New Australia

Society

In general NewAustralia has a 'liberal' view on social issues. Where not covered elsewhere social issues will be covered on this page.

Indigenous Affairs

NewAustralia recognises the prior ownership of Australia by the aboriginal peoples and supports constitutional recognition of this fact.

We oppose "the intervention" on the basis that it is discriminates on a racial basis and is ineffective. We do not support preferential or discriminatory treatment of any group on the basis of race, religion, gender or ethnicity.

The social problems experienced by some people of aboriginal descent are not at all unique to aboriginals and are widespread in the broader society. Mesures designed to tackle child abuse, substance abuse, housing and other issues should apply across society in a non-discriminatoty fashion. For example, we support some limits to how all welfare payments can be made to avoid excessive spending on alcohol, gambling and the like. This does not prevent such services being tailored for the needs of particular citizens.

Bill of Rights

We support establishment of a Bill of Rights or similar. See Republic page for more on this issue.

Sexuality

Legislation should not consider sexuality, race, ethnicity or other irrelevant characteristics. Discrimination based on sexuality should be prohibited except for some religious roles.

There are about 58 laws that discriminate against people in same-sex relationships. These laws need to be systematically re-drafted to remove this discrimination.

Religious groups who dislike homosexuals should be able to continue to discriminate against them - but only for purely religious roles within their faith. We don't support trying to force religious groups to accept gays which would be totally counter-productive. There are other religious groups that a LGBT person may join if they wish. For example some Christian scholars dispute that the Bible provides any basis for homophobia. (See this article by Keith Dyer.)

Censorship

Censorship of extreme violence, degradation or abuse should remain. Non-violent, non-abusive erotic material should be available to consenting adults by a range of means such as cinemas, encrypted broadcast or movie hire outlets. Language or nudity should not be a basis for censorship, but as now the viewer should be warned and the screening times should be appropriate.

In the interests of world peace, censorship should be strengthened for 'blasphemous' material that is highly insulting to historical religious figures or symbols. It is unlikely that this sort of 'art' serves any useful purpose beyond increasing the notoriety of the 'artist', but it may well contribute to the West / Islam divide.

NewAustralia opposes the futile attempts to censor the internet which could degrade internet speeds by up to 86% and block up to 7.8% of legitimate websites. more...

Paid Maternity Leave

NewAustralia supports tax-payer funded paid maternity leave. Because of our concerns about Population growth we believe this scheme should only apply for women over 30 having their first child.

Immigration

NewAustralia opposes growth in the World or Australian population for environmental reasons.

See also Population page.

Multiculturalism

• NewAustralia supports multiculturalism and the diversity and understanding that this brings to Australian society.
• However we also recognize that multiculturalism has some limits - only cultures that themselves accept multiculturalism are acceptable. Cultures that oppress women or minority groups are unacceptable.
• Population and immigration policy must also be managed so as to avoid generating social stress such as traffic congestion, public transport overload and unaffordable housing etc.
• Population policy should be the driver of immigration and multicultural policies, rather than an accidental by-product of them.
• NewAustralia also acknowledges that the Aboriginal culture pre-dates the current dominant culture and that we have an equal obligation to consider traditional Aboriginal culture when formulating our population, immigration and multicultural policies.

Abortion

In general abortion should be free, safe and legal in the first two trimesters. Late term abortions should only be allowed where the mother's health is at risk or the foetus is severely disabled.

Ideally the need for abortion should be minimized through improved sex education and improved access to contraception.

Euthanasia

We generally support the right to 'die with dignity' for persons in the final stages of inevitably terminal conditions. This is particularly the case where the death is likely to be painful, degrading or unpleasant.

Keeping Your Surname

The convention that a woman adopts her husband's surname after marriage quietly retains the medieval notion that a husband owns his wife and children.

We suggest that a new naming convention be encouraged whereby:

• Both parties retain their surname after marriage.
• Any male children assume the father's surname.
• Any female children assume the mother's name.
• The family as a whole would be known by both surnames joined by a hyphen. I.e. The Nguyen-Smith family.

This scheme reinforces the equality of the sexes without passing increasingly cumbersome hyphenated surnames to the children.

Animal Welfare

NewAustralia supports strengthening of animal protection laws to provide better standards of protection for 'higher' (Tetrapod) animals and any other animals that may be considered sentient.

This should include:

• Prohibition of the use of steel jaw traps.
• Banning duck shooting.
• Pointless experiments or unnecessary product testing.
• Phasing out of mulesing of lambs.

Notes:

• NewAustralia is not an animal liberation party.
• We support humane hunting or culling of exotic animals, especially where they are causing environmental damage or are a threat to livestock or humans. This includes hunting of feral foxes, cats, pigs, rabbits, buffalo, dogs and deer.
• We respect vegetarianism but do not seek to actively promote it. (That said, climate taxes on Methane may discourage red meat consumption.)

Stop The Intervention

An open collective of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people committed to the repeal of the NT Intervention and the struggle for Aboriginal self-determination.

www.stoptheintervention.org

Pokie Windfall

14^th Jan 2008: "POKIES billionaire Bruce Mathieson is among a small number of gaming industry chiefs set to share in a $750 million annual bonanza generated by a makeover of the Victorian gaming industry." more...

Filtering out the fury

24^th Oct 2008: "The Federal Government is attempting to silence critics of its controversial plan to censor the internet, which experts say will break the internet while doing little to stop people from accessing illegal material such as child pornography." more...

Record gambling losses

31^st Jan 2008: Victorian gamblers have lost more than $1.3-billion on poker machines in just the last six months. And that doesn't even include the poker machines inside Melbourne's Crown Casino, which refuses to release information on its revenues. more...