Keywords: Five Billion Years
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ARTS AND CULTURE
In 1999 my 22-year-old daughter sustained a head injury in a motor vehicle accident. She now contends with the use of only one normally functioning limb amid multiple disabilities. The 'support' provided by family carers is said to save the nation billions of dollars annually. But carers give much more than support.
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AUSTRALIA
- Donna Mulhearn
- 20 March 2013
9 Comments
I sat with my Iraqi friend in his photo store. I was his last customer, he said; the bombs would begin tomorrow. And then he began to weep. I remember thinking that his life, and the lives of others like him, would not be given a second's thought once the invasion started. The next day, the bombs began.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins, Brian Doyle and B. A. Breen
- 12 March 2013
8 Comments
Man, yeah, I would be pope, if the phone rang, late at night, collect from the Vatican. Yes, I would, if I could do it right. I'd call a meeting of the Curia and say boys, we are letting women run everything for the next five years. Each of you gets a new boss in high heels.
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ECONOMICS
- David James
- 08 February 2013
4 Comments
This week the Australian dollar reached its lowest point in three months. Tangible factors such as interest rates and trade with China influence its strength. But what really determines the direction of our currency is the whim of the currency traders. In that sense, the Aussie is is arguably the most 'unreal', or virtual currency in the world.
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AUSTRALIA
- Brian Toohey
- 02 July 2012
16 Comments
For most Australians, Government compensation for the carbon tax won't cover the steep rise in the cost of electricity caused by unrelated investment in infrastructure. That was not its intention. But the carbon tax will still not ensure the price of 'dirty' electricity is high enough to make coal-fired generators uncompetitive and force a 'clean energy future'.
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AUSTRALIA
- John Menadue
- 07 March 2012
9 Comments
The High Commissioner for Refugees has warned Australians about 'populist explanations ... and fears that are overblown'. He clearly had the Coalition in mind. One-liners and slogans don't make for credible refugee policy. Neither does recycling failed policies of the past.
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AUSTRALIA
- Lin Hatfield Dodds
- 04 October 2011
11 Comments
A third of taxpayer-funded superannuation concessions — around $10 billion a year — are directed to the top 5 per cent of income earners. People living on or below the poverty line get no such support. This week's Tax Forum must ask: Are we proud of how we redistribute our national wealth?
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AUSTRALIA
- Matthew Holloway
- 01 July 2011
12 Comments
The current narrative about the ALP says the party losing its soul and ultimately turning its back on those Australians it is meant to represent. The Tasmanian experience suggests the same might be said for the Greens in the Federal Parliament, who assume the balance of power in the Senate today.
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AUSTRALIA
- Ruby J. Murray
- 15 March 2011
34 Comments
You'd never know it, but just above Darwin and sort of to the left, there are 17,000 islands with roughly 240 million people living on them. There's more to this 'Indonesia' place than Bali, Balibo, Bintangs, and bombings. We forget Indonesia at our peril.
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ECONOMICS
- Gerry O'Hanlon
- 02 December 2010
7 Comments
A hopeful sign has been the emergence of commentators, mainly secular, advocating the transformation of the economy to a model based on values like the common good, solidarity, environmental concern, equality, active and inclusive citizenship.
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INTERNATIONAL
- Mark Raper
- 17 November 2010
3 Comments
May I tell you about one refugee whom I met during the 20 years I lived and worked JRS? The story has no happy outcome, indeed far from it. But it may help to communicate some of the feelings that inspire many who accompany the refugees.
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AUSTRALIA
- Paul Cleary
- 24 August 2010
3 Comments
Kevin Rudd's failure to embrace the Timor legend with more imagination and
substance was a missed opportunity to connect with Labor's Second World
War legacy. Wartime Prime Minister John Curtin saw the guerilla war in
Timor as a unique and significant part of turning back the Japanese
tide.
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