About 5000 people recently participated in a gambling survey on the website of federal opposition front-bencher, Malcolm Turnbull

More than 60 percent said they support laws compelling gamblers using “high-intensity” machines (those accepting $10 dollar bets) to set a limit on their losses before starting to play.

Australia has 200,000 high-intensity poker machines in operation.

Gamblers routinely lose about $1200 per hour on such machines.

They should be banned.

* * *

There is a lot to be said for also banning “low-intensity”,$1-limit, poker machines as well.

Even on “low-intensity” pokies, a patron can lose $120 per hour.

For many, that is a lot of money.

Do it a couple of times a week and the cash for paying bills and feeding the family is gone.

On October 15, a group calling themselves Occupy Melbourne moved into the City Square, set up 40-odd tents and announced that they were staying indefinitely.

Each day, they marched through the streets, obstructing intersections and holding protest meetings outside buildings of which they disapproved (the Serco office, the Melbourne Club, the Stock Exchange).

They were warned by the Council and Police to vacate the Square by 9am October 21.

Instead, they texted and twittered friends and acquaintances to come and swell their numbers.

It took 400 police officers to move them up Swanston Street and into Carlton.

It took 5 Council trucks to remove the rubbish they left behind.

* * *

There is, of course, a place for disobeying the law of the land — if a black -and-white moral issue is at stake.

But these occupiers could point to no such clear-cut justification.

They claim to represent the “99 percent” on modest incomes and condemn the “1 percent” who get excessive incomes (e.g. corporate CEO’s on millions per year).

OK. But this is not sufficient issue to justify defiance, disobedience and attempts to obstruct the police.

If those of us who believe in justice will live by our faith — putting first God and the needs of the disadvantaged among his children — we can create a better world.

If laws exist which would prevent us living by our faith, then disobey by all means.

Otherwise don’t.

Mrs Clinton is in Libya congratulating National Transitional Council bosses, Jalil and Jibril, for disempowering/killing ex-dictator, Colonel Gaddafi.

“The future belongs to you,” she said.

They know that.

“We will support a process of democratisation that respects the rule of law etc.,” she added.

They don’t know so much about that.

Nobody seriously expects a democratically-elected government to be in charge in Libya, soon or ever.

Look at Egypt. Look at Afghanistan. Liberated in the name of democracy. Corruption all the way to the top after months and years respectively.

* * *

Why should these people want democracy?

If you mean by “democracy”, rule by US-style media-brainwash, billionaire candidates and politicians lying 24/7 — they could hardly be blamed for not wanting it.

The results of democracy is having people like Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton’s husband rising to the surface.

Or like the Gillard.

Or like the reverend Mr Silvio Berlusconi, for goodness sake.

* * *

Mrs Clinton will probably never be heard telling Libyans that what they need is to become Christians — to stop following a beheading Prophet and to start following One who gave his life on the cross to redeem our race.

Nor would she say it to the people of the USA.

Or to herself.

Anyway, we don’t need politicians lecturing us on what to believe and how to conduct our lives.

We know it already.

But it is not so easy to do it.

Ultimately it is between oneself and God.

Most Australians are a bit sick of the two major parties.

They are painfully alike in many ways — both fixated on getting and retaining power, regardless of any principles.

Many see the Greens as economically ignorant — and family-wise a disaster.

But where else can thinking Australians turn?

* * *

Something is about to happen.

Next Queensland state election will be held in 2012. The date is not decided, but it can’t be later than June 12.

A NEW party which has never stood candidates before will be contesting every seat.

The Bob Katter Australian Party – otherwise known as Ausparty.

* * *

Australians are sick of the big parties allowing Coles and Woolworths to control 85 percent of food sales between them. AUSPARTY’s policy is to permit no chain’s share to exceed 22 percent. Note that in the USA, the biggest retail chain, Wal-Mart, controls only 20 percent.

Australians are sick of the big parties turning Australia into a food-importing country. Ten years ago, Australia exported 4 times as much food as it imported. According to ABS figures, we’ll be importing less than we produce by 2015. AUSPARTY’s policy is to introduce a 10 percent customs duty on all imports — and to place warning labels on containers of non-Australian produced food products.

Australians are sick of a lot of other things. In pretty much all cases, the AUSPARTY policies seem like a breath of fresh air.

* * *

Check their website for lots of other examples: www.ausparty.org.au/

October 17 is United Nations’ Anti-Poverty Day.

October 16 to 22 is designated by some as Anti-Poverty Week.

A Brisbane group calling itself Micah Projects – government-funded, but with churchly connections — has unearthed some relevant statistics:

e.g. in the Brisbane area:
* 14.8% of households have a weekly income under $500;
* over 10,000 jobless households with children aged under 15 years;
* 3,741 Domestic Violence Protection Order applications made in 2010.

* * *

Poverty Week participating groups will include ACOSS, ACTU, Anglicare, Australian Red Cross, Australian Services Union, Catholic Social Services of Australia, Jobs Australia, Mission Australia, Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, The Benevolent Society and UnitingCare.

Most of these groups are have Christian backgrounds.

Secretary of Micah Projects is Brisbane priest, Father Terry Fitzpatrick — not only a Catholic priest, but a Catholic priest defiant against his bishop, and attached to a group no longer using the approved liturgies and Sacramental rites of the Catholic religion.

* * *

Is poverty always bad?

Saint Mary of the Cross (Mother Mary MacKillop) said that when young, “I longed for a religious life, one in which I could serve God and his poor neglected ones in poverty and disregard of the world and its fleeting opinions . . . I looked for poverty more like that practised in the early religious orders of the Church . . . .”

Jesus told his disciples that, “Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Yes, we must try to alleviate materialistic poverty where it is extreme.

We must, with at least as much enthusiasm, seek to eradicate spiritual poverty.

If we do that whole-heartedly, we’ll probably get no government funding.

Iranian actress, Marzieh Vafamehr, has been sentenced to 90 lashes and a year in prison for acting in an Australia-produced film.

One of her “crimes” was to appear on screen without traditional head-covering.

Surely 90 lashes is too many – but does that mean she should go entirely unpunished?

Marzieh was using the media to undermine an aspect of her nation’s culture.

Letting her off entirely would, it might be argued, be turning a blind eye to the destruction of something precious.

We Anglo-Celts etc., who comprise the bulk of Australia’s population, don’t see female head-covering as something of critical importance . . . .

* * *

Let’s consider a different example.

Some months ago, a photographer, Bill Henson, displayed an exhibition of pictures of pubescent girls and boys naked and near naked.

He was condemned for using the notion of “art” as a cover for child porn.

I think he was never punished.

A few lashes — not 90 – might have been very appropriate to deter him and potential imitators from a repeat effort.

Is not the modesty of children and adolescents something to revere and vigorously protect?

* * *

Culture is what guides community members regarding what behaviour is acceptable.

A culture can be cruel or unjust and need change.

It can be right to challenge aspects of a culture — but it must be done with respect.

Those seeking change must constantly examine their own motives.

Ultimately our culture should be the practical means of  keeping ourselves focussed on God and his will.