Keywords: Commonwealth Bank
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 01 November 2012
'Even without the political static which is drowning us all out down there in Canberra, there is real doubt whether the Gillard bluff 'Don't get on a boat because you might end up in Nauru' can do what the Howard bluff could not deliver.' Full text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's Law and Justice Oration at the Law and Justice Foundation 2012 Justice Awards Dinner, Parliament House, Sydney.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 29 October 2012
'Though land rights and self-determination provide no utopia for the contemporary indigenous Australian community, they have belatedly put right an ancient wrong. The cost and inconvenience are unavoidable. Terra nullius is no longer an option.' Full text is from Fr Frank Brennan's keynote speech at the Central Queensland Law Association Conference, Mercure Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, 27 October 2012.
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RELIGION
- Paul Collins
- 15 August 2012
35 Comments
People often talk about the 'enormous wealth of the Vatican'. Some think the Vatican owns all the Church's worldwide real estate, others that all that art could be sold for the poor, others that the Vatican is corrupt and busy laundering vast sums of Mafia money through the 'Vatican Bank'. Now for the first time we have some hard facts.
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AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 09 March 2012
10 Comments
Mining in Australia has assumed the mantle of the untouchable, so much so that taxing its proceeds is deemed by some to be unpatriotic. What matters to Swan is maintaining the idea, however illusory, that Australia remains an equal country.
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AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 23 September 2011
8 Comments
It has been said that giving certain countries independence was like giving a razor to a child. As Palestine makes its bid for full membership of the UN, it may do well to remember that any successful strategy should focus not on statehood but on rights.
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AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 22 August 2011
8 Comments
Walls are not merely concrete manifestations but cultural and psychological ones. One East Berlin native recalled his mother 'cried for hours when the Wall fell'. Israel, in constructing a wall around Jerusalem, faced a host of issues as complex as those that faced East Germany.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 08 November 2010
10 Comments
Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi dismissed Islamic banking as 'incompatible with Australia's Western values'. But Western values that uphold a banking system that treats its customers with disdain – as the Commonwealth Bank did last week – need to be questioned.
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AUSTRALIA
The Government's theoretical model does not stand up to scrutiny in the real world. Collecting higher taxes from the mining industry to disburse for other worthwhile purposes may be perceived as contributing to the 'common good'. In fact, the reverse could be true.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 19 March 2010
4 Comments
The challenges and opportunities are to fund equitably all
networks in education and to ensure that robust morale and community
engagement are hallmarks of all parts of the network, including state
schools and emerging schools such as Muslim schools.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 08 March 2010
7 Comments
Tony Abbott says health reform should cure patients and not feed bureaucracy. Yet properly structured bureaucracy is needed to protect patients' interests from those health industry lobbyists with profit motivations.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- John Wicks
- 18 September 2009
6 Comments
Some will be concerned by the black and white treatment of climate
change in Tony Kevin's book. There is common
ground now to generate significant policy changes with a focus
on wellbeing, even while the CO2 debate continues to rage.
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AUSTRALIA
- Luke Fraser
- 09 September 2009
The relationship between Australia and Russia is over 200 years old. It
began with great promise, but relations cooled following the Russian
Revolution. The financial crisis presents an opportunity for both
countries to look to each other with optimism once again.
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