Here in the west, Osama Bin Laden is despised for his role in the September 11 attacks, for freely admitting he was behind the cold blooded operation, which killed nearly 3000 people.

So, emotions rose when a number of churches placed signs out from of their premises this week with the headline, ‘Jesus loves Osama’.

The sign has a khaki background, and in smaller writing underneath, it says “Jesus said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

The sign provoked a range of responses…shock, outrage, agreement, ambivalence. A ninemsn poll asked the question ‘Are churches right to say Jesus loves Osama’—204,000 respondents have said no. Only 47,000 have said yes.

The sentiment from many was this—what about sama’s victims? One bloke interviewed on the television said ‘If Jesus loves Osama, he’s not worth knowing’.

What I’d like to know is…what was your response when you heard about the sign (it made national news)? Do you agree with the statement? Or if not, how would you re-write the poster? What would you suggest instead?

Jesus loves Osama  – is it a good sign? If not, what would sound better.

i-Pods have in many ways, changed the way we listen and buy music – they’ve changed the way we learn and the way we access audio content.

But as we increasingly tune in, are we doing so at the expense of the people around us? Schoolfriends? Colleagues? Families? Even …personal safety?

A recent survey of 120 workplaces in London found 22 per cent of workers were listening to their i-pods to drown out office chatter. Maybe that’s an effective way to get more work done….Or is it just plain rude?

And in New York, three pedestrians have reportedly been killed after stepping into traffic, while being distracted by electronic devices.

That’s led to calls for pedestrians to be fined US $100 if they cross a street listening to an i-pod…due to safety concerns.

There’s no doubt i-pods have a lot to offer. They store a whole lot of music and photos…and you can listen to some really useful things. For example schools are finding they’re great tools for teaching foreign languages.

But are we, as a society, becoming increasingly isolated by electronic devices such as ipods? Not to mention other personal electronic devices such as PDAs and blackberries?

Are there times that you prefer your i-pod ..to human contact? When and where should i-pods be used?

Joan Sauer’s research suggested that 70 per cent of both girls and boys want more sex education. They don’t want more information on the mechanics—they’re getting that in sex-ed class at school. No, apparently they’re wanting more information on the ‘emotional realities’ of sex. One boy respondent said, “I just wish they had told me how bad you feel after a one-night stand.”

Combine that with Sauer’s figures that only 7 per cent of girls and 5 per cent of boys were told that sex had anything to do with love (instead of just procreation), and that 97 per cent of girls and 100 per cent of boys have viewed pornography by the time they’re 15, and you get the picture that teenagers are getting a warped view of sexuality.

Some think children should be taught earlier. One girl respondent said she wasn’t taught about sex until year 10, when she had already had it.

But how young is too young? Could early exposure give children information they’re not ready for?

And how? Do you think sex education is to be done at school or in the home? Or both?

When should a child be taught about sex and how? I’d particularly like your thoughts on the issue of sex education.

Marriage is probably one of THE defining moments in a person’s life…but what do you do to prepare yourself for it?

I read an amusing article in The Age this week – actually on Valentine’s Day - about the questions that potential marriage partners should ask each other…before deciding whether or not to tie the knot.

It includes discussing issues like what values and beliefs you hold to, whether your plans for the future are compatible, the question of children, family and finances, just to mention a few.

What I want to know from all the married couples out there…what are some of the important questions you asked each other…before getting married?

You may have heard the news of Britney Spears’ shock new look this week….Just in case you didn’t hear about it,.. pop princess Britney Spears is now bald.

Images of her freshly shaven head were broadcast on quite a few of the major networks and news sites around the world.

Britney Spears is 25 and it got me thinking…is there such a thing as a QUARTER life crisis?

A book of the same title has been written in the U.S, by Abby Wilner and Cathy Stocker.

They define the quarter life crisis as “a period of anxiety, uncertainty and inner turmoil that often accompanies the transition to adulthood.”

Co-author Abby Wilner first coined the phrase in 1997 after she graduated from university, moved back home and couldn’t figure out what to do with her life.

What I want to know is…does the quarter life crisis exist? Have you had one? Maybe you’re going through one now? Or maybe you remember having one…twenty years ago.

