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Keywords: Bureaucracy

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Another victim of bureaucratic sludge

    • Brian Matthews
    • 18 June 2008
    1 Comment

    Things are Kafkaesque when you are caught in a labyrinth of unmanageable and inexplicable circumstances. I sprang to the phone and a pleasant, robotic female voice told me how valuable I was and that I was sixth in the queue.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Laziness wrong target for welfare reforms

    • Susie Byers
    • 04 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Reforms need to be proposed with an eye to compassion, providing real skills and training, and dealing with the underlying issues of racism, mental health, poverty, and education. These have a far greater impact on workforce participation than bone laziness.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Young men damaged by a war they don't understand

    • Rochelle Siemienowicz
    • 28 February 2008
    1 Comment

    Hank Deerfield's son goes missing soon after he returns from Iraq. When he decides to investigate, he finds an army bureaucracy that shuts him down at every point, and similarly unhelpful young soldiers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Citizenship test is no joke

    • Tony Smith
    • 11 February 2008
    3 Comments

    The Minister for Immigration insists Labor will retain the citizenship test. Prime Minister Rudd jokes about the need to retain questions on mid-20th century cricket. The new government's credibility on issues of social inclusion is damaged.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Tasmania like Soviet Siberia

    • Mario Rimini
    • 05 September 2007
    19 Comments

    A drive around Tasmania is breathtaking. And heartbreaking. 'Managed by Forestry Tasmania'. Managed. Tricky word. Like Siberia, where the land was 'managed' by two all-powerful hydro and forestry leviathans.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ozlit's gentle ambassador in Italy

    • Brian Matthews
    • 22 August 2007
    2 Comments

    Bernard Hickey devoted his life to the cause of Australian literature and Australian culture in Europe, often at the cost of great personal sacrifice. He was known, loved and profoundly respected wherever Australian writing and literary culture were studied.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A voice for victims of the sex trade

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 22 August 2007

    The Jammed is a frank and gritty cinematic reminder that the issue of human trafficking is not just on Australia’s doorstep—tragically, it’s part of the furniture. The most unsettling human degradation is protected by walls of silence and secrecy, and is the oxygen that keeps the sex industry alive.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When governments stop listening to advice

    • Jack Waterford
    • 08 August 2007
    3 Comments

    Interviewed a year ago for the biography John Winston Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello complained about the Government's binge spending. Since then, the PM has committed many billions more, and given every indication the pace of spending will increase enormously between now and the election.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tough times ahead

    • Jack Waterford
    • 18 May 2007

    It couldn’t make it as an issue in the federal election campaign, but the Howard Government is now embarked on radical change in Aboriginal affairs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Debate confuses national curriculum with national standards

    • Greg O'Kelly
    • 02 April 2007
    3 Comments

    Australia is ranked 29th internationally in the teaching of maths and science. To suggest that a national curriculum would raise such a ranking is a non sequitur. Curriculum is about content. It's standards that refer to performance measurement.

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  • RELIGION

    All are one before the law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 February 2007
    7 Comments

    The last state authorised execution in Australia—that of Ronald Ryan—occurred 40 years ago last week. 12 year old Frank Brennan felt it was wrong. His adolescent moral sensibilities found resonance in public debate, law reform and policy change.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Discourse without dialogue in Australian politics

    • Tony Smith
    • 07 August 2006
    1 Comment

    Former Labor minister John Button anticipated the current low point in political discourse, with defenders and critics of government policy having lost the capacity to engage in dialogue, particularly in the field of public morality.

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