Roundup: Budget and battlers, Palestinian agreement, homophobia

Boost for battlers ‘buys box of Weet-Bix’

Welfare lobbyists have welcomed a $6-a-week boost to the income of the low-paid in the budget, but workers at the coalface have dismissed it as only enough to buy a box of cereal.

Palestinian agreement sign of hope Tveit says

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has said the recent agreement reached between two Palestinian movements, Fatah and Hamas, holds not only the hope and promise for a healing process within the Palestinian community but also creates the atmosphere for a seeking “a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Israel/Palestine”.

Homophobia ‘a sin’

The minister of Sydney’s Pitt Street Uniting Church has declared homophobia to be sinful ahead of this year’s International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.