Or, on the flipside, maybe you believe the so-called ‘quarter life crisis’ DOESN’T exist. Maybe it’s just a clever name for a book, and not a phenomenon at all.

After all, everyone at every stage has life issues to deal with.

I'd love to hear from you.

The largest group of boat people to hit our shores since 2001 arrived in Australia this week…. 83 Sri Lankans, and 2 Indonesians were intercepted by the navy near Christmas Island on Wednesday.

The group has now been transferred to Christmas Island, for health and I-D checks.

The Prime Minister says the men will not be allowed to land on the Australian mainland – he says that sends a clear signal to people smugglers that Australia has a strong, effective border protection policy.

Opposition leader, Kevin Rudd says that if people are fleeing persecution – they should be taken to Christmas Island for processing.

There is talk that the group of 85 could be sent to Indonesia, from where they would have to lodge a claim of asylum with the United Nations – if they want to seek protection in Australia.

But the Refugee Council says Australia should NOT consider returning the men to Indonesia – and then to Sri Lanka – without letting the group put forward a case for protection.

Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews says “Any suggestion that Australia would agree to an arrangement which would see refugees returned to a country where they face persecution is wrong.”

Is Australia’s treatment of boat people fair?

• The Democrats say there could be Tamils on board whose lives would be at risk if they were returned to Sri Lanka

• Senator Andrew Bartlett says for the government to even contemplate sending the asylum seekers back without a proper assessment is a ‘complete and utter disgrace’.

What do you think?

I’d like your thoughts on a story that came out of NSW this week. While it’s based in that state it has relevance for all of us.

New South Wales is gearing up for a state election this month…and law and order is shaping up to be one of the hot button issues.

On Friday, the state Opposition leader Peter Debnam proposed a policy …which would see the criminal age of responsibility lowered from fourteen – to just ten. Currently laws in every state prevent convictions of children between 10 and 14 unless prosecutors can prove they knew their behaviour was wrong. This plan would abolish that.

FOR

• Mr Debnam says he’s representing police and local communities who feel impotent and fearful about charging rowdy children because of the hurdles in obtaining a conviction. He says the policy will ‘help break the cycle of crime’.
• If you commit a crime, at whatever age, you should be held accountable for it
• Even a ten year old needs to understand the limits of the law
• New South Wales shadow minister for juvenile justice, Catherine Cusack, says early intervention is the best option

AGAINST

• On the other hand, is a ten year old old enough to understand his or her actions?
• The NSW Government lampooned the idea as "going after children who should be in year 4, not a prison cell".
• Attorney-General, Bob Debus, said the law relating to children up to 14 was already "balanced and sensible".
• Others say locking up ten year olds will only turn them into hardened criminals

What do you think? Should ten to 14 year olds be held legally responsible for their crimes?

What have you done with your life? What influenced your decision to be where you are now?

Maybe you were at a crossroads at one stage and could have gone one of two ways…why did you decide to take one path over another?

In similar words to Douglas Brouwer, columnist Ross Gittins made the point this week that psychologists talk about three different kinds of work – you can either have a job, a career or a calling.

A career is identified by the amount of money you earn, or the opportunity for advancement, while a ‘calling’ Gittins writes, is “a passionate commitment to work for its own sake.”

I’d be interested to know what you do, and whether you consider it a job, career or even a calling.

Have you just finished school, or uni - and you’re now trying to figure out what to do with your life? Or have you worked in the same job your whole life – but are now ready for a change?

Maybe you have a really unique job?

Did you fall into your job by accident? Maybe you wanted to be something, but ended up being something else altogether!

What’s your story?

How are you trying to get your work/life balance into place? What has worked for you, and what hasn’t?

• Are your work hours out of control, or if you’ve been able to reign them in?
  
• Have you done the sea or tree-change thing? The problem is that most sea or tree-changes require big dollars. Who can afford moving to Byron Bay?
  
• What did you think of Paul’s comment about European countries fairing better than us because they’ve maintained Sunday as a day off?
  
• What’s the greatest cause of your long working hours. Would you say it’s shareholder demands, as Paul mentioned, or simply to keep afloat? Are your working arrangements contributing to stress in your family life?
  
