God Land

[thenewguard]

(x-posted)

Is your organisation 'an establishment, organisation or association that is instituted to advance or promote religious purposes'? The Australian Tax Office wants to know. In what amounts to little more than writing blank checks to fundamentalist Christians, Australian politicans know what sort of backlash they'd face from voters if

Comments

[mrsilence]

That's hardly an indication of anything to do with geopolitics.

Terra Nullius was originally an invention of the British, from well before the Federation of Australia and continued not because it enjoyed any sort of popular philosophical or political support, but because changing the status quo was both inconvenient and highly problematic for governments and landowners. The fear was that ownership of about 70% of private land in Australia would be open to legal contestation by traditional owners. No minor issue.

Similarly, this funding of religious groups is based in historical precedent, rather than being due to political support from the electorate. Contrary to what the OP apparently insists, Australia's government has found that excessive religiosity has generally and increasingly been punished at the ballot box in Australia, rather than rewarded. The previous Howard government created quite a bit of controversy over its (very quiet) favours done for certain religious groups which had lobbied it and was frequently censured by the general public when a few of it's MP's expressed religious views in support of public policies in areas like abortion, euthanasia and social justice. The current government you'd hardly notice were religious at all, without reading the hobbies page of a hard copy of their resumes.

I think this issue is simply a matter of creating sufficient public interest and a proof that whatever funding these groups are receiving is going to the simple promotion of religion; rather than the funding being spent of social justice programs, which is something for which there is strong public support in Australia, even from the non-religious.

[underlankers]

And Indian genocides and racial slavery were the British legacy to the USA, as well. Does that excuse the USA's actions there? I'm willing to bet the answer's no on that account. What's good for Washington City is good for Canberra.

[mrsilence]

Sorry, what specifically are you talking about when you say the USA's actions?

[underlankers]

The USA's continuation of the genocides the British started. Which is why we no longer have languages like Comanche or Sioux that matter very much.