Latest news with #UnitingChurch
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Approval of Woodside's North West Shelf gas extension to 2070 slammed by religious leaders
Faith leaders say they are 'deeply troubled' by the Federal Government's decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf gas processing facility to 2070. On Wednesday, Labor approved a 40-year extension of the country's largest gas plant. While Environment Minister Murray Watt's decision to grant the approval for Woodside's North West Shelf extension in Western Australia's Pilbara has been praised by industry and unions, others have condemned it due to the threat to the Murujuga cultural heritage. President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Charissa Suli told reporters in Perth on Sunday, she is 'profoundly disappointed' about the approval of the North West Shelf gas processing facility. 'As a daughter of the Pacific, I have witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of climate change on culturally rich but environmentally vulnerable nations in our region,' she said. 'These nations — many of which are home to Uniting Church partners within the Asia-Pacific — contribute the least to global emissions yet suffer the greatest consequences. 'Why then is approval granted to an old, polluting facility to continue emitting vast volumes of climate damaging emissions of a magnitude many times greater than the emissions of all the Pacific nations? This is not loving thy neighbour.' Rev Mitchell Garlett from the Uniting Aboriginal & Islander Christian Congress added he is 'very disappointed' that the decision was made without 'close consultation with the relevant Traditional Owners'. 'The connection we feel to Country is not just a physical thing but a spiritual connection that is deeper than what we see with our eyes,' he said. 'It is heartbreaking that reconciliation is spoken of but our brothers and sisters voices are not being heard, and the land continues to suffer for so-called progress.' Rev Dr Ian Tozer added they are 'deeply concerned' by the threat to First Nations cultural heritage sites, including 60,000-year-old priceless petroglyphs at the World Heritage nominated Murujuga rock art site. 'It is vital that these ancient sites, so precious to Australia's First Peoples and to our history, are not further damaged by industry,' he said. Meanwhile, Woodside has said the approval would support thousands of jobs and supply affordable energy to Western Australia. The project has supplied 6000 petajoules of domestic gas, powering homes and industry in Western Australia with enough energy to power homes in a city the size of Perth for approximately 175 years, the company said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Heartbreaking': Gas extension decision slammed
Faith leaders say they are 'deeply troubled' by the Federal Government's decision to approve the extension of the North West Shelf gas processing facility to 2070. On Wednesday, Labor approved a 40-year extension of the country's largest gas plant. While Environment Minister Murray Watt's decision to grant the approval for Woodside's North West Shelf extension in Western Australia's Pilbara has been praised by industry and unions, others have condemned it due to the threat to the Murujuga cultural heritage. President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Charissa Suli told reporters in Perth on Sunday, she is 'profoundly disappointed' about the approval of the North West Shelf gas processing facility. 'As a daughter of the Pacific, I have witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of climate change on culturally rich but environmentally vulnerable nations in our region,' she said. 'These nations — many of which are home to Uniting Church partners within the Asia-Pacific — contribute the least to global emissions yet suffer the greatest consequences. 'Why then is approval granted to an old, polluting facility to continue emitting vast volumes of climate damaging emissions of a magnitude many times greater than the emissions of all the Pacific nations? This is not loving thy neighbour.' Rev Mitchell Garlett from the Uniting Aboriginal & Islander Christian Congress added he is 'very disappointed' that the decision was made without 'close consultation with the relevant Traditional Owners'. 'The connection we feel to Country is not just a physical thing but a spiritual connection that is deeper than what we see with our eyes,' he said. 'It is heartbreaking that reconciliation is spoken of but our brothers and sisters voices are not being heard, and the land continues to suffer for so-called progress.' Rev Dr Ian Tozer added they are 'deeply concerned' by the threat to First Nations cultural heritage sites, including 60,000-year-old priceless petroglyphs at the World Heritage nominated Murujuga rock art site. 'It is vital that these ancient sites, so precious to Australia's First Peoples and to our history, are not further damaged by industry,' he said. Meanwhile, Woodside has said the approval would support thousands of jobs and supply affordable energy to Western Australia. The project has supplied 6000 petajoules of domestic gas, powering homes and industry in Western Australia with enough energy to power homes in a city the size of Perth for approximately 175 years, the company said. Environmental groups estimate the project will produce 4.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Michael moved to a Uniting Church farmhouse in Brisbane to escape homelessness. Now his landlord is evicting him to build more houses