• Maybe you’ve recently started working strange hours…how do you cope? How do the people around you cope?

Or maybe you’ve had to work anti-social hours for a while now…and you’re trying to get a job with normal hours – because of the impact it’s had on your family. How have you gone?

What would help you get work back in its place?

I want to hear about your experiences with the homeless.

Statistically there are 100 000 homeless people on the streets. People have been on and off the streets, so statistically, that could be you.

If you were once homeless, I want to hear from you. I want to hear how you got off the streets and what you’re doing now.

If you work with homeless people - what did you make of what Brian said? I’d like to hear how your experiences fit with his comments. Maybe you’ve helped re-integrate homeless people in to society – what challenges have you faced – what’s worked and what hasn’t?

There’s a perception that many homeless people actually choose to live on the streets – do you think that’s the case?

Nobody knows for sure whether Khalid was subjected to torture or not. He says he was, but the U.S government says he wasn’t.

Either way, should terrorists, or suspected terrorists ever be subjected to torture?

If one person has some information that would save thousands of lives…is torture ever justified to get that information?

What happens when people in the same family believe different things?

What happens when you believe something that your children don’t?

Alternatively, how do you feel when your parents don’t believe what you do?

That was the subject of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal – which found that an increasing number of American teenagers raised in secular families had become Christians.

The article pointed out this was a source of tension within some families.

The example of Kevin Ellstrand was a case in point. The 16 year old’s parents are self described secular humanists – but their son Kevin says he ‘started following Christ’ with all his heart two years ago.

While Kevin’s parents are mostly supportive of his Christian beliefs, Kevin’s mother said she found it appalling that her son does not believe in evolution.

In a more extreme case, the mother of 34 year old Tom Lin, threatened to kill herself when she found out her son chose to go into low-paying Christian ministry, instead of corporate law.

Maybe you’ve had a first hand experience of a ‘generation gap’ when it comes to religion and belief. Have you had a change of belief, and how have those around you responded?

Let me know your experience.

As we’ve just been hearing, West Australia was in shock this week with the news that AFL star Ben Cousins – had been suspended indefinitely from the game, after failing to show up for a training session.

Dr Stanley H Teitelbaum (Teytle-borm) has written a book called “Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols” – he writes about the ‘unreal sports heaven’ in which many elite athletes exist, where everybody says ‘yes’ and nobody says ‘no.’

He writes about some of the stresses that elite athletes endure...

-There’s the pressure of living up to expectations
-The pressure of performing at a consistently high level
-The strain of dealing with the media, management and fans
-Having the details of your private life splashed around
-Having to live through even small incidents being magnified by the press

Sure there are also the perks - salaries of more than half a million dollars, the glamorous girlfriends and high society events, not to mention the fact their job is to play a game they love.

But do you think we’re expecting too much from our young sports stars?
Surely it’s only human for them, like the rest of us, to make mistakes…?

Or, do you think that as sporting role models, they have a greater responsibility to make more of an effort in terms of their personal conduct?

Maybe you grew up in the country and moved to the city when you finished school….has the city lived up to your expectations?

Or maybe you’re living in the country and you don’t see any reason to move to a larger town or city. We want to hear about your experiences.

When it comes to a choice between the city and the country….which one did you choose and why? or maybe you grew up in a city and decided to do a ‘sea change’ or a ‘tree change’ – we want to hear from you as well.

There are many reasons why young people leave the country.

FOR:
• There are better facilities in the city, including health care, greater variety of university courses, better sporting grounds
• There’s the opportunity to meet more people from a variety of backgrounds
• There are jobs in fields that regional areas would not necessarily cater for
• More places to go out, theatre, big concerts and sporting events

But not everyone’s leaving the country… many do choose to stay.

AGAINST:
• There’s a greater sense of ‘community’ – in smaller towns people tend to know each other better than in a large, anonymous city
• Some prefer the relative quietness and slower pace of life in the country
• Affordable property in regional areas
• There can be career opportunities that would not necessarily be available in the city. For example many journalists ‘go regional’ to get experiences they would not have access to in the city…For the same reason, many doctors need to train in the bush.

