Appalling decision by the PM.
He has denied, delayed, and now decided to do nothing. He has caved to lobbying from the gambling industry, and it’s our young people who will pay the price.
www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...
Geography is destiny. But blood tells many stories.
(Tim Winton, ‘Juice’)
#books
The Australian government can move quickly in seeking to protect our kids from the worst impacts of social media platforms, but are paralysed by inaction when it comes the rapacious influence of online betting companies on those same kids? It’s almost as if money talks. 🤷♂️😡
Urged on by Depeche Mode’s classic, ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ on my 80’s playlist I came to the stark realisation I dance like Donald Trump. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
While there are so many more reforms necessary to reel in a parasitic industry that causes an epidemic of harm in NSW, this a great, and welcome initiative. Well done, Chris Minns and your government.
www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw...
At 7.02pm on the #BBL cricket broadcast Channel 7 crossed to cover a Gold Coast horse race, preceded by a live odds update. All in a family friendly time for a broadcast of a family friendly sports product. It’s pathetic. We must reign in the cooption of Aussie sport by sports betting!
Yep.
Best novel: ‘Bad Actors’ by Mick Herron. Many have discovered Herron’s ‘slow horses’ through the TV series. It’s great. The books are better. As they always will be.
7/7
Best biography: ‘King’ by Jonathan Eig. This won a Pulitzer for good reasons. I couldn’t put it down.
5/6
Best autobiography: ‘Everything Sad is Untrue’ by Daniel Nayeri. I laughed and cried my way through a book that defies categorisation. Part fantasy, young adult lit, autobiography - and always moving, this is a story of unusual - supernatural - courage. 4/6
Best memoir: ‘The Queen is Dead’ by Stan Grant. Such an eloquent, challenging and brutally honest series of reflections on modern Australia’s deeply unjust relationship with its first peoples, authored by perhaps Australia’s most important living prophet. 3/6
Best book read this year: ‘Morality’ by Jonathan Sacks. A bracing, yet hopeful survey of the crushing weight of modern individualism, how it evolved and how we can counter its destructive impacts, authored by the late brilliant theologian/philosopher.
2/6
I set myself the goal to read 30 books in 2024. I over-achieved and read 31 - a wide and varied mix of novels, biography, memoir, philosophy/theology and other non-fiction. 😉 Here’s a list of the most memorable: A 🧵
Controversial (?) Take: Books are better than Bingeing.
Two novels into my Christmas-New Year reading frenzy, I’ve been reminded yet again that allowing your imagination to take off with a good book is infinitely more enjoyable than bingeing most TV series.
On Christmas Day Wesley Mission was blessed to host 300 special guests for lunch, served by 40 or so incredible volunteers. One of them was Brianna Casey AM - CEO for Foodbank Australia - who had quietly put up her hand to help a week earlier. This is servant leadership.
I know for many of us it’s exciting that it’s only one more sleep until Christmas.
It’s also just two more sleeps until I see Rosie, our beautiful granddaughter, for the first time in three months. I’m like a kid who can’t wait for Christmas.
‘Australians have become less likely to join community groups, play organised sport or attend religious services. We have fewer friends and are less likely to know our neighbours. Australia has become less a country of ‘we’ and more a nation of ‘me’. ‘
(Andrew Leigh, ‘Battlers and Billionaires’)
Spending a (much needed) lazy Sunday afternoon watching Travis Head take the game away from the Indians warms the heart of this South Australian. He’s like a good Coonawarra Red - maturing with every year.
I’m at most my judgmental when…navigating shopping centre car parks in the weeks leading up to, and following Christmas. Seriously people!
When religion dies and consumerism takes its place, people are left with a culture that encourages them to buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have for a happiness that won’t last. It’s a bad exchange, and it will end in tears.
(Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
#BlackFriday
It’s perplexing the federal government can rush through far-reaching social media bans under the scant cover of a sham 24 hour inquiry, and yet won’t implement any of the 31 considered recommendations of the cross-party Murphy inquiry into gambling harm that’s been on its desk for 17 months? 🤷♂️🤨
My latest pile of books.
#leadersarereaders
The barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time.
(Alasdair MacIntyre)
Wearing a seatbelt is mandatory for a good reason - it significantly reduces harm. The same for bike helmets.
A mandatory, universal, cashless gambling card - with harm minimisation measures built in - will do the same. It will significantly reduce the tsunami of harm caused by NSW pokies.
I get how supply and demand works. I get that water views are nice, especially on Sydney Harbour. But when rapidly increasing numbers of Australian working families are struggling to put a roof over their head, this number is still obscene.
‘Labor MPs raised no concerns during Tuesday’s meeting (with the PM) about the government’s retreat on gambling advertising – a reform that has been shelved indefinitely – but MPs have said privately they are disappointed with the decision.’ SMH
Disappointing, to say the least.
I must not buy any more books this year.
I must not buy any more books this year.
I must not buy any more books this year…
Oh heck…
In a @wesleymission survey of 1017 NSW adults, we asked ‘Do you have any reservations about the introduction of a mandatory cashless payment system, with harm minimisation measures, for poker machines?’
72% responded ‘no’.
The time for real, proportionate reform is NOW!
It’s ridiculous that almost 18 months after the Murphy inquiry landed we still don’t have the govt response to its 31 recommendations, and may not get them in this term of parliament. It’s ludicrous. Meanwhile, sports betting companies market their addictive product unchecked.
#gambling
This is our ‘welcome mat’ this #christmas season at Wesley Mission. All are welcome, all are valued, all are loved. Because every life matters to God, and to us.