The Justice Unit have just produced a new action sheet on issues surrounding Mental Health and Victorian Prisons. This is one of the most heartbreaking issues I’ve encountered in the prisons – every visit holds another story of the failures of different government departments that have led to people’s lives being devastated. And we have…
Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and imprisoned yesterday by the Burmese military regime… oddly, just a couple of weeks short of the date set for the lifting of her house detention. I know, the surprise is overwhelming. It seemed for a while, a few years ago, that the centrepiece of worship services or youth…
From the Fairwear team: We have made our list and checked it twice, to try to find out who has been naughty and nice to outworkers this year. We’re going to take some Christmas cheer to the Scrooge label that has topped our naughty list this Christmas season – Big By Fiona Scanlan. Come and…
it’s been a week of colliding themes… stuff from all sorts of places overlapping and interlocking. i’m reading about restorative justice at the moment – a large collection of articles and book excerpts given to me by jenny on monday. In the midst of them this evening, on the train home, i came to an…
i’ve been up in kyneton all day, meeting with jenny who heads up prison chaplaincy in Victoria. we’re beginning to plan a conference on restorative justice which is to be held next year. our conversation kept coming around to the fact that restorative justice is something that can only happen when a whole community is…
a couple of months ago i wrote about the proposed migration legislation being tabled by the government, which would define australia as the one of the least humane nations in terms of its treatment of asylum seekers. today the prime minister had to back down from the legislation in the face of certain defeat. i…
The Australian federal parliament is voting this week on the changes to Australia’s refugee laws. i talked about these a few weeks ago. if you’ve been watching the news, you’ll have seen that this will not be a walk over for the government – this is one of the few bits of legislation that’s gone…
a couple of quick things… the alternative worship workshop i’m running next thursday at Otira is full… we’ll do another one very early next year, if you wanted to come and hadn’t got your act together. I’m speaking at an SCM workshop on 29th June along with Phil McCreddon, from NCCC, Al Macrae from theological…
i spent today visiting the Fulham Prison in eastern Victoria – a medium security prison for male offenders. part of this project is to work in the prison system, creating opportunities for worship that takes seriously the relationship between the Gospel and the culture and context of prison (you can read more about this here).…
this is not a political blog, but for things like this i figure you have to use any means you can. the australian government has an appalling, embarrassing record of policies regarding asylum seekers and refugees. the united nations and amnesty international repeatedly condemn the policies, which basically involve mandatory detention for any asylum seekers,…