Do you think David Hicks has been treated fairly?

On the one hand:

• Hicks has been held at Guantanamo Bay for five years and was only recently charged.
• The ‘providing material support for terrorism’ charge he’s pleaded guilty to was not even a law in 2001 when he was arrested.
• Some suggest Hicks has pleaded guilty to simply escape Guantanamo Bay. Held for that long without a trial, wouldn’t you do anything to escape?
• Hicks is an Australian citizen being tried in the US over alleged incidents in Afghanistan. Why wasn’t more pressure exerted to bring one of our citizen’s home earlier?

But on the other hand:

• Hicks has pleaded guilty to the charge of ‘providing material support for terrorism’. If his case was so strong would his legal team have allowed a guilty plea?
• Letters from David Hicks to his father affirmed that he was a ‘Taliban member’, described himself as a ‘well trained and practical soldier’ and said that he was prepared for martyrdom against the ‘friends of Satan’.
• Hicks’ alleged training with the Kosovo Liberation Army in Albania, the Lashkar-e-Tioba terrorist organisation in Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan would’ve taught him skills like weapons firing, landmines, assassination methods, kidnapping techniques and more.

What do you think?

The Prime Minister was this week encouraging us all to follow his lead, and stay in the workforce until our late 60s - in an effort to ensure Australia’s future prosperity.

Mr Howard says some of us are retiring too early, at 55.

What do you think of the prospect of working until you’re in your mid to late sixties? Is it something you welcome - or something you’ll be doing your best to get out of?

How old were you when you retired? Do you wish you’d stayed in the workforce? Are you about to retire? Or maybe you’ve just entered the workforce…how do you feel about spending the next fifty odd years working?

FOR

Mr Howard said one of the reasons why we should keep working is because we might ‘go to pieces’ if we stop working all of a sudden, after leading a very busy life.

He said: "They (retirees) are used to being relevant and useful and then all of a sudden they find they're not.” Is that your experience?

We all need to work longer for the sake of the economy as well apparently

AGAINST

On the other hand, if you could afford to retire at 55, or 30 for that matter, why wouldn’t you? There’s plenty of things to do in the world apart from paid work. You could learn a new language, volunteer some time at an organisation,  play tennis, travel….

And is seventy too old to properly enjoy your retirement? At that age do you still feel like joining the grey nomads and touring around Australia in your campervan?

So - do you agree with the Prime Minister – that we should be staying in the workforce longer? What’s your understanding of retirement, and when do you hope to take it?

What do you think?

On Friday, the Prime Minister told Southern Cross Radio that his initial response to the question of whether HIV positive people should be allowed into the country…is that they should NOT, except maybe in some humanitarian cases.

Mr Howard said he would look at changing the laws, so that HIV positive people are NOT allowed in the country.

However government insiders have told Fairfax the comments were off the cuff and unlikely to be implemented.

It came in response to a report which has found the number of people migrating to Victoria with HIV (from overseas and interstate) - has jumped from 16 cases in 2004, to 70 in 2006.

Is it an unfair burden on the public health system – or simply discrimination?

Just quickly, I’m going to tell you how both New Zealand and America have responded to the issue.

• Towards the end of last year, New Zealand decided to accept a group of Zimbabweans on humanitarian grounds.

• Zimbabwe has an HIV infection rate of around 20 per cent. The New Zealand government urged the immigrants to come forward for a health screening, saying their chances of becoming permanent residents would not be affected whether they were found to be HIV positive or not.

• The government also offered to pay for any anti-retro-viral treatments that the Zimbabweans would need, if they tested positive, at a cost to NZ taxpayers of potentially 3 million dollars a year.

• The United States has policies that restrict HIV positive people from emigrating and gaining a visa.

• The countries that impose outright bans on HIV positive people include Qatar, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

What do you think? Do you agree with the Prime Minister that Australia should probably not accept immigrants who are HIV positive? Or do you think there are situations, maybe like the Zimbabweans in New Zealand, when those concerns should be put aside (on humanitarian grounds)?

Or is simply discriminatory?

Hearing about the Virginia massacre on Tuesday was chilling enough – did we really need to see those pictures of murderer Cho Soong Hwee in an army vest waving his weapons around?

