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Search Results: charities

  • AUSTRALIA

    Humiliation at the heart of homelessness

    • John Falzon
    • 18 June 2013
    13 Comments

    Recent ABS data reveals NT has both the highest rate of people experiencing homelessness and the highest imprisonment rate of any Australian state. Former Spanish PM Zapatero said 'a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members'. Successive Australian governments have systematically humiliated citizens on the basis of cultural background or health or social status.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard's finest hour goes unnoticed

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 March 2013
    23 Comments

    Most of our attention on Thursday focused on the disintegration of the ALP, reflecting politicians at their worst. But one of Friday's minor headlines described the overshadowed Forced Adoptions Apology as Julia Gillard 'at her finest'. The emerging pattern of official recognition of the hurt caused to disadvantaged Australians by past public policy deserves more exposure.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sports fans' idolatry makes monsters of heroes

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 February 2013
    16 Comments

    The success of elite athletes is often accompanied by narcissistic behaviours that exploit and damage other people. This appears to be the case with Oscar Pistorius and Lance Armstrong. In seeking to curb such behaviour, we can call for greater regulation and surveillance. But we can also examine our own behaviour. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Philanthropy should be a condition of tax relief

    • Michael Mullins
    • 11 February 2013
    6 Comments

    Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd justifies superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy: 'We go to work, we get paid. The money is ours.' In the USA, philanthropy is common among self-made men. There is no such tradition here, where taxes are needed to fund welfare and other projects for the common good.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sting in the tail of Gillard charities red tape reduction

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 07 November 2012
    2 Comments

    Last week, the Federal Government streamlined bureaucracy when it legislated for a single body to regulate charities and not for profits. But it is also pursuing a new charity tax under the guise of cracking down on abuse of the current system, by 'better targeting of tax concessions'. This could force agencies to downsize programs that support disadvantaged Australians.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    When gamers rule Australia

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 25 July 2012
    2 Comments

    Imagine if life was a video game. You could earn health points for a good diet, citizenship points for catching the train, social awareness points for reading the news. But how many points would you get for helping a homeless person? And how would you measure an activity such as talking to your family?

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Interfaith guru's 9/11 moment

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 13 July 2012
    4 Comments

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Interfaith guru's 9/11 moment

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 13 July 2012

    'I was in London on the day of the 2005 bombs. It was my 9/11 moment and had a profound impact on me. I wanted to do something constructive afterwards, so I had the idea of asking people of different faiths for their favourite prayer.' Ros Bradley is the editor of two books of prayers from all the major religious traditions.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Knowing the needs of refugees

    • Susan Metcalfe
    • 27 June 2012
    22 Comments

    It should be mandatory for anyone writing on asylum seekers to spend time visiting detention centres. Many commentators ignore the hard work of those who have. Moreover the politicians are too poll driven to even explain the human desperation that leads to boat journeys.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Flattening the Church

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 09 March 2012
    9 Comments

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Flattening the Church

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 09 March 2012

    Prominent lay Catholic leader and public servant Robert Fitzgerald argues that, as lay people now run most of the Catholic educational, health and welfare institutions, this leadership needs more formal recognition from the Church and should be extended further into parish and diocesan roles.

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  • RELIGION

    Human rights and Christian lawyers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011
    5 Comments

    When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.

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