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  • international

    What the Church needs from Pope Leo

    • Geraldine Doogue
    • 15 May 2025

    With Pope Leo XIV now leading the Church, there’s a quiet hopefulness in the air of renewal, of fresh energy. But the near-invisibility of women in decision-making still jars. Will Pope Leo's pastoral experience be enough to lead the Church in an era of fragile trust and spiritual disaffection?

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  • australia

    The quiet collapse of Australia's social safety net: In conversation with David Gilchrist

    • David Halliday
    • 15 May 2025

    What happens when governments underfund the services that hold our social fabric together? Economist David Gilchrist exposes a system in quiet crisis where rising need meets shrinking support, and nonprofits face collapse under the weight of outdated policies, inadequate data, and market myths that threaten the future of social care in Australia.

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  • australia

    How did the Greens lose Melbourne?

    • Erica Cervini
    • 14 May 2025

    Adam Bandt’s unexpected loss in Melbourne has sent shockwaves through the Greens’ ranks. Once poised for expansion, the party is now reckoning with a bruising election result, voter backlash, and a confused identity. In their heartland, even the most loyal supporters seemed ready to walk away. So what happened?

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  • international

    Fifty years since the fall of Phnom Penh

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 16 May 2025

    Khmer New Year in April 1975 began with promise but ended in horror. Days later, the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh, emptied hospitals, executed officials, and began a genocide. Decades on, the trauma endures in refugee stories, in temples abroad, and in a regime still marked by repression and foreign influence.

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  • arts and culture

    When Shakespeare was the air we breathed

    • Peter Craven
    • 16 May 2025

    Was Shakespeare something you endured at school, or something that never left you? In this rich, panoramic reflection, Peter Craven explores the Bard’s enduring presence in culture, performance, and memory, from Brando to Gielgud, schoolyards to sonnets. A tribute to a lifetime’s treasure in Shakespeare.

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  • australia

    How we lost the boys, and how to bring them back

    • Cherie Gilmour
    • 09 May 2025

    As young men gravitate toward the manosphere, driven by alienation and grievance, society too often responds with silence or scorn. But if we don’t want boys shaped by bitterness and bravado, we must ask: what kind of men do we hope they’ll become, and who is offering them a path to get there?

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  • The tragedy of Badfinger

    • Barry Divola
    • 15 May 2025

    You’ve heard their songs — on Breaking Bad, on the radio, sung by Nilsson or Mariah Carey— but you may not know the name Badfinger. Their music brushed greatness. Their story ended in ruin. Joey Molland, the last surviving member, has died. This is the tragic, unforgettable tale of the band that should’ve been the next Beatles.

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  • Unrecorded lives

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 08 May 2025

    Elizabeth Strout’s novels honour unrecorded lives: ordinary people marked by quiet resilience and daily grace. And when we reflect on these unrecorded lives, we find a kind of everyday heroism, with echoes of Lucy Barton’s question: what is the point of a life?

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  • The storm

    • Damian Balassone
    • 01 May 2025

    Despite the raging storm, I clearly see a figure on the Sea of Galilee/ a Son of Man/ with outstretched hands/ and he is calling me.

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  • Ending the US Dollar's exorbitant privilege

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 07 May 2025

    Trump’s tariff-led reshaping of global trade is weakening the US dollar’s long-standing dominance. As central banks diversify away from US assets, what was once called an “exorbitant privilege” is beginning to look more like a burden — one shaped as much by petulant politics as economic mismanagement.

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  • The fable of suicidal empathy

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 30 April 2025

    And so as the 21st century marked its first quarter, reality in the most powerful country on Earth slipped into a vortex of blurred lines of what it meant to be a living, moral being. 

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  • What happens when the west abandons foreign aid?

    • Joe Zabar
    • 16 April 2025

    As Trump dismantles America’s global aid program, and Europe follows suit, developing nations are left to fill the vacuum often with partners unfriendly to Western interests. In this new geopolitical terrain, Australia faces a choice: retreat with the rest, or lead through renewed investment in aid and regional diplomacy.

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  • What kind of society do we want?

    • Paul Smyth
    • 08 May 2025

    The 2025 election marked a pause in Australia’s political life. As old policy narratives falter, we have an opportunity to ask ourselves: what kind of society are we trying to build? Across faiths and traditions, the idea of the common good offers a path forward beyond division and drift.

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  • What the election says about us

    • Max Jeganathan
    • 07 May 2025

    In the wake of an unexpectedly decisive election, Australians rejected grievance politics from both right and left. What emerged instead was a quiet preference for stability, civility, and competence: qualities that don’t often headline campaigns, but this time shaped the outcome. In 2025, trumpery just didn’t cut it.

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  • Public and private faces

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 07 May 2025

    In an election full of surprises, the most revealing were not electoral upsets but glimpses of unexpected humanity. Peter Dutton’s gracious concession contrasts with his public record, and urges a politics where words don’t wound, and dignity is not reserved for private life alone.

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  • Long live the Pope

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 May 2025

    What kind of Pope will Leo XIV be? In the wake of Francis, this new pontiff inherits both a vision and a world in flux. With a global sensibility, and a unifying motto, his early gestures suggest a leader shaped by harmony, not polarisation, and attentive to human dignity.

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  • An Augustinian pope from north and south

    • Frank Brennan
    • 12 May 2025

    A new pope from the Americas, shaped by Peruvian missions and Roman canon law, signals a Church recalibrating for an era of technological upheaval and moral uncertainty. Rooted in tradition yet attentive to the margins, his election hints at a renewed focus on justice, dialogue, and global spiritual responsibility.

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  • Going forward with Pope Leo

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 09 May 2025

    Pope Leo XIV, the first US-born pontiff, brings a global, socially engaged background and cautious conservatism to the papacy. Fluent in five languages and steeped in canon law, his past hints at reform tempered by tradition. His views on synodality, gender, and justice will shape Catholicism’s next chapter.

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