He apparently went to the post office to send a copy of his home movie to American network NBC - before storming off to kill 32 students and staff and commit suicide.

In a rant that was broadcast on many networks – he raged against rich kids and said he was going to die like Jesus Christ.

But how harmful are these pictures? Does broadcasting material like that encourage other would-be killers out there to take action? And be subsequently immortalized in death?

Maybe we do need to see the pictures – to understand the mind of a killer who so few people on the Virginia Tech campus seemed to know.

And maybe it can be justified as being in the public interest.

What do you think?

Five elderly residents of a Melbourne nursing home died this week – and another three are sick in hospital – after an outbreak of Salmonella over Easter.

Chief executive Sharon Callister of Benetas – which runs  the Broughton nursing home in Camberwell – said on Monday it was gastroenteritis, and not food poisoning that struck the aged care facility.

It raises the question of - how should elderly parents best be looked after, when they are no longer able to care for themselves? There are a couple of options out there-

• They can move into a nursing home
• They can have a home help arrangement where cleaners and gardeners visit their home to help them look after things, while still retaining some independence
• Or, they can move in with your family, and you can look after them

Maybe you’ve had to deal with this very question – what solution worked best for you and your family?

What would be your preference when you get to that age?

I want to hear your thoughts on this.

It seems that a combination of long hours, stressful work and a competitive work cultures are contributing to increasing cases of depression in the workplace, particularly in the fields of law and accounting, as we’ve just heard.

Do you work somewhere where long hours are worn as a ‘badge of honour?’

I’d love to hear from you – is it something that gets you down, or is something that comes with the territory and you just learn to cope with and maybe even learn to enjoy?

Maybe working long hours is just the ‘done thing’ and you have to do it in order to get a promotion.

Has a stressful working environment caused you to change jobs…. or even professions?

Or maybe your job even led you to develop depression – if that’s you, call me now, I want to hear what steps it forced you to take, and what changes it caused you to make in life.

Time magazine has released a list of the top 100 people who shape the world.

How does one get on the list? You have to be a man or woman “whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world.”

The usual suspects appear – Hollywood is well represented with people like Martin Scorsese, Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Other people to make the list include Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Richard Branson and even the Queen.

But what I want to know is – who has had a profound influence on your life? It doesn’t have to be THE world, just your world.

It may not have been dramatic at the time, but looking back you can definitely see this person has impacted the direction of your life.

It could be:
• Someone you’ve never met
• A family member
• A public figure
• A neighbour, a stranger, a teacher

Interesting that two of our guests this evening could identify one person who’s had an impact on their lives. Miles Hilton-Barber says he decided to become an adventurer because he admired his older brother who was also a blind adventurer.

And as we just heard from Nancy Heische, it was a close friend who took an interest in her life, and encouraged her back to church where she was able to get her life back on track.

Let me know who’s transformed your world.

The Australian Cricket team is in a bit of a dilemma – should it go on tour to Zimbabwe in September to play three one day games?

The Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, who’s a respected human rights campaigner -says that if Australia does participate, the Zimbabwean government will use the visit as propaganda.

He says that when the Australian cricket team visited three years ago, the state controlled media used the visit to suggest the international community supported the Zimbabwean government.

On that occasion in 2004, spin bowler Stuart MacGill boycotted the tour.

Archbishop Na-coo-bay says inflation is up to 2200 per cent, and Zimbabwe now has the world’s lowest life expectancy.

Many blame the country’s leader, Robert Mugabe for the country’s woes.

Prime Minister John Howard says the situation in Zimbabwe is unacceptable.

Captain Ricky Ponting says every player will be able to make up their own mind on whether they should go or not.

What do you think? Should the Australian cricket team tour Zimbabwe in September?

What do you think is more important for the future of education in Australia?

Should Australia be investing in Tradies…or scholars?

Kevin Rudd says he’ll spend 2 and a half billion dollars on trade training centres in schools, while the coalition’s big focus will be to sink $5 billion dollars into universities.

Where do you want to see the money go? 

Maybe you’re a university student and you can see areas where the money is desperately needed…OR maybe you’re a trade worker and can’t find the workers who are appropriately skilled in a trade?

