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Keywords: John Wren

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Waking up to homelessness

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 19 October 2018
    11 Comments

    In London of the 1990s, I observed people sleeping under bridges, on doorsteps, in cardboard boxes. How they survived the winters, I never knew, and I suppose many didn't. Since the beginning of Greece's financial crisis in 2008 and the influx of refugees from the Middle East, similar scenes can now be seen in Athens.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    2015 in review: Burning Scientology

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 14 January 2016

    If you're going to apply a blowtorch to an institution as wealthy and litigious as the Church of Scientology, you might best be advised to first apply a magnifying glass. Alex Gibney details the dark side of the movement: its dubious tax-exempt status; allegations of psychological and physical abuse of current members and harassment of former members. But he is equally interested in unpacking the nature of belief in Scientology: what draws people to it, and also what drives them away.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Carefully burning Scientology

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 09 July 2015
    12 Comments

    If you're going to apply a blowtorch to an institution as wealthy and litigious as the Church of Scientology, you might best be advised to first apply a magnifying glass. Alex Gibney details the dark side of the movement: its dubious tax-exempt status; allegations of psychological and physical abuse of current members and harassment of former members. But he is equally interested in unpacking the nature of belief in Scientology: what draws people to it, and also what drives them away.

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  • RELIGION

    Fundamentalism in the land of Jesus

    • Lawrence Cross
    • 21 January 2015
    30 Comments

    Israel is demanding to be recognised as a Jewish state. The corollary is that they have an interest in getting Christians out. On the Palestinian side, the Islamic influence has been intensifying for decades. Fundamentalism creates the perfect audience for the disinformation and propaganda that masks the slaughter of some of the world's oldest Christian groups.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott's Australia beds American Calvinism

    • Lawrence Cross
    • 27 June 2014
    30 Comments

    While a number of Cabinet ministers are Christian, their policies seem to lack any Christian emphasis on caring for the poor and disadvantaged. America's interpretation of Christianity is heavily influenced by the doctrine of the theologian John Calvin, according to whom the rich who work hard for their wealth are preparing themselves for heaven, while the poor not only deserve their plight, but may well be abandoned by God.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Who fathered the Family Tax Benefit?

    • Brian Lawrence
    • 30 May 2014
    2 Comments

    There may be debate about whether the current Family Tax Benefit, Part B is adequate recognition of the economic and social value of domestic child care. But there is no doubt that the $5.75 per week proposed in the recent Budget would drive low paid families deeper into poverty. The side issue of whether Howard or Keating was the father of the threatened payments could impact on post-Budget strategies and positions in the Senate.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Reinventing Greece's paradise lost

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 09 November 2011
    7 Comments

    In their Greek travels, 20th century writers Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller tried to construct a sort of paradise for themselves. Most foreign inhabitants of Greece try to do the same. I certainly did. I hope now that there is a chance of Paradise being regained.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What matters in Qantas confrontation

    • Brian Lawrence
    • 01 November 2011
    9 Comments

    The Qantas industrial dispute is likely to make a major contribution to the history of Australian industrial relations. The important issue is whether Qantas should have been required to threaten substantial damage to itself and to the national economy before it could gain access to arbitration.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott and Costello meet Catholic Social Teaching

    • Brian Lawrence
    • 10 October 2011
    12 Comments

    Former federal treasurer Peter Costello has revealed his fears that Tony Abbott's education in the collectivist principles of Catholic Social Teaching will frustrate the Coalition's ambitions for free market reform of workplace laws.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Wren-Hardy stoush exposes sectarian bigotry

    • Juliette Peers
    • 06 August 2010
    6 Comments

    The Power Without Glory trial ought to be read as a high-profile and long lasting punishment meted out to traitors to a so-called Australian normality. Frank Hardy's acquittal and the campaign to defend his novel partly belong to mid 20th century Australia's strong anti-Catholic undertow.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    More challenges than resolutions in Jindabyne

    • Jemma Galvin
    • 07 August 2006
    1 Comment

    Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne presents more challenges than resolutions. For the questions asked in this film there are no simple answers. This is a film which cautiously reveals a grace in the honesty, pain and acceptance that can come in life, and partnership. It also intimates that there is still a darkness at the heart of this town, and of this nation.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Carmen Lawrence exposes the Politics of Fear

    • James Massola
    • 24 July 2006

    Former ALP heavyweight Carmen Lawrence asserts that the developed world is safer today than it's ever been. Her argument flies in the face of the reality that there has never been greater rewards for politicians willing to peddle fear.

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