AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

PRESS RELEASE 435

‘CONTEMPT OF COURT’

Unofficial voices from the dogs australian high court case 1981

finally published

July 12, 2011

The manuscript which appears on our website under the name ‘Contempt of Court’ has finally been edited and published. It has been printed and is being distributed by Arena Printing and Publishing Pty Ltd ,

2-14 Kerr Street Fitzroy 3065 .

Phone number : 03 9 416 0232 and

Fax number : 03 9 416 0684.

Price: $29.95

Limited copies are available for $30 from 3CR , The Community Radio Station. Any moneys paid go to the running costs of the station at Smith Street Fitzroy . Their official address is:

P.O. Box 1277

Collingwood 3066

Phone: 9 419 8377

What is this publication about?

The ‘blurb’ which is printed on the back cover about this story behind the DOGS high Court case of 1981 has this to say:

The story the author has been asked to tell has been consistently written out of the mainstream media. It should be told to put the record straight. Some plaintiffs have died. Those remaining want to leave a signpost for the next generation who pass that way. The participants still have documentation, memories and stories. The author has accepted their challenge and decided to write this tory from the ‘side’. Instead of tiptoeing through the minefields of recent Australian history she is diving head first into the thoughts and actions of the main characters. This book attempts to create a narrative that brings back to life the experience of participants in this story.

So much for the history, recent as it is.

The book has much to offer in the current situation. There is disquiet in the general community that the underpinnings of our democratic society, a well- resourced public education system and the separation of religion and the State, are under attack. Freedom from entanglement of religion with the state , enshrined in our Constitution by Inglis Clark and Higgins in Section 116, was read down and out by the High Court in 1981.

Justice Murphy’s dissenting judgment has to date, been ignored. It is reproduced in Appendix One of this publication.

The predictions of the DOGS in the 1960s have come to pass.

There is another case before the High Court testing the secular underpinnings of our public education systems in Australia. The influence of religious institutions wielding influence on our democratic institutions with billions of taxpayer dollars has reached an unacceptable level. It is eroding our democratic inheritance.

This story, shocking as it may be, is more than relevant to our current Australian predicament.

Listen to the DOGS program

3CR, 855 on the A.M. dial

12 Noon Saturdays