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COMMUNITY

Keeping families safe from violence  
October 17, 2007
Patricia McNamara
Women grieve deeply the loss of female victims to family violence. For these women, media reports often mean an agonised re-working of enormous frustration and regret at having been unable to protect one of their own.

POLITICS

Politics is a team sport  
October 17, 2007
John Warhurst
Shadow Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett has suffered substantial damage to his reputation over the Tasmanian pulp mill. What Garrett thinks personally doesn't actually matter, other than ultimately to his conscience.

Kevin Rudd's political cowardice  
October 17, 2007
Scott Stephens
The great hypocrisy of Kevin Rudd’s style of politics is that he launched his challenge for the Labor leadership twelve months ago with an appeal to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One cannot help but be sickened by his recent rebuke of the politically and morally courageous Robert McClelland, for expressing unbridled opposition to capital punishment in Indonesia.

MULTICULTURALISM

Echoes of Calwell in Sudanese refugee cut  
October 17, 2007
David Holdcroft
Is Australia's refugee resettlement program primarily intended to help asylum seekers, or assist Australia's economy and nation-building? We need to ask on which set of values we want to base our society.

THE MEDDLING PRIEST

Sir Ronald Wilson's life in compartments  
October 17, 2007
Frank Brennan
At his swearing in as a High Court judge, Sir Ronald Wilson noted the significance of rich personal relationships. Early in his career he forged links with police and lawyers, becoming known as a ruthless prosecutor. Later it was with members of the Stolen Generation, who held him in high regard and with great affection.

POLITICS

A key role for Australia in Burma's democratisation  
October 17, 2007
Tony Kevin

– China's role in Burma is pivotal. Under a Rudd Government, Australia would have the expertise and standing to persuade China that its interests lie in persuading Burma's generals to soften their opposition to democracy.

Burma's new generation political activists  
October 17, 2007
Carol Ransley & Toe Zaw Latt

A new generation of young activists was born on the streets of Rangoon last month. The war being raged by the Burmese military against its own people has faded from the international headlines, but Burmese young people from all walks of life continue to step up their non-violent resistance campaign.

MULTICULTURALISM

Building relationships settles refugees  
October 17, 2007
Michele Gierck

Using anecdotal evidence to back up government policy is dangerous. There are as many positive anecdotes about Africans as Minister Andrews has negative. Teaching refugees, you build relationships, offer students the opportunity to express themselves, and know that their life stories are respected.

POLITICS

The human rights cost of intelligence activities  
October 17, 2007
Bill Calcutt
A primary objective of terrorism is to engender disproportionate fear in the community, and to act as a catalyst for negative changes. Terrorists can therefore be highly effective without having to undertake terrorism operations.

SPORT

Gutted kiwis eat humble pie  
October 17, 2007
Peter Matheson
Following their humiliating World Cup Rugby loss to France earlier this month, New Zealanders are wondering whether the Garden of Eden really does lie on the other side of the try line.

BY THE WAY

Nothing new in cynicism towards politicians  
October 17, 2007
Brian Matthews
When reconciliation becomes a last-minute vote catcher, only the deepest, most corrosive cynicism is possible. Trampling on the rights of others for political advantage was the modus operandi of Adelaide's Nomenclature Committee in 1837.

FILMS

Death and birth set cerebral thriller in motion  
October 17, 2007
Tim Kroenert
Despite dwelling at opposite ends of the power spectrum, the two characters each know the desire to seek a new life in a new land, and have both experienced first-hand how difficult and painful that transition can be.

BOOKS

Playwrights finger reality missed by politicians  
October 17, 2007
Richard Flynn
As Australians wait for a Federal election, Hilary Glow’s book is timely evidence that what is wrong with the world is what politicians would have us believe. Contemporary playwrights are wrestling with the issues seen as crucial to the notion of who we really are as Australians in the twenty-first century.

POETRY

Perhaps dying isn’t hard after all  
October 17, 2007
Various
Spirited away nestled in a feathered chest we close our eyes against the dappled, vaulted light, riding the high notes beyond pain.