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Keywords: Freedom Of Information

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Courting: An intimate history of love and the law

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 19 April 2024
    1 Comment

    Love is a creature of its time, and so ideas, attitudes and conduct of affairs of the heart change and evolve as time passes. Courting explores breach of promise cases in Australia from 1788 until the 1970s, and in doing do, documents the development of Australian society from a penal colony to a free and much more individualistic one.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Searching for the truth about a wartime massacre

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 15 March 2024
    3 Comments

    Two books about a 1942 massacre of Australian nurses were released last year. One is reliable, the other is notable for factual omissions. If we leave something out, are we then guilty of censorship? Alternatively, if our truth-telling offends someone else, what is our justification for so doing?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    After Christianity, what is Australia's civil religion?

    • Michael Jensen
    • 19 January 2024
    4 Comments

    In contrast to the United States, we in Australia ‘don’t do God’, and we rarely acknowledge the religious dimension of our national identity. In an age of declining adherence to the Christian faith, has Australia found a new civil religion? And will it serve us well? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: Can we curb misinformation while retaining freedom of expression?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 11 January 2024

    As the government drafts legislation to stem the rising tide of misinformation circulating online, the nation debates: will these measures sufficiently regulate online content and curb potential harms or threaten freedom of expression? This moment is a critical test for the integrity of Australia's public discourse.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: How Australia's asylum seeker policy has evolved over thirty years

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 04 January 2024

    Throughout recent decades of Australian history, the stance every government has taken on asylum seekers has reflected the shifting political landscapes and challenging humanitarian issues that have continually shaped Australia's response to those seeking refuge. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How a High Court verdict upended indefinite detention

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 08 December 2023
    4 Comments

    On 8 November, the High Court ordered a stateless Rohingya refugee known only as NZYQ to be released from detention. He could not be granted a visa because he was found gulity of sexually assaulting a minor, and he could not be sent anywhere because he is stateless. Until 8 November, he was stuck in indefinite mandatory detention.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Time and change

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 30 November 2023
    3 Comments

    Change often hurts or is at least hard to adjust to. Sometimes I yearn for a simpler way of doing things, for a period when people’s expectations were more modest, and when the average person was not as materialistic. However, it has to be conceded that we have made progress in some areas, and that some changes are for the better.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Can we curb misinformation while retaining freedom of expression?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 November 2023
    4 Comments

    As the government drafts legislation to stem the rising tide of misinformation circulating online, the nation debates: will these measures sufficiently regulate online content and curb potential harms or threaten freedom of expression? This moment is a critical test for the integrity of Australia's public discourse.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The plight of the Australian whistleblower

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 09 November 2023
    1 Comment

    Next week, former army lawyer David McBride will face trial, accused of leaking classified defence information. Meanwhile, the prospect of meaningful whistleblower reforms that would shield Australian public servants who contemplate exposing wrongdoing through the media seems remote.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Truth or dare: Australia's misinformation challenge

    • Julian Butler
    • 02 November 2023
    1 Comment

    The proposed Misinformation Bill straddles the delicate balance between freedom of speech and the rising threat of misinformation, posing a challenge that could redefine the landscape of media and public conversation. The problem goes beyond discerning the truth, but determining how a democratic society identifies it amid a sea of conflicting voices.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The uses of violence: The Israeli-Hamas war

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 26 October 2023
    5 Comments

    Following the Hamas attack on October 7, the world is forced to grapple with the profound complexities of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a mire of historical grievances, selective narratives, and devastating violence. With both sides weaponising the weight of their tragedies for the international stage, the tragedy's core remains: innocent lives lost in a perpetuating cycle of violence. 

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  • ECONOMICS

    Our greatest threat isn't climate change or AI. It's Moloch

    • Daniel Simons
    • 14 September 2023

    In a world increasingly governed by algorithms and AI, the ancient deity Moloch emerges as a haunting metaphor for our tech-driven sacrifices. Drawing parallels from historic rituals to present-day digital dynamics, ancient fears offer insight into today's most pressing existential challenges. 

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