Weekend Wrap for 9 October 2022

Michelle Grattan – Without those ‘lefties’ the Liberals can’t regain government.
"Federal Liberal vice-president, Teena McQueen, at the weekend told the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia: “The good thing about the last federal election is a lot of those lefties are gone. We should rejoice in that. People I’ve been trying to get rid of for a decade have gone, we need to renew with good conservative candidates.” ... Those from the uncompromising right (some of them, installed via branch stacking, coming from religious groups) appear to have a strong grip in a party that is hollowed out at rank and file level. ... Preselection plebiscites, desirable in theory, can have undesirable outcomes when a party is dominated by factions and fanatics. Top-down preselections can be as bad – think Scott Morrison’s captain’s pick of Katherine Deves for the seat of Warringah." (4 Oct 2022)
Read more at The Conversation

Neil Foster – Football CEO dismissed for religious beliefs.
"The recently appointed new CEO of the Essendon Football Club in Victoria, Andrew Thorburn, has been pushed out of his job on account of views expressed by the church he belongs to and on whose board of management he sits. Those views, which even the club itself accepts were not stated personally by Mr Thorburn and which had to be found by scouring a database of sermons back to 2013, represent views on moral issues that have been shared by Christians, Muslims, Jews and many other religious believers for a long time. They are not “radical” or “hateful” or “bigoted”. It is arguable that the Club has breached Victorian anti-discrimination law." (5 Oct 2022)
Read more at Law and Religion Australia

Lucy Hamilton – Why we must not tolerate intolerance.
"The “conservative” punditry do not need any excuse to work themselves into a frothing frenzy. Given Essendon’s mission statement about its own inclusive nature as an organisation, it is surprising that the club would contemplate appointing anyone reflecting a conservative religious outlook to the position. The fact that they were willing to continue the contract with Thorburn as a member of the controversial church, just not as its chairman, suggests a greater openness to faith commitments than the enflamed commentators would like to admit." (6 Oct 2022)
Read more at The AIMN

Michelle Pini – Andrew Thorburn, Matthew Guy and the politics of prosperity and hate.
"This week, following his short-lived appointment as CEO of the Essendon Football Club, former NAB boss and City on a Hill megachurch chairman Andrew Thorburn – along with the aptly described “appalling” views of his cult – are in the spotlight. As the depth of absurdity that characterised Morrison’s dictatorial reign is slowly uncovered – much, if not all, of which may be linked back to his self-professed devotion to the Pentecostal megachurch – more and more developments in evangelistic super-cults are emerging from the shadows to confront and challenge insouciant Australia." (6 Oct 2022)
Read more at Independent Australia

Bishop Richard Condie – The resignation of Andrew Thorburn signals a troubling turn for Australian secularism.
"On Monday, 3 October, it was announced that [Thorburn] had been appointed the new CEO of his beloved Essendon Football Club, which he described as “one of the proudest days of his life”. The appointment proved to be short-lived, however. For it also became known that Thorburn acts as the Chair of the Board of City on a Hill, a large Anglican church with seven congregations across Melbourne, Geelong, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Wollongong." (6 Oct 2022)
Read more at ABC Religion & Ethics

Paul O'Halloran – Thorburn case shows vulnerability of human rights protections at work.
"People hold different views about different topics in the workplace. Acceptance of those views, provided that they are not unlawful or injurious to others, is what genuine inclusion and diversity means. Freedom of religion is protected by Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act 2010. The legal protection means that a person cannot be treated unfavourably because they hold, or do not hold, a lawful religious belief or view." (6 Oct 2022)
Read more at The Age

Lucy Hamilton – Liberal candidate supports US-style abortion ban ahead of state poll.
"The parties of the right in Australia are changing faster than their voters might recognise. It is increasingly the case that a vote for the 'conservatives' is a vote for the radical or religious right. No doubt the leaders of the Liberal Party of Victoria are disturbed by the fact that Moira Deeming, their candidate for Western Metropolitan Region seat is associated with an anti-choice rally planned for this weekend, six weeks before the state goes to the polls." (7 Oct 2022)
Read more at Pearls and irritations

Anthony Segaert – I’ve lost faith that Australia knows how to discuss religion.
Debates about theological interpretations of sexual ethics and abortion have plastered our newspapers for days. And we’re terribly lacking in the armour needed for a proper discussion. Never before have Australians known so little about the foundational text of Australia’s biggest religion – and even less about the Koran – and never before, it seems, have we had such strong opinions on its utter irrelevance to life and society. (7 Oct 2022)
Read more at The Age

RMIT ABC Fact Check – One Nation's Mark Latham said just 0.17 per cent of Australians are transgender. Here's what we found.
"This week, CheckMate tests Mark Latham's maths on the number of transgender people in Australia. Posting to Facebook late last month, One Nation's Mark Latham posed a question: How many transgender people were there in Australia? The former Labor leader then provided an answer..." (7 Oct 2022)
Read more at ABC News

George Megalogenis – Ye of little faith, how well do you know your country?
"The argument between the Victorian Premier, and devout Catholic, Daniel Andrews and the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, over the treatment of the club’s CEO Andrew Thorburn would have been inconceivable in the days of the Victorian Football League. Andrews and Comensoli would simply not have been welcome at Windy Hill. Thorburn, on the other hand, would have kept his high-flying appointment at the club. He would not have been asked to choose between running the Bombers and his volunteer position as chair of the City on a Hill Anglican church because, back then, his faith and that of the club were aligned." (8 Oct 2022)
Read more at The Age