School Chaplains and Science Cuts

Panellists: Cory Bernardi, Liberal Senator; Catherine King, Shadow Health Minister; Lawrence Krauss, Theoretical Physicist & Cosmologist; Lucy Turnbull, Former Lord Mayor of Sydney; and Rowan Dean, Associate Editor, Spectator Australia. -- Cory Bernardi Cory Bernardi has been involved in the Liberal Party for more than 20 years. He served as the youngest ever State president of the party in South Australia from 1998-2000, and became the youngest ever federal vice president in 2005. He was sworn in as a Senator for South Australia in May 2006. Cory was born in 1969 and was raised in Adelaide. As a teenager he won a rowing scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport, and would go on to represent Australia at the world championships. Following his retirement from professional sport, Cory travelled extensively throughout Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East and experienced many different environments and cultures. Upon returning to Australia, he owned and operated hotels in and around Adelaide. In 1996 he changed career and became a financial adviser with a leading stockbroking firm. Eventually he established his own practice and continued working as a financial consultant until he became a senator. A leading member of the Liberal Party’s right wing, Cory is outspoken on a range of issues and has been involved in long-running battles with factional opponents. He has spoken out against gay marriage and therapeutic cloning of human embryos, and on-screen swearing by TV chef Gordon Ramsey. He rejects the notion that human activity causes climate change and in 2009 was at the forefront of attempts by some Liberals to reject the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme. This led to the downfall of Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader. In 2007 he was made a shadow parliamentary secretary but was subsequently dismissed after remarks on his blog were interpreted as adverse comment about fellow Adelaide Liberal Christopher Pyne, a factional foe. He was again promoted in 2009 but resigned in 2012 after querying whether legalising same-sex marriage would encourage polygamy and bestiality. Cory is married to Sinead and has two sons. He has written three books, two aimed at educating children. The Money Tree teaches children about financial investment and the value of money, while Fit for Life! promotes healthy eating and exercise habits in young people. His most recent book is As I See It: Thoughts of a Conservative. -- Catherine King Catherine King, shadow health minister, was first elected to Federal Parliament in 2001 to represent the electorate of Ballarat. She was re-elected as member at subsequent Federal Elections in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013. Catherine was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in the portfolios of Health and Ageing and Infrastructure and Transport in the Gillard Government following the 2010 election. In 2013 Catherine was elevated to the roles of Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories and Minister for Road Safety in the Gillard Government. Catherine was subsequently promoted to Cabinet in July 2013, as Minister for Regional Australia, Local Government and Territories in the Rudd Government. She became shadow health minister following Labor's election loss in 2013. She holds a Degree in Social Work and a Masters in Public Policy from the Australian National University and is currently completing a law degree from Deakin University. Catherine worked in the social welfare sector in Ballarat and later in the public sector in Canberra, as an assistant director for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and then as a director. Prior to entering Parliament she was a senior manager at KPMG’s Health Consulting Practice. She is married with one son. -- Lawrence Krauss Lawrence M. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist, scientific educator, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Lawrence is an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests, including the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology, where his studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare “public intellectual”, he is the author of more than 300 scientific publications and eight books, including the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek, and the recipient of numerous international awards for his research and writing. Lawrence is also one of the few prominent scientists today to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture. Besides his radio and television work, he has performed solo with the Cleveland Orchestra, narrating Gustav Holst’s The Planets at the Blossom Music Centre in the most highly attended concert at that venue, and was nominated for a Grammy award for his liner notes for a Telarc CD of music from Star Trek. In 2005 he also served as a jury member at the Sundance Film Festival. His newest book, A Universe from Nothing, follows on from his wildly popular YouTube lecture of the same name and offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? As Richard Dawkins has described it: “This could potentially be the most important scientific book with implications for atheism since Darwin.” The documentary film, The Unbelievers, recently premiered in Toronto. It follows Lawrence and Richard Dawkins as they speak publicly around the globe about the importance that science and reason have in the modern world. -- Lucy Turnbull Successful businesswoman, lawyer, tireless community advocate and Sydney’s first ever female Lord Mayor, Lucy Turnbull is in many ways the epitome of the high-achieving 21st century Australian woman. The daughter of Tom Hughes QC, a prominent barrister and former Liberal Attorney-General, Lucy was born in Sydney in 1958. She has a degree in law from Sydney University and an MBA from the University of NSW, and practised as a lawyer and worked as an investment banker before becoming involved in local government. Lucy has a high level of interest in city planning and urban issues and spent many years on the Sydney City Council. She was Deputy Lord Mayor and then Lord Mayor between 1999 and 2004. In 1999 her book Sydney – A Biography of a City was published. Lucy sits on many boards including the Biennale of Sydney, the Redfern Waterloo Authority and the Australian Technology Park. She is also active in the not-for-profit sector. She is Deputy Chair of the Committee for Sydney and sits on the boards of the US Studies Centre, the Centre for Independent Studies, the