Social Justice conversations

At the moment The Salvation Army is supporting three campaigns in the social justice arena.

The first is to ask the Hon Nicola Rixon, Attorney General, to change Australian laws regarding the importation of goods that involve the use of slavery in their production. Australian law makes it illegal for any Australian company to engage in any financial transaction involving a slave, regardless of where it occurs in the world. Unfortunately, it is up to consumers to do their own extensive research to identify goods produced by slave labour. These goods typically include cocoa, seafood, clothing, bricks and rugs from some countries.

The second campaign is to ask the President of Hershey Chocolates to provide a public timetable by which all the cocoa used in their products will be independantly certified free of abuse of children trapped in harmful or expoiltative conditions, or who have been the victims of trafficking. In comparison, other large companies including Nestle, Cadbury, Mars, Kraft, Ferrero and Lindt have taken action to address exploited child labour in their production of cocoa.

The third is to ask the Hon Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition, to support legilation to stop Austrlian Ineternet Service Providers from allowing their clients to access child sexual abuse sites by requiring them to block ready access to such sites. At this stage Telstra and Optus do so voluntarily. We ask that all ISP's be mandated to block ready access. Blocking access to such sites is reccommended by INTERPOL as assisting the police in combating this activity. It makes it harder for commercial child sexual abuse sites to build a customer base. It also respects the rights of victims to minimise access to the abuse of their images.

If you are interested in joining one of these campaigns, more information can be obtained from www.stopthetraffik.org.au or from Major Marion Weymouth at Territorial Headquarters in Melbourne.

It is great that we are not alone in such campaigns. In these cases we are joined by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydeny, The Freedom Project, The Churches of Christ, Childwise, Starfish Ministries, The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, the Oaktree Foundation, the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the National Tertiary Education Union, the ACTU and the National Council of Churches in Australia.