When Michael Guettler moved to Hungerford Farm, in Brisbane's north-west in 2022, he thought he was finally safe from homelessness. The home, at the centre of a 28-hectare former chicken run, is just an uninsulated 'four-bedroom shack', he says. At $280 a week it was all he and his partner could afford; they were without other options, so they were happy to stay. But on Monday, the Queensland civil and administrative tribunal signed off on an eviction notice for their landlord, the Uniting Church of Australia. Guettler believes they will be forced back into his car by the church's decision. He says despite the church billing itself as 'a strong advocate for social and affordable housing and ending homelessness', the decision was 'unchristian'. 'Where does Jesus fit into all of this?' he says. Guettler and his partner have been caught up in a fight over the historic lot at 76 Kooya Road, Mitchelton. The church plans to remove the house to make way for a 92-dwelling estate. Many locals oppose the scheme. If approved, it would mean the subdivision of the last of what were once many farms in Mitchelton. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Guettler claims he and his partner have been offered no alternative housing to the Mitchelton estate and cannot find anywhere on the private market they can afford on the disability support pension. This is a claim the Uniting church denies. 'The property managers operating on behalf of the Uniting Church have offered ongoing assistance with suitable alternative properties, rental applications and references, and the church has been offering ongoing social support,' a spokesperson for the church says. Brisbane's rental vacancy rates are near record lows at just 1%. The couple, meanwhile, have been on the social housing waiting list for about six years along with 47,818 other Queenslanders. 'We've got an application approved with the Department of Housing – which is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike,' Guettler says. Development was the last thing on the mind of Greg Hungerford, the former owner of Hungerford Farm. His family had called 76 Kooya Road home since the 1920s as the suburb rapidly grew around them. Once just a scattered handful of semi-rural homes at Brisbane's north-west edge, the 1950s arrival of the car turned Mitchelton into one of Brisbane's fastest-growing suburbs. Unlike other landholders, the Hungerfords resisted selling, continuing to run their free-range poultry farm into the 70s, selling eggs to their increasingly numerous neighbours. Surrounded by suburbia on three sides and the Enoggera army barracks on the fourth, it remains untouched by development today. Curlews, bandicoots and even kangaroos continue to visit regularly. Greg Hungerford, who inherited the property, described it as 'like paradise in the city'. He died in 2015. In his will he directed his lawyers to sell the land to the Brisbane city council, that it 'be protected from commercial development, that its environmental and natural values be protected' and that it be converted into parkland 'for the benefit of the public in general'. The trustees were released from any obligation to obtain a fair market rate for the land; one of its few conditions of sale was that the park be named for his mother, Pearl. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion A spokesperson for Brisbane city council says it attempted to buy the site but 'sadly the executors of the will did not agree'. Instead, in 2020, it was sold to the Uniting Church of Australia property trust. The church reportedly considered converting the huge field into something like an aged care home but decided against doing so. In 2022, it submitted plans for a housing subdivision to Brisbane city council. Calling themselves 'Friends of Hungerford Farm', scores of neighbours wrote to the council to oppose the church development application. Many homes in the area display corflutes calling for a 'better deal for development at 76 Kooya Road' organised by the federal MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown. The Greens MP says the site lacks public and active transport access but is 'ideal for mixed-use development, maximising the benefit to the community'. A spokesperson from the Uniting Church in Australia's Queensland synod says 'the development application is now in its final stages'. 'The current situation highlights the overwhelming need for more affordable housing to be brought online as quickly as possible in Queensland.' As a tenant, rather than an owner, Guettler believes he has virtually no rights in the face of development. Brisbane's median rents for a house have increased from $461 to $752 since the beginning of the pandemic. The city passed Melbourne to become Australia's third-most expensive city and then Canberra to be second-most, both in 2024. Prices continue to increase, due to record-low development approvals. Guettler's tenancy will be terminated on 30 June, with a warrant of possession issued for 1 July. Guettler says he feels overwhelmed, anxious and stressed about returning to potentially being homeless. 'We're a first world developed country, it's really becoming so shameful,' he says.
