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Section: Australia

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • AUSTRALIA

    Building on the rock of the apology

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 February 2024
    3 Comments

    Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008 seems to belong to a different age. It can never be unsaid. It can, however, be disregarded. For that reason it continues to be important. It is a measuring stick by which both Parliamentary behaviour and the treatment of Indigenous Australians can be judged.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons from the referendum

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 February 2024
    10 Comments

    The referendum result was a disaster for the country and a tragedy for First Australians and there has been little appetite for public discussion about lessons to be learnt from this abject failure. If we are to move forward, it’s time to begin the conversation about past mistakes.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Re-building the commons: In conversation with Joshua Lourensz

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 06 February 2024

    In a world that has become increasingly more divided in the aftermath of the pandemic, Executive Director of Catholic Social Services Victoria Joshua Lourensz is questioning how we might best re-develop a sense of the commons to reignite our communities and foster social responsibility?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Shades of grey

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 05 February 2024
    1 Comment

    With large moral and ethical questions, I find myself slipping and sliding along a continuum of 'always yes' to 'definitely no', and never fully landing on either. Am I kidding myself? Is this inability to take a side lack of moral clarity or fibre? Or should I make a decision and stick to it?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Can debate ever do harm?

    • Holly Lawford-Smith
    • 02 February 2024

    How can we make progress on the question of whether debate can do harm, and if it can, whether that’s a sufficient reason to suppress particular debates? Or should we adopt a ‘no debate!’ approach to particular topics ourselves?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    On putting things together

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 31 January 2024
    4 Comments

    What links the debate about the conduct of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the detention of children in a crowded and under-resourced Cairns watch house, and British legislation to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When missiles threaten our ethics

    • Tony Smith
    • 30 January 2024
    1 Comment

      This rush to the missile age is part of a broader escalation of the arms race in previously peaceful regions, distancing countries like Australia and New Zealand from their roles as honest brokers in a nuclear-free Pacific.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Behind the curtain: Are same-sex rooms needed in public hospitals?

    • Erica Cervini
    • 30 January 2024
    5 Comments

    Public hospitals around the country introduced mixed gender rooms during the noughties to get patients to their rooms quicker after being in emergency. It has since become common practise, without significant debate or research. 

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  • 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

    Black swans and the art of expecting the unexpected

    • Max Jeganathan
    • 24 January 2024
    2 Comments

    Even the best forecasting gets it wrong, and every year has its own 'Black Swan' events, characterised by their unpredictability and impact. They remind us that the future is unpredictable, perpetually lurching between prediction and confusion.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When the wheels come off

    • David Halliday
    • 22 January 2024
    1 Comment

    After a minor accident, in the face of institutional apathy, we were treated to a picture of human kindness. It highlighted that, even in a politically divided country, there exists an undercurrent of unity and empathy, often overlooked but ever-present.

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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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