If your school had offered you the opportunity to learn a trade, would you have been interested? Mr Rudd says “Not every Australian kid wants to go to university and this plan responds to their need."

Or is the money better spent on infrastructure and research in Australian universities?

After the budget was announced, Sydney university Vice Chancellor Gavin Brown said: "I seriously believe this budget is the best news for Australian universities for decades."

Labor has a university placements and the coalition have a trade education policy, but it seems that they’re both emphasising one over the other.

Funding for universities or funding for trade education - which proposal excites you more and why?

How much money have you earned over the last year?

What do you make of a group of Macquarie executives earning $200 million between them - over the last twelve months?

Managing Director and Chief executive of the company, Allan Moss, has received a remuneration package worth $33.5 million for his efforts. Even the Prime Minister said it’s a lot of money.

Do you think it’s too much money for one individual? Is it amoral? As some in the Shareholders Association believe…?

Or is it justified as a measure of the bank’s performance? Macquarie Bank did post a profit of $1.46 BILLION.

I want to hear whether you think executive salaries on this kind of scale are justified.

What kind of conflicts have you had to deal with in the workplace?

How did you resolve it? Was it something that lasted a day…or maybe it was a workplace conflict that you had to deal with over a longer period of time…

What did you learn from it in the end?

How did it affect your work performance and relationship with your colleagues?

Maybe it was a petty argument...or a more serious conflict…either way I want to know how you got through it.

On Friday the Prime Minister said “Indigenous people have no hope of being part of the mainstream of this country unless they can speak the language of this country.”

It came after the indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, suggested the best way for Aboriginal children in remote communities to have more options in life is to learn English.

Mr Brough is drawing up a plan that would see parents of indigenous children lose their welfare payments if they don’t send their children to school.

Mr Howard also says that non English speaking migrants who come to Australia have to learn English, and even though indigenous Australians are not migrants, he said the same should apply to Aboriginal children.

The Australian Education Union says the government needs to provide more money if the plan is to work. Others say that whether or not a child learns English should not be tied to welfare payments – and that parents should ultimately decide whether or not their child learns English.

What do you think? Is the government’s plan for indigenous children in remote communities to learn English, a good idea?

FOR:

Mal Brough says that if we want Aboriginal children to have the same life expectancy, and the same capacity to enjoy ‘the bounty’ of Australia, then they need to be able to speak English.

He says speaking English is essential if indigenous children are to become ‘mobile citizens’

AGAINST:

Will we see indigenous languages disappear if Aboriginal people are in this way forced to learn English?

Do you think it’s fair that parents lose their welfare payments if they don’t send their children to school? Is this a good incentive? Should learning English be tied to welfare payments?

Who are Australia’s most trusted people in 2007? That’s the subject of a new survey which has found we trust The Wiggles more than John Howard, and farmers more than business executives. It also found that politicians, journalists, lawyers, real estate agents, telemarketers and used car salesmen are the least trusted professions.

But is this valid? Do we really have any grounds for not trusting people in these professions? Could we be caught in an outdated cliché of these professions as untrustworthy?

I’d especially like to hear from you if you do work in one of these professions. Do you even care that this is the way your profession is being perceived by the public?

Is climate change going to be THE issue of the next federal election?

Both Labor and Liberal parties have different ideas about what should be done to tackle climate change, and both have different ideas about when and how Australia should go about reducing emissions.

The Labor party – says it will be aiming to reduce emissions by 60 per cent by 2050

The Liberal party – hasn’t yet set a target, but says it will do so next year. The Prime Minister says a carbon emissions trading scheme will be implemented by 2012.

But is this an issue you even care about in the lead up to the Federal election?

Is a policy on climate change important enough to you – to sway your vote one way or the other?

Maybe policies on education, health or welfare are more important to you than action on climate change.

I want to know how crucial an election issue this will be for you?

Floods, evacuations, train disasters—these past few days have been full of tragedy. It got Kirsty and I thinking about resilience, how we develop the strength to get through the hard times, and that brings up the issue of community support.

To bring through a sense of hope into the equation I’d love you to tell me about a time when the community came through for you.

