As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents. - Orwell
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://theharshcouch.com/thc/2015-05-26/
The Harsh Couch - 2015.05.26 The George Brandis Death Cult
wibbly
#1
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://theharshcouch.com/thc/2015-05-26/
Apologies for the real time feedback accusations of you 3 being tax apologists.
There have been broad but brief comments in past shows re: people/companies paying their fair share of tax and I was champing at the bit to lob in a demand that the Couch consider what are the justifications for notionally “fair” tax obligations.
I was in the subway and blame technology for my misunderstanding, along with my over-eagerness to demand justification.
wibbly
#3
It’s pretty apparent that we’re redistributionists though … so maybe we do need to justify ourselves.
I’m thoroughly cool with redistribution.
But it seems a lot of people focus more on the principles and equity of where the money is spent, a lot less on the principles and equity of where it’s collected from.
Often it comes down to “Take it from the rich, they’ve got money to spare”. I’m cool with taxing the rich, but there needs to be more nuanced views and tailored policy than that.
But I’m a one-time tax lawyer and tax geek, so maybe I’ve just got a tax policy fetish.
wibbly
#5
In about my second year of Uni I attended a big lefty conference on indigenous issues and social justice.
I don’t remember that much about it, except that I attended a talk given by Julian Disney (most recently a professor at UNSW, and the remarkably effective Chair of the Australian Press Council).
He looked out into the audience at a group of young law students and social workers and so on … and told us all that the tax system was the most important tool for social justice yet created.
I didn’t believe him then, but I certainly agree now.
I suspect a lot of people (at least in their uni activist days) see the government like a teenager sees their parent - an ATM that can spew out unlimited amounts of money and is being terribly unfair when the tap turns off.
On Pell the Fixer - Pell’s most recent fixing job was at the Vatican Bank
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/02/13/vaticans-finance-czar-reports-1-5-billion-in-hidden-assets/
He’s done his work, moved on and the V.Bank has reported profits
http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/25/investing/vatican-bank-results/
He’s a fixer. He fixed it.
He’s also a bit of a nasty guy.
wibbly
#8
Yes … he’s a fixer, but a VERY nasty guy …
Saunders had earlier told Channel Nine, “I personally think his position is untenable, because he has now a catalogue of denials, he has a catalogue of denigrating people, of acting with callousness, coldheartedness, [he is] almost sociopathic I would go so far as to say.
Pell is apparently seeking legal advice …
I dug up an article I wrote in mid-2001 for a youth website when Pell was appointed cardinal. Hopefully this will satisfy McCool’s yearning to see an essay from me this week.
On 10 May 2001 Dr George Pell, formerly Archbishop of Melbourne, was installed in St Mary’s Cathedral as Archbishop of Sydney. For many of Australia’s youth, even latent Catholics, this may seem unimportant. Yet, despite the general irrelevance of organised religions in the lives of many, this appointment may have a significant impact on Australian society.
His Grace has certainly not been idle during his first months in office. Pell most recently tugged on the ears of Australia when he raised the prospect of a tax on couples with children who divorce during a speech to a dinner hosted by the conservative Australian journal Quadrant. The Australian media seized on this carefully delivered polemic – leaving aside the more reasoned (if not debatable) comments on the effect of divorce on Australian society and the need to ease financial pressures on families. Thus Pell’s plan succeeded – Australia, particularly Australian Catholics, were reminded of the Vatican’s stance on divorce. This is Pell’s mission – to remind Australian Catholics of Rome’s teachings.
What distinguishes Pell from his recent predecessors is a strong desire to place the Vatican’s views on the public agenda, combined with a political skill that can co-opt the mainstream media to deliver that message. Pell’s appointment reflects Rome’s view that the Catholic Church in Australia is a wayward flock that has strayed from its teachings – and its control. While Sydney’s Cardinal Clancy (forced to retire at 75 in 2001) held similar views to Pell, he was not as willing to nail his theological colours to the mast. Like most Catholic bishops in Australia, Clancy had been hesitant to call upon Catholics as a political group or to remind Catholics of the doctrines they are required to obey. Pell does not share Clancy’s reluctance to step into controversy – his motto for his archiepiscopate is: Be Not Afraid.
