published a statement on 9 January 2017 announcing that Australia and Timor Leste had agreed to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).   (more…)

  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. The cost of Alexander Downer cutting corners on Timor Leste a decade ago.

    If only the government and their supporters like News Ltd had been prepared to listen to the parliamentary committee a decade ago.  
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  • FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Will the refugee deal with the US come off?

    IF United States President-elect Donald Trump decides not to honour an agreement to accept refugees from Nauru and Manus Island then they should be settled permanently in Australia, Jesuit theologian and lawyer Fr Frank Brennan says. (more…)