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We Need a Reality Check on Energy Prices

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Rising energy prices have become a cause of widespread complaint and are cited as a reason we need to cling coal-powered electricity.   As far as I can tell all the anxiety around rising electricity prices is way out of proportion to reality. First, our electricity costs are only a small proportion of our household budgets. A 2012 ABS survey found that the households with the lowest 10% of income...

Five Facts About Australia’s Immigration Program That Might Surprise You

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The Productivity Commission recently completed a report on Australia’s migration program. It contained some surprising results. 1. Australia receives around 1,000,000 migrants each year Every year around a million visas are granted to  allow migration into Australia. This consists of close to 800,000 temporary visas granted to students, working holidaymakers and temporary workers, and...

The problem with conservatism

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I guess in the end, protecting what we cherish is why I am a conservative. The Left like to portray conservatives as doddery old fools opposed to modernity. But as its very heart, conservatism believes there are things in life, values and institutions, worth conserving. Conservatives don’t oppose change; they just don’t believe in change for change’s sake. If there’s a good case made for change...

Trumpaggeddon? America has always acted in its own interests

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Amid all the gloomy predictions that Trumpaggeddon is upon us, I wonder if the Trump presidency has simply laid bare the reality of American power that usually hides behind the mask of the USA’s founding mythologies. The founding mythologies insist that America is grounded in righteousness and that it’s destiny is to bring freedom, democracy and justice to the world. It’s heroes are the...

I’ve Just Published A Book. This is What It’s About.

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I released a short book today, A Beautiful World. Reframing our Relationship to Creation.  It’s just four chapters and 70 pages long, plus a study guide at the back. The aim is for it to be short enough that a pastor could  comfortably  build a sermon around each chapter; that those who don’t regularly read books may find it surprisingly manageable to read a chapter a week and then...

Challenges for the Church #3. Homosexuality

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The week before Christmas I purchased Two Views On Homosexuality, The Bible And The Church (Zondervan, 2016), a book that brings together four authors who discuss the place of homosexuality in the church. The editor, Preston Sprinkle, notes that This book is the first of its kind to be published by an evangelical Christian publisher. I don’t think a book like this would have been possible...

Challenges for the Church #2. Living as a Minority in a Pluralist Society

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One of the great achievements of Western society has been its embrace of religious and political pluralism as a way of enabling peaceful diversity. Throughout history diversity has commonly been met with violence, either the state enacting violence against dissidents, or conflict between groups. We easily forget that the sort of conflicts we see between Islamic groups in the middle east today was...

A Christmas without nativity scenes. Embracing my faith in a secular society

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I am holidaying with my family on The Gold Coast. We are staying in an apartment with spectacular views over the ocean. We have swum in the surf, laid on golden beaches, screamed with a mixture of fear and thrill on roller coasters at Movieworld, laughed ourselves hoarse as we share meals. We have dined and seen movies at Pacific Fair shopping centre, a massive complex that includes supermarkets...

Going, going, gone…the tragic story of the decline of life on earth

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Over the course of my life I’ve had the thrill of seeing some of the amazing forms of life on this earth. I have dived with great white sharks off the coast of South Australia; been delighted by fairy penguins making their way en masse from the ocean to their burrows in the sands of Phillip Island; been mesmerised by the giant sea turtles that haul themselves across the sandy beach of...

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