Like many religious leaders, Pell’s views do not sit entirely on the political Left or Right, although they are predominantly conservative with a Roman Catholic spin. He supports censorship, is anti abortion, against divorce, against the ordination of female priests, views homosexual intercourse as a sin and is opposed to gambling. Unlike many previous leaders in the Australian Catholic Church, Pell appears to identify less with the ‘underdogs’ of society. He undermined his fellow bishops’ support of a Catholic Social Welfare Commission report that called the GST a ‘regressive tax’, stating ‘There is no one Catholic position on an issue as complex as taxation’. In this way, Pell differs from many of his predecessors who drew upon the predominantly working class experience of Irish Catholics living in a Protestant-controlled Australia. Pell is much more of a Vatican man – but he can’t simply be pigeon-holed as ‘conservative’. Like many religious leaders in Australia, he spoke out against John Howard’s 10-point plan in response to the Wik judgment. Pell is also pro-republic and attended the Constitutional Convention (as a Howard appointee).
Pell shows little fear in his approach to his mission. For him, the views of the Vatican on questions of Catholic doctrine are not merely views – they are truths that Australian Catholics can no longer ignore at their leisure. Nor does Pell shy away from putting forward the ‘hard teachings’ of the Catholic Church, whether in the pulpit or in the mainstream media.
Prior to his suggestions for family law reform, Pell was best known to Australians for his much publicised stance against homosexuality. He steadfastly bears the Vatican’s banner high on this issue – the Church does not condemn the homosexual for being homosexual, but condemns the act of homosexual intercourse. Rainbow Sash campaigners have approached Pell for Communion at Mass (traditionally the most important sign of whether you’re in or out of the Church) and have met stalwart refusal.
Yet possibly the largest impact of Pell’s appointment will be felt by the next generation of Catholics as he exercises control over Catholic schools – a microcosm of a society in which prevailing opinions are far more malleable.
For those who have missed the joys of Catholic education or have not looked back since emerging, this may seem irrelevant. But consider this – Catholic systemic schools educate a significant proportion of Australia’s youth. Add to this the number of students in independent Catholic schools. The result is a large number of primary and secondary students receiving Catholic doctrine as their first formal, comprehensive system of ethics, morality and theology.
Given Pell’s active role in setting and enforcing a doctrine-centric religious education syllabus in Catholic schools while Archbishop of Melbourne, Sydneysiders should expect much the same. This will translate into a generation or more of Catholics educated in a hardline, intolerant and restrictive view of the world and theology. If this sounds alarmist, consider what Pell – armed with a Masters Degree in Education from Monash University – has said in relation to religious education that Catholic teachers should stop talking about the primacy of conscience. This has never been Catholic teaching. This may seem unimportant to those who have moved on from a religious schooling system or those who have avoided institutionalised religious education entirely. Yet the call of indoctrination is strong – not surprising when a student attending a Catholic school can expect a concentrated dose of the Catholic worldview for over a quarter of each day. The Catholic system of religious education – like any education system based on a theological, philosophical or political worldview – programs and defines the moral operating system of many people.
Pell’s appointment is part of the current pope’s plan for a powerful, conservative Church in the new millennia. A strong supporter of doctrinal movements such as Opus Dei, John Paul II has used his unusually long reign to stack the College of Cardinals – who elect the Pope – with those who largely share his own conservative views. His rule enforcing retirement on cardinals at age 75 has effectively removed many of those appointed prior to John Paul II’s election in 1978. This includes most of those old enough to recall the progressive, reinvigorating energy created by Pope John XXIII’s Second Vatican Council.
At the frontline of John Paul II’s strategy for bringing back the flock, Pell is one of many strong-willed, politically savvy archbishops charged with reasserting the Vatican’s control over Catholic doctrine and Catholic minds. He is a Church warrior whose task is to publicly remind Catholics that being Catholic means obeying the doctrine – whether the conscience agrees or not. His appointment is by no means progressive – Pell is here to champion many of the views which have made the Catholic Church irrelevant in the 21st – if not the 20th – century.
Under Pell’s spiritual reign, being Catholic is about more than eating fish on Fridays. It involves subordination of the conscience to the moral and theological teachings of the Vatican and the anointed successor of St Peter and Jesus Christ – the ailing Pope John Paul II. George Pell is here to make sure we remember that. It remains to be seen how Australian Catholics respond to the tightening of the leash.
Tholf endured Catholic education for 12 years. During this time he served as an altar boy, was often called upon to read the Prayers of the Faithful and was accused of wonky thinking by a Jesuit priest . He can still recite the Angelus and has a set of rosary beads blessed by the Pope in a box somewhere.