Redfern Foundation and the Turnbull Foundation. In 2007-09 she chaired the Salvation Army’s Sydney Red Shield appeal and in 2006 and 2008 she was Commissioner of the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. A director of Turnbull and Partners, an investment company, and listed internet services company Melbourne IT, Lucy is married to Malcolm Turnbull, prominent businessman, republican and Liberal MP. They have two adult children and live in Point Piper, Sydney. -- Rowan Dean Rowan Dean is a political and marketing columnist with the Australian Financial Review and associate editor of the Spectator Australia. His copywriting background in advertising includes launching Fosters Lager and Paul Hogan into the United Kingdom and co-writing a British TV commercial for Hamlet cigars twice voted one of the world’s best ads. He is an award-winning film director as well as former Executive Creative Director on many of Australia's best-known brands. More recently, he has become familiar to Australian audiences as a panelist on the ABC’s The Gruen Transfer, as well as a regular columnist with the Australian Financial Review, and associate editor of The Spectator Australia. Last year he published ‘Beyond Satire’, a selection of satirical and other political columns. Rowan was born in Canberra, educated in France, Germany, Britain and Australia, and speaks French and German. -- Audience: Coalition 42%, ALP 34%, Greens 12%. SCHOOL CHAPLAINS Martin Boers asked: My 10 year old daughter has a congenital physical disability, is a wheelchair user, and attends a mainstream NSW public school. The cuts in education, healthcare and welfare will hurt our family badly enough, but the real kick in the guts during this "budget emergency" is the $245m being wasted on a National School Chaplaincy Program that will result in Christian preachers, who are supposedly not allowed to proselytise or provide counselling, displacing highly qualified secular social workers and psychologists. Why can’t the government think of a better way to spend $245m on supporting some of the most vulnerable children in our public education system? CHAPLAINS OR YOUTH WORKERS? Richard Collis asked: 2 years ago, I started studying youth work and it is still something I am very passionate about. I firmly believe that the permanent funded staff who are responsible for the welfare of students should be educated and trained youth or social workers who don’t represent a particular faith through their work. What does the panel think? CHAPLAINS OR YOUTH WORKERS? Angela Martinovic asked: The secularist’s student welfare workers are complaining about being cut off from the National Chaplain School Program yet how are they supposed to fulfil the NSCP program objectives of providing pastoral care and general spiritual, social and emotional comfort, when secularism itself rejects spiritual or religious matters? ABC – BATMAN OR JOKER? Andrew Tennant asked: Rowan Dean, every hero needs a villain. Andrew Bolt, Gerard Henderson and yourself seem to be on a never-ending crusade against the ABC. They are the Joker to your Batman... or the other way around depending on your perspective. Do you actually hate the ABC or does it give your life meaning? And are you doomed to fight them forever? SCIENCE CUTS Hasan Mohammed asked: Australia has produced 15 Nobel prize laureates and every day over 1 billion people around the world rely on Australian discoveries and innovations – including penicillin, IVF, ultrasound, Wi-Fi, the Bionic Ear, cervical cancer vaccine and Black Box Flight Recorders – to make their lives, and the lives of others, better. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have continued the assault on scientific research including a $100m cut to CSIRO. What is this saying to those who might want to become mathematicians, physicists or chemists — hard sciences that are already in crisis? Does research really matter? CUTS SEND SCIENTISTS OVERSEAS Kyle Smith asked: As someone who is about to finish a PhD in Science I'm concerned about the recent cuts. Whilst I want to stay in Australia and make a difference, the choice of moving overseas to establish a career in research isn't a choice now. I've spent 7 years learning the ins and outs of cancer metabolism, taxpayers have paid for my PhD, and now I go overseas with a good chance I won't return professionally. Is this fair on taxpayers? And what chance do I have to stay and find work here in Australia? CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXPERTISE Bahareh Sara Howard asked: Senator Bernardi, last week you said it was "good news" that the Federal budget had abolished the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and that the government was "still committed to abolishing the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation". As a researcher in climate change and renewable energy, I presume that when your car mechanic, your dentist, or your plumber tells you there is something wrong with your car, your teeth, or your pipes; you listen and act. Why is it that you ignore the advice of climate change experts, from every corner of this planet who are urging us that climate is changing and we must act to reduce CO2 emissions now? Australia is per capita the largest emitter in the world. BUDGET’S TOUGH LOVE Amanda Voets asked: The Australian Liberal Party were overwhelmingly voted in at the last election to rectify the problems that Australia has been placed in by the last Rudd/Gillard governments. That means that some form of self-disciplined austerity is called for, and that some firm decisions have had to be made. The elected government is like parents, and sometimes parents have to be tough and lay down the law. Why does a large section of the media give so much coverage to the complaining ‘children’? EDUCATION & HEALTH NOT FREE Anatol Romanov asked: Systems currently in place in health and higher education – Medicare bulk billing and HELP/HECS – create an illusion of free services for all. I received my education in Soviet Union, where universities and health services were free. But, of course, they were not free, but instead were indirectly paid for by millions of underpaid workers, teachers, doctors and engineers. Now we all know that this economic model was unsustainable and is now history. The Budget offers measures to ensure sustainable health and higher education systems in Australia. My question is to Catherine King. How can a reasonable person deny that the current bulk billing and HECS arrangements are inefficient, too generous and unsustainable for the country even in the short run?