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Keywords: Postal Vote

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Addressing the democracy deficit

    • Lizzie O'Shea
    • 07 May 2018
    12 Comments

    A common response to voters behaving badly is to call for qualifications on the franchise, such as education, or the outsourcing of public policy decisions to experts. Instead, I'd argue the opposite: the problem is not democracy, it is the deficit. It is not that too many people have a say in how society is run, but rather not enough.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2017: Postal survey ends don't justify means

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 10 January 2018
    3 Comments

    In the ensuing debate, we shouldn't let ourselves forget that this postal vote never should have happened in the first place, and nothing like this should happen again to any minority group. The public voting yes or no on human rights is not what democracy looks like.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    21st century protest from Cairo to Don Dale

    • Marta Skrabacz
    • 04 December 2017
    4 Comments

    There’s no reason to judge the success of a protest by whether it achieved its desired outcome: the adage ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’ rings true. Effective change is a matter of increment; it has to happen at every strata of society. Protests bear the brunt of proving success, when the burden for change actually exists with the system they’re opposing.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ending the toxic ripple effect of prejudice

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 30 November 2017
    17 Comments

    Governments can't legislate against hatred and intolerance. A friend stated on Facebook that 'No law can change human biology. No law can make natural what is unnatural.' Such rhetoric is a reminder that the realm of human rights is still a bloody battlefield in which certain groups continue to proclaim superiority over others.

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  • RELIGION

    First World Day of the Poor

    • Frank Brennan
    • 20 November 2017
    1 Comment

    'It's been a big week with the announcement of the result of the survey on same sex marriage. Today is also the World Day of the Poor when Pope Francis invites us to be generous to others less well off than ourselves and then to do more than extend our generous charity to those who are poor.' Homily for the First World Day of the Poor, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 19 November 2017.

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  • RELIGION

    Thoughts on marriage after Yes

    • Joel Hodge
    • 16 November 2017
    58 Comments

    Arguments are made that to be recognised or not as a specific type of sexual being (with certain rights) is what fundamentally matters to who I am as a person. People on both sides have made this error. This is a dangerous position that subjects human dignity and identity to a false absolute.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Postal survey ends don't justify means

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 15 November 2017
    27 Comments

    In the ensuing debate, we shouldn't let ourselves forget that this postal vote never should have happened in the first place, and nothing like this should happen again to any minority group. The public voting yes or no on human rights is not what democracy looks like.

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  • RELIGION

    Same sex marriage and freedom of religion

    • Frank Brennan
    • 10 November 2017
    28 Comments

    Wednesday will be a day of celebration for those wanting a 'Yes' vote. It should also be a day when we Australians recommit ourselves to respect for all citizens, especially those whose beliefs differ from our own. Our politicians led us into this divisive campaign. Now they need to lead us out of it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Turnbull misses opportunity to progress Aboriginal rights

    • Anastasia Moore
    • 02 November 2017
    8 Comments

    Why go to the trouble of gathering all the great minds to discuss the issue of recognition, giving hope to a great many people, only to determine the idea 'too ambitious'? What right does Turnbull have to predetermine what Australians will or won't accept? This question could be put to Australians in a referendum.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Voting yes to black and gay rights

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 06 October 2017
    3 Comments

    One of the first votes I ever cast was the one in which I got to help decide whether a marginalised group of people should have the same rights as me. It was March 1992. I was a young, white, enfranchised South African working as a journalist. The referendum was one of the methodical steps taken by F. W. de Klerk in the dismantling of apartheid.

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  • RELIGION

    Please treasure marriage

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 05 October 2017
    21 Comments

    On the one hand, one could look at the campaign for marriage equality and feel that it's refreshing that a section of society wants marriage to be affirmed and made more available. But what are people really going to be voting on when they make their decision in the postal survey?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Courting women's and gay rights

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 27 September 2017
    2 Comments

    The showdown between Bill Jean King and self-styled 'chauvinist pig' Bobby Riggs came at a time when King and other women tennis pros were protesting against unequal pay, and while King herself was coming to terms with her identity as a gay woman. A film about the match and its context should have plenty to say to present day socio-politics of sexuality and gender. But this one suffers from an identity crisis.

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