The Age
23-04-2025
- General
- The Age
Fearless advocate, compassionate leader, and rule-breaker for justice
Soon he was pioneering and running a national project for Community Service Volunteers (CSV) that he named Social Action Broadcasting. He formed partnerships with mainstream commercial radio and TV companies and with the BBC. Ric knew that partnership with media was central to the project's success – providing expertise in areas foreign to media companies, who in turn provided production and prime airtime. His Help! series on Thames Television did the first program on AIDS in the UK, for example. 'There was a lot of pressure (on mass media) at that time to do community stuff,' Ric said. 'I jumped on the bandwagon. And media managers knew that by being involved in the community they would lift their audience numbers.' He honed his entrepreneurial skills, raising funds in the UK and Europe. Later he raised funds from governments at every level in Australia for his many social justice projects. It was Ric's communications expertise that led to his recruitment by the Uniting Church in Victoria in 1989. He and his young family migrated to Melbourne where he became a Uniting Church minister and headed its communications board for four years. He is perhaps best known in Melbourne for his work at Lort Smith Animal Hospital and then at Melbourne City Mission. Ric's speciality had always been in meeting needs and bringing people together – people of all ages, all cultures, all religions or none, all sexual orientations, all types of relationships. He expanded his canvas to include animals at Lort Smith when he became its CEO. Despite its many thousands of animal consultations, treatments and surgeries carried out each year, its projects would now expand into the strong bond people have with animals. Ric set up programs such as emergency pet boarding for people who were in crisis or homeless, who could not take their pets into refuges, safe houses or hospitals. This 'people perspective' on the hospital's role led him to employ a chaplain, a world first for an animal hospital. She supported many people experiencing stress and shock due to the illness or bereavement of their beloved pets. He also secured DGR (deductible gift recipient) status for animal charities throughout Australia, which revolutionised their access to funding. Ric's time as Melbourne City Mission CEO was another social justice ministry. It had been set up in 1854 to help people in need. He said: 'We've got to be innovative. We can't keep doing the same old stuff.' His 'new stuff' included starting a school for homeless and disadvantaged young people with classrooms (each with a teacher and a social worker) in Melbourne's inner city and in areas of disadvantage in the suburbs of Melbourne. Kids had been school refusers, disengaged and homeless with no social support up to now. Wrap-around support services – from accommodation and living skills to doctors and dentists gave them a new life. Not just an education, but hope, for students who had been disengaged, unsupported and often invisible to the wider community. Ric moved on to become the minister of St Michael's Uniting Church Collins Street where, like in all his church positions, congregations flourished under his leadership. He was a proud and active supporter of the 'Yes' campaign for marriage equality and officiated the first same-sex marriage in a church. His last appointment, at Hampton Park Uniting Church, began at an age where others were retiring. Many in the Hampton Park community are newly arrived refugees with little language or support. They are now offered a women's crisis support program, counselling, education, free meals, playgroups, early parenting support, financial advice, assistance to engage with the local community, help with language, a lunch for carers. Ric Holland won the hearts of the congregation and the wider community. On his retirement in 2024, local MP Gary Maas told state parliament: 'His social justice work is inspired and has made a real difference to many, here and abroad. He is a giant in the social justice world.' Through every act of kindness, every campaign, every challenge to the status quo, Ric remained driven by an unshakable faith in humanity and an unyielding belief in justice. He was often a troublemaker to the church, in the holiest sense – never content to sit quietly when action was required. His wife Joni Tooth, a film producer, said: 'Ric had a massive commitment to social justice, a risk-taker able to take personal responsibility to see it through. He had the enthusiasm and ability to inspire, enthuse and enable others. 'He had a management style of building up common vision. He was a rule breaker, a lateral thinker. Everyone loved him, from politicians and premiers to street kids and prisoners. Ric treated everyone the same.' John Wesley would doubtless approve.
