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Search Results: McDonald

  • AUSTRALIA

    Absolute obedience: David McBride and the limits of duty

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 30 November 2023
    3 Comments

    Charged with breaching national security for exposing alleged war crimes by Australian forces in Afghanistan, former Australian military lawyer David McBride's trial in Canberra rekindles a debate that tests the boundaries of military obedience and public interest. At the heart of this legal battle lies the question: when does the duty to expose wrongdoing outweigh the duty to follow orders?  

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Protesting in South Australia: Then and now

    • Michele Madigan
    • 29 June 2023
    2 Comments

    Following a rally by climate action group Extinction Rebellion, anti-protest laws were rushed through the SA lower house, increasing the maximum fines for disruptive protests along with potential jail time. Sadly, SA is not an outlier here, but is rather in step with the rest of the country with similar ‘draconian’ laws regulating protests.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Saida Pearlie: A nurse's window to war

    • Erica Cervini
    • 24 April 2023
    1 Comment

    A small autograph book from an Australian army nurse in World War II provides a unique glimpse into the lives of those she cared for in Palestine. With sketches and heartfelt inscriptions, the book illuminates the overlooked efforts of nurses whose dedication continued even after the war. 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The cost of living and the cost of principles

    • Max Jeganathan
    • 15 August 2022
    3 Comments

    Despite a post-pandemic bull-run, both the national and international economy are now stalling. Interest rates are going up. Markets are going down. Inflation seems unstoppable. While many factors are to blame for the rising cost of living, a catalysing force continues to be our response to the war in Ukraine.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How we decide if asylum seekers lie

    • Douglas McDonald-Norman
    • 14 September 2018
    6 Comments

    In the five years I worked in refugee law, some of the most complicated challenges I encountered were questions regarding the 'truthfulness' or 'credibility' of an asylum seeker's claims. These subjective findings of credibility can make the difference between a person being granted asylum or being turned away.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Ireland's 'hard border' irony has a bitter taste

    • Brian Matthews
    • 08 May 2018
    11 Comments

    The word 'irony' is sometimes preceded by 'delicious'. But it is sour and wounding in Ireland, where British withdrawal from the EU, Brexit, and the Irish Republic's firm intention to remain, raises the possibility of what pundits call a 'hard' border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Don Dale and the failure of arntarnte-areme

    • Mike Bowden
    • 10 August 2016
    11 Comments

    MK rang me after the 4 Corners program on the treatment of children at Don Dale. In western lingo we talk about a 'duty of care', but for my friend MK and the Arrernte people it is more fundamental than that. They talk abou arntanrte-aremele, which means looking after, holding, nurturing or caring for. Altyerre teaches that we must care for everybody, even the people who do wrong. And 'looking after' the children is the primary role of life. This is not about western, whitefella law, it just how it is.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A Human Rights Day tribute to the Northern Territory's Tony Fitzgerald

    • Frank Brennan
    • 10 December 2015

    I first met this Tony on my regular visits here to Darwin when he was working at the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service and then when he set up the mediation services under the auspices of Anglicare. In later years I knew him when he was your Anti-Discrimination Commissioner. He was a quiet, considered, gentle, strong and principled man. On Human Rights Day, it is only fitting that I honour Tony by offering some reflections on the architecture for human rights in Australia, on the contemporary human rights controversies, and on the way forward for better protection of the human rights of Aborigines and asylum seekers, two marginalised groups who had a special claim on Tony's sympathies.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The things you can't get for free

    • Michael Mullins
    • 24 November 2014
    7 Comments

    Thanks to Senators Jacqui Lambie and Ricky Muir, we can once again trust our financial advisers. There are some things that are worth paying for. If somebody else pays for something, it's likely that we will get what they want, not what we need.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ricky's job search

    • Margaret McDonald
    • 19 August 2014
    5 Comments

    Ricky was intimidating at first sight. He was tall and very broad shouldered, his blonde hair wispy, and dishevelled. He begins a round that involves several agencies, none of which can help. A group that helps disabled people has given him a computer.  In the weeks we have been searching for a solution we have come to care for this young man who is so determined to learn.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Catholics face Good Samaritan dilemma on Christmas Island

    • Mike Bowden
    • 24 July 2014
    23 Comments

    The implications of the Good Samaritan story are clear on Christmas Island. The evil of child imprisonment is of the Government's own doing, and it must be shamed into remedying it. Is the Catholic Education Office in Western Australia right then to provide education to these children? Catholic agencies that alleviate the harm done to those imprisoned should also make clear their condemnation of the evil of that imprisonment.

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  • RELIGION

    Deeper dysfunction behind the Ellis case

    • Tim Wallace
    • 03 April 2014
    12 Comments

    In 2004, two years into the Sydney Archdiocese's botched handling of a sexual abuse complaint against Fr Aidan Duggan, the executive director of the Church's National Committee for Professional Standards did something extraordinary: he inquired into whether Duggan, prior to joining the Archdiocese in 1974, had form. It is the only evidence of a Church official actively attempting to check Duggan's past — an attempt destined to fail.

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