Search Results: Tony Smith
If there are more than 100 matches, only the first 100 are displayed here.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 06 June 2012
135 Comments
When Joe Hockey said on Q&A that the 'very best circumstances' for a child entailed having 'a mother and a father', Penny Wong, who has a child with her partner Sophie Allouache, replied 'I know what my family is worth.' It was a galvanising moment in the same sex marriage debate, which is not going away.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Kevin
- 30 October 2011
14 Comments
Many Australian politicians who should know better give the people and the media exactly what they want: rancorous confrontations and barbed insults. The 'tough' way in which Australian politics is played corrodes civility and potentially erodes our democracy.
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AUSTRALIA
As some recent Australian elections have shown, leaders do not always let go in time to avoid embarrassment. Retiring Australian cricket captian Ricky Ponting usually behaved with dignity. But there are moments he'd no doubt prefer to expunge from the record.
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AUSTRALIA
If voters are disappointed with Labor now, they could be positively angry after the election. Because the Coalition is a shoo-in to win, the public is showing little interest in policy debates and the media have brought little pressure to bear over policy details and likely costs.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Smith
- 14 December 2010
6 Comments
While WikiLeaks' exposures of US government secrets have created a media storm, the case of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei, which reveals much about the authorities in China, has attracted little comment. China has moved towards capitalism but not democracy.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Smith
- 15 October 2010
39 Comments
Traditionally, Catholic-Labor links have been so strong that wits described the Church as 'the Labor Party at prayer'. NSW Labor Premier Kristina Keneally represents a growingly assertive Catholicism which might be described as progressive, rational and independent.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Smith
- 26 August 2010
10 Comments
Since both major parties wasted their chance to secure a clear
mandate, the Independents have been treated by the media as opportunists and vengeful egotists. By making Parliament complex,
the rise of Independents complicates the lives of political hacks.
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AUSTRALIA
- Adrian Phoon
- 26 July 2010
2 Comments
Malcolm Turnbull recently compared Kevin Rudd to the Shakespearean character Coriolanus, a reviled control freak. Politicians sometimes invoke Shakespeare to flatter their own cause. But
this is fraught with dangers:
they can come off sounding pompous, or their analogies
may backfire.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 30 June 2010
6 Comments
Christians rarely agree on what they want from government. The Australian Christian Lobby jumped the gun last week with its forum for political leaders to address Christian voters: the elevation of Julia Gillard means it now needs to engage afresh with a new Prime Minister.
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AUSTRALIA
We have just experienced a Shakespearean moment. There is real excitement in the land, a sense of new beginnings, as the Elizabethan figure of Julia Gillard takes the reins as Prime Minister. Rudd, to his credit, has accepted the inevitable with grace and dignity.
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AUSTRALIA
If there is any vestige of democratic socialism left in Labor, the Gillard Government needs to raise taxes without
apology, knowing its social welfare policies are just and
necessary. It also needs to remain committed to redistributing wealth to eliminate huge discrepancies in living standards.
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AUSTRALIA
It is not Abbott's prerogative to tell people how they should react to
the truth. The electorate can now never know when he is attempting to be
honest. Apparently, he would happily accept electoral support even while
knowing he has deceived the people.
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