Your family might’ve been struck with illness, perhaps you were unemployed for a time, maybe you lost your home and possessions in a disaster. How did others come through for you?

It might’ve been your church community, your neighbourhood, a bunch of work colleagues.

Describe a time when the community came through for you—what happened, who helped, what was the impact on you?

What are your thoughts on this issue?

What’s your experience…do you think Primetime television is too violent?

And what’s your response to TV violence? Do you feel strongly enough about it to switch off or change the channel? Or are there some shows where violence can be justified?

When was the last time you covered your child’s eyes while watching TV together?

Are there programs you no longer watch because of the amount of violence?

On the other hand, are there some shows that you think wouldn’t actually work without violence?

How concerned are you, really, about violence on TV?

The cases of these three babies being dumped in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth are extreme cases.

But there’s no doubt that parenting is a tough task.

If you’re a parent, I want to hear from you about a time when you felt overwhelmed bringing up small children – and how you got through moments of desperation…

Was it family that supported you? Your church? Maybe you had a baby when you were young and felt overwhelmed by the whole parenting thing.

How did you get through it, and what did you learn in the process?

What do you think of the government’s plan to tackle indigenous child abuse by banning X rated pornography and alcohol?

Do you think it’s heavy handed and draconian – or good management of a serious problem?

Do you think these are good ideas that will help tackle the problem?

FOR:

The Prime Minster says we can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the abuse and neglect of children.

Mr Howard says the only way to help dysfunctional communities is by grabbing control of the communities, providing medical help for children, and stemming the flow of alcohol.

Mr Howard admits the measures are hardline, but says there’s nothing wrong with that, because it’s a crisis situation

Although the plan was initially criticised as being racist, Mr Howard now says all Australians who do not use welfare benefits for the good of their child - will have their payments quarantined

AGAINST:

Some have voiced reservations though….

Rex Wild QC, who we just heard from, says the government should have consulted indigenous people before taking action.

Clare Martin, Chief minister of the Northern Territory says she wrote to the Prime Minister a year ago, requesting action be taken on the issue, and is calling the government’s action now, nothing more than a ‘vote grab’ – leading up the federal election.

 There’s also concern about the sexual abuse checks on young children being inappropriate – to the point that they could be considered abuse in itself

Heavy handed and draconian? – or good management?

Where do you fit into the latest census results? Have you changed your religious affiliation over the last decade?

The stats say that the number of people identifying as Christian has declined from 71 per cent to 64 per cent during the decade from 1996 to 2006.

But Christianity is still Australia’s most dominant system of belief – with 12 point 7 million people saying they’re believers.

Meantime the number of people who say they don’t believe anything has increased to 19 per cent.

The number of Buddhists and Hindus has doubled since 1996, largely due to immigration.

The Pentecostal church is growing rapidly (26% nationwide, 48% in NSW), but Catholicism is still Australia’s single most dominant religion. (accounts for 26% of respondents who say they have a religion)

The ABS also said that the Baptist churches and eastern orthodox churches have reported strong growth.

So we’ve heard all the figures and crunched the numbers – but now I want to hear the stories behind the numbers.

I want to hear why you decided to join, and how it’s going.

Let’s put a human face on these census figures.

What do you think about the Bishop’s advice to slow down? Do you agree with him when he says life moves too fast?

Have you ever tried slowing down the pace of your life? How did it go? Did you get bored? Or is it the best thing you’ve ever done?

Do you bake your own bread, brew your own tea with leaves and sometimes even take time out to do nothing at all?

What do you wish you had more time to do?

Or maybe there’s been a time in your life where you’ve actually run yourself right down because you were so busy, and have been forced to slow things down.

What are some of the things you’d do if you had more time?

What do you think of the fact that the nation’s leaders will be addressing the Christian constituency?

Are you going to be interested in what they’ve got to say? Does it even matter what the future Prime Minister believes? Or are personal beliefs irrelevant to running the country?

If you could probe John Howard or Kevin Rudd - what would you want to find out?

What qualities will you be looking for in the future Prime Minister?

Will a leader’s personal characteristics and beliefs make a difference to how you vote – or are you more interested in their policies? Can the two even be separated?