Address to the National Civic Council Dinner, Melbourne
“The Future for Australia: where to from here?”
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This section contains a selection of speeches prior to 2010 and more comprehensive additions from the resumption of Parliament in 2010. Full collection of speeches can be found on ParlInfo
“The Future for Australia: where to from here?”
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Marriage as a social unit pre-existed the nation state and parliaments. It is common to all cultures. It's very rationale was about the best way for raising and socialising the next generation, providing the certainty and stability of their biological parents and the diversity of a female and male role model. In its variations between cultures, the 'man, woman, children' element of marriage is the common denominator. It is not about the adults, but the potential children. It is 'other' focused, not 'self' focused. As even the atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell opined, it is through children alone that sexual relations became of importance to society and worthy to be taken cognisance of by a legal institution. Our own Australian Law Reform Commission noted that marriage in Indigenous communities is a central feature of traditional Aboriginal societies, and the union was considered to be strengthened by the birth of the first child. So, here, too, we have marriage and raising children inextricably interlinked.
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E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Subjects: Government Debt, School Education Reforms
SPEECH TO THE SENATE ON FREE SPEECH REFORMS
CANBERRA
SPEECH AT THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION CEREMONY OF THE 1967 BUSHFIRES
SNUG,
TASMANIA
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Eric Abetz has been a Liberal Senator for Tasmania since 1994 and has served in a range of Leadership, Ministerial and Shadow Ministerial roles.