Sydney Morning Herald
23-04-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Fearless advocate, compassionate leader, and rule-breaker for justice
Soon he was pioneering and running a national project for Community Service Volunteers (CSV) that he named Social Action Broadcasting. He formed partnerships with mainstream commercial radio and TV companies and with the BBC. Ric knew that partnership with media was central to the project's success – providing expertise in areas foreign to media companies, who in turn provided production and prime airtime. His Help! series on Thames Television did the first program on AIDS in the UK, for example. 'There was a lot of pressure (on mass media) at that time to do community stuff,' Ric said. 'I jumped on the bandwagon. And media managers knew that by being involved in the community they would lift their audience numbers.' He honed his entrepreneurial skills, raising funds in the UK and Europe. Later he raised funds from governments at every level in Australia for his many social justice projects. It was Ric's communications expertise that led to his recruitment by the Uniting Church in Victoria in 1989. He and his young family migrated to Melbourne where he became a Uniting Church minister and headed its communications board for four years. He is perhaps best known in Melbourne for his work at Lort Smith Animal Hospital and then at Melbourne City Mission. Ric's speciality had always been in meeting needs and bringing people together – people of all ages, all cultures, all religions or none, all sexual orientations, all types of relationships. He expanded his canvas to include animals at Lort Smith when he became its CEO. Despite its many thousands of animal consultations, treatments and surgeries carried out each year, its projects would now expand into the strong bond people have with animals. Ric set up programs such as emergency pet boarding for people who were in crisis or homeless, who could not take their pets into refuges, safe houses or hospitals. This 'people perspective' on the hospital's role led him to employ a chaplain, a world first for an animal hospital. She supported many people experiencing stress and shock due to the illness or bereavement of their beloved pets. He also secured DGR (deductible gift recipient) status for animal charities throughout Australia, which revolutionised their access to funding. Ric's time as Melbourne City Mission CEO was another social justice ministry. It had been set up in 1854 to help people in need. He said: 'We've got to be innovative. We can't keep doing the same old stuff.' His 'new stuff' included starting a school for homeless and disadvantaged young people with classrooms (each with a teacher and a social worker) in Melbourne's inner city and in areas of disadvantage in the suburbs of Melbourne. Kids had been school refusers, disengaged and homeless with no social support up to now. Wrap-around support services – from accommodation and living skills to doctors and dentists gave them a new life. Not just an education, but hope, for students who had been disengaged, unsupported and often invisible to the wider community. Ric moved on to become the minister of St Michael's Uniting Church Collins Street where, like in all his church positions, congregations flourished under his leadership. He was a proud and active supporter of the 'Yes' campaign for marriage equality and officiated the first same-sex marriage in a church. His last appointment, at Hampton Park Uniting Church, began at an age where others were retiring. Many in the Hampton Park community are newly arrived refugees with little language or support. They are now offered a women's crisis support program, counselling, education, free meals, playgroups, early parenting support, financial advice, assistance to engage with the local community, help with language, a lunch for carers. Ric Holland won the hearts of the congregation and the wider community. On his retirement in 2024, local MP Gary Maas told state parliament: 'His social justice work is inspired and has made a real difference to many, here and abroad. He is a giant in the social justice world.' Through every act of kindness, every campaign, every challenge to the status quo, Ric remained driven by an unshakable faith in humanity and an unyielding belief in justice. He was often a troublemaker to the church, in the holiest sense – never content to sit quietly when action was required. His wife Joni Tooth, a film producer, said: 'Ric had a massive commitment to social justice, a risk-taker able to take personal responsibility to see it through. He had the enthusiasm and ability to inspire, enthuse and enable others. 'He had a management style of building up common vision. He was a rule breaker, a lateral thinker. Everyone loved him, from politicians and premiers to street kids and prisoners. Ric treated everyone the same.' John Wesley would doubtless approve.
