AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS - D.O.G.S.

PRESS RELEASE 108#.

LETTER TO BUSINESS REVIEW WEEKLY

The following letter was sent to the Business Review Weekly. We are not waiting for its publication with bated breath.

Readers Contributions

The Editor,

Business Review Weekly,

GPO Box 55 A

MELBOURNE 3001

Dear Sir,

Readers to your Articles BRW March 24-30 2005 on Charities Inc may be interested to note the following contained in the dissenting judgment of Justice Lionel Keith Murphy in the DOGS case 1981,

"History has a very important economic aspect. One of the dangers of subsidizing religious institutions and granting them financial privileges ( such as exemption from income tax, land and municipal rates, sales and other taxes) is that such Institutions tend to become extremely wealthy, to aggrandize, and to become States within a State”

Murphy also referred to the findings of Justice Douglas of the United States Supreme Court who noted that  “it is not unreasonable to prophesy that with reasonable, prudent management, the churches ought to be able to control the whole economy of the nation within the predictable future." Justice Murphy, Dissenting Judgment, DOGS CASE 1981  146 CLR at p. 625.

Justice Murphy was in his generation, reflecting the concerns of our Founding Fathers and in particular the primary architects of the Australian Constitution Andrew Inglis Clark, Griffiths, Parkes and Barton.

Yours sincerely,

RAY NILSEN