Greens Senator Kerry Nettle today expressed concern at Health Minister, Tony Abbott's new appointments to the Australian National Council on HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C and Sexual Health.

The appointment of priests to advise on 'ethics' instead of representatives from the HIV/AIDS community groups smacks of a 'yes men' stack by the Minister, Senator Nettle said.

The Minister has broken a long history of involving the community groups working in this area in favour of like minds with no expertise in the field.

The skewed decision comes on the back of a disappointing contribution to the UN fund for combating HIV/AIDS confirming the view that this government is not serious about the most serious about HIV/AIDS.

The track record of the Catholic Church on this issue is not good and certainly not part of the cutting edge thinking the minister should be accessing.

The Greens support governmental recognition of the AIDS/HIV global pandemic as the pre-eminent health crisis facing us, and to fund awareness, treatment and research programmes accordingly.

Abbott's invisible friend isn't a fan of women either and the man obviously has no concept of abortion to label it the easy way out. But this guy comes from the same camp who, before abortion was legalised, used to lock up unmarried pregnant women until they gave birth, then give their children away to families willing to brainwash the sprogs with approved mindless beliefs. All of this was, of course, against the will of the mother and completely without her consent.

The rate of abortion in Australia was a national tragedy and society had too lax an attitude towards sexual promiscuity among teenagers, federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said today.

Speaking at Adelaide University on the ethical role of a Christian politician, Mr Abbott, a Catholic, said there were 100,000 abortions in Australia each year, which he labelled a measure of the nation's moral health.

An objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother's convenience, Mr Abbott told students amid boos and jeers from protesters.

Aborting a foetus is not morally identical to deliberately killing a living human being, but it's not just removing a wart or a cyst either.

Even those who think that abortion is a woman's right should surely be troubled by the fact that 100,000 Australian women choose to destroy their unborn babies every year.

Two hecklers were escorted out by security guards during the speech.

But Mr Abbott responded by saying he was not merely giving his own moral viewpoint.

If you listened, you'll know that what I'm not talking about is my morals, what I'm talking about is our morals, morals that have always been part of the tradition of western culture, he said...

...Mr Abbott was greeted on arrival at the university by a small group of protesters chanting racist, sexist, anti-queer, Abbott, you're not welcome here.

His comments also prompted a protest chant of: Get your morals off our bodies.

The wingnut's superior has condemned the moron's inability to grasp the separation of church and state, but the Greens are pushing for a stronger response.

The issue of abortion was an incendiary one which should not be used as an election issue, Treasurer Peter Costello said today.

He said fellow cabinet minister Tony Abbott was expressing personal views, and not the government's, when he said the abortion rate in Australia was a national tragedy.

At least we can alway count on Mark Latham to sum the fundies up.

Mark Latham... said during the stem cell debate that it was a bit rich for the Catholic Church to be lecturing the parliament on morality.

...Mr Latham had also attacked a group of conservative politicians who belong to the Lyons Forum for being fundamentalists with a Bible in the top drawer and a Hustler magazine and a box of tissues in their bottom drawer.

Abbott appoints religious ethical advisors to HIV/AIDS Council - Australian Greens Media Release, 3rd March 2004.
Abbott: Abortion rate a tragedy - Herald Sun, 16th March 2004.
Abbott's abortion views not the government's: Costello - Sydney Morning Herald, 17th March 2004.
Abbott targets the 'tragedy' of abortion - The Australian, 17th March 2004.