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Keywords: Law Foundation

  • AUSTRALIA

    The messiness of Australia Day

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 25 January 2024
    7 Comments

    For a national day of celebration, Australia Day has had a varied, higgledy-piggledy and divisive history. In this, it echoes Australia itself and so provides a useful lens for reflecting on our national life.

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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: 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

    A cogent argument for voting Yes

    • John Honner
    • 24 August 2023
    13 Comments

    You might think that, if anyone could pull off the establishment of a treaty, a great poet and a great policy maker, working in harmony, would surely have the best chance. But this was not the case: when Judith Wright and H.C. Coombes advocated for a treaty throughout their lifetimes, they were unsuccessful. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three steps back and one step forward: Three decades of asylum seekers in Australia

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 28 July 2023

    How has Australia's asylum seeker policy changed over the past thirty years? The approach of every government 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

    Culture wars are for tin soldiers

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 02 February 2023
    6 Comments

    Any discussion of the ethics of culture war should begin with the basic reality of human communication: to flourish, human beings rely on cooperation with other people. Speaking abusively about others weakens the necessary trust that lies at the foundation of a well-functioning society and inhibits the conversation about values necessary in a humane society.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2022: When the lobbyist makes the laws: Victoria and the sex industry

    • Juliette Hughes, Kathy Chambers
    • 05 January 2023

    With very little public debate or consultation, Victoria has repealed almost all laws relating to prostitution. Alone among all recreational activities, sex for payment is now unrestricted, even regarding health and safety. If we really care what happens to people, what place does sex work have in our society?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Eureka Street person of the year

    • David Halliday, Michael McVeigh, Laura Kings, Michele Frankeni, Andrew Hamilton, Julian Butler
    • 21 December 2022
    2 Comments

    To close the year for Eureka Street, the editorial team wanted to nominate who we considered to be the Eureka Street ‘person of the year’ based on who we think somehow embody Eureka Street values.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Managestocracy

    • David James
    • 28 October 2022

    Who wields the most power in the world? If one follows the money trail, it becomes clear that Western societies have become ruled by a new type of aristocracy: a management aristocracy. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When the lobbyist makes the laws: Victoria and the sex industry

    • Juliette Hughes, Kathy Chambers
    • 20 October 2022
    10 Comments

    With very little public debate or consultation, Victoria has repealed almost all laws relating to prostitution. Alone among all recreational activities, sex for payment is now unrestricted, even regarding health and safety. If we really care what happens to people, what place does sex work have in our society?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Deliver us from our necessities

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 June 2022

    After the Election media focus has now switched from the fresh personalities and style of the new Government to the difficulties that face it. These include the financial pressures created by heavy debt and inflation, the constraints imposed by pledges made before the election, an energy crisis, international conflicts and their effects on trade, and differences within the Party. Faced by such challenges the Government is unlikely to be able to fulfil its promises and its supporters’ hopes.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Wit, irony and the Australian vernacular: Remembering Brian Matthews

    • John Schumann
    • 15 June 2022
    5 Comments

    Most of us, when pushed, can name a couple of teachers who had a profound influence on our lives. For me, Brian Matthews was one such teacher. I enrolled in English at Flinders University in 1972. On asking the enrolling officer whether anybody was ‘doing anything about Lawson’, I was directed to the office of Brian Matthews, a recent appointment to the English Department. ‘I hear you know something about Lawson,’ I said, leaning in his doorway.

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