Former Australian cabinet minister Senator Eric Abetz put up the motion in the senate on Thursday.

This was on the same day as it was confirmed that Tasmania's anti-discrimination commissioner is to conduct an investigation into the pamphlet.

The pamphlet, which is a letter from Australia's Catholic bishops, was distributed to Catholic schools throughout the nation earlier this year.

It outlines the Church's stance against changing Australia's Marriage Act to include same-sex couples.

The senate motion by Mr Abetz was brought with some crossbench support.

The motion stated that: "The senate, while not expressing a view on the contents of the booklet issued by the Australian Catholic bishops conference entitled ‘Don't Mess with Marriage', fully supports the rights of members of the Catholic Church, including Archbishop Julian Porteous [of Hobart], to distribute it."

Labor and the Greens joined forces to block the motion before it got put to a vote.

Mr Abetz said that the two parties shut down the basic right of freedom of speech.

"Free speech is a key pillar of our society and the tricky tactics used by Labor in an effort to shut down debate and run a protection racket for the extreme Greens flies in the face of the open discussion we should be having about marriage," he said.

Labor senator Claire Moore said it was "simply not appropriate for the senate to determine a position on this matter", while a case was being decided.

Greens senator Robert Simms said: "The Australian Greens support free speech in this country, but we recognise that freedom of speech is a limited concept in any democracy.

"We believe that the right to express a view should be balanced against the rights of members of our community to feel safe and secure from persecution and discrimination."

Mr Abetz has promised to bring back the motion to the senate.

Sources

• Guardian Australia
• Guardian Australia
• Sydney Catholic
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

The letter was read at a memorial Mass in Rome to honour the former Labor leader.

In the message, it was noted that the Pope personally prayed for Mr Whitlam after hearing of his death.

The Mass, held on Monday evening at the chapel in Domus Australia in Rome, was celebrated by Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Cardinal Pell's sermon recognised Mr Whitlam as "one of the great figures in Australian history".

He was also a great friend to Catholics, establishing state aid for Catholic schools, an indispensable policy that ended 90 years of resentment and for which the Catholic Church is still grateful, Cardinal Pell said.

Mr Whitlam, as prime minister and foreign minister, began diplomatic relations between Australia and the Vatican.

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Addressing about 20,000 people, the pontiff said that his parents had "lost everything" after they emigrated from Italy and that he understood the suffering that came from joblessness.

"Where there is no work, there is no dignity," he said, in ad-libbed remarks after listening to three locals, including an unemployed worker who spoke of how joblessness "weakens the spirit."

But the problem went far beyond the Italian island, said the pope, who has called for wholesale reform of the financial system.

Pope Francis put aside his prepared text and improvised for nearly 20 minutes.

"I find suffering here ... It weakens you and robs you of hope," he said, "Excuse me if I use strong words, but where there is no work there is no dignity."

The crowd of tens of thousands of people, in a square near the city port, chanted "work, work, work" at the gathering.

"This is not just a problem of Sardinia; it is not just a problem of Italy or of some countries in Europe," he said. "It is the consequence of a global choice, an economic system which leads to this tragedy; an economic system which has at its centre an idol called money."

Urging people not to give up hope even in the harsh economic climate, the pontiff also called on the people to fight back against the "throwaway culture" he said was a by-product of a global economic system that cared only about profit. It was, he said, a culture that saw the most vulnerable society become marginalised.

Sources

The Guardian

The Telegraph

The London Free Press

Image: EPA/The Guardian

School chaplains at 1,000 extra schools will receive A$222 million more. The significant increase in funding comes despite a High Court challenge to the programme on constitutional grounds and speculation prior to the budget that the future of the school chaplaincy programme was in doubt.

The school chaplaincy announcement was one of the Labor Government's major education announcements.

The $222 million increase promised before the election will provide chaplains for up to 3,700 schools until 2014.

Schools will be able to access up to $60,000 over three years to establish or expand chaplaincy services.

While funding is available to all faiths, most school chaplains are Christian.

The extra funding seems to have come at the expense of the "education revolution" of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Rudd's trade training centres promised to secondary schools face delays and the $2.4 billion digital education revolution programme has also suffered significant cuts.