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  • religion

    Going forward with Pope Leo

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 09 May 2025

    Pope Leo XIV, the first US-born pontiff, brings a global, socially engaged background and cautious conservatism to the papacy. Fluent in five languages and steeped in canon law, his past hints at reform tempered by tradition. His views on synodality, gender, and justice will shape Catholicism’s next chapter — for better or worse.

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  • international

    Ending the US Dollar's exorbitant privilege

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 07 May 2025

    Trump’s tariff-led reshaping of global trade is weakening the US dollar’s long-standing dominance. As central banks diversify away from US assets, what was once called an “exorbitant privilege” is beginning to look more like a burden — one shaped as much by petulant politics as economic mismanagement.

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  • australia

    Public and private faces

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 07 May 2025

    In an election full of surprises, the most revealing were not electoral upsets but glimpses of unexpected humanity. Peter Dutton’s gracious concession contrasts with his public record, and urges a politics where words don’t wound, and dignity is not reserved for private life alone.

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  • australia

    How we lost the boys, and how to bring them back

    • Cherie Gilmour
    • 09 May 2025

    As young men gravitate toward the manosphere, driven by alienation and grievance, society too often responds with silence or scorn. But if we don’t want boys shaped by bitterness and bravado, we must ask: what kind of men do we hope they’ll become, and who is offering them a path to get there?

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  • arts and culture

    Is Australia ready for a Pacific future?

    • Ken Haley
    • 09 May 2025

      Hamish McDonald’s Melanesia shatters Australia’s complacent view of the South Pacific as static and remote. With journalistic precision and historical urgency, he reveals a region marked by corruption, resilience, and political upheaval—forces poised to reshape Australia’s future, whether it’s prepared or not.

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  • australia

    Politics without glitter, victory without fury

    • Peter Craven
    • 05 May 2025

    While much of the world drifts toward political extremes, Australia did something quietly radical: it chose the centre. In a night of subdued triumphs and unexpected grace, it was a reminder that democracy’s strength may still lie in its capacity for moderation, mercy, and surprise.

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  • Unrecorded lives

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 08 May 2025

    Elizabeth Strout’s novels honour unrecorded lives: ordinary people marked by quiet resilience and daily grace. And when we reflect on these unrecorded lives, we find a kind of everyday heroism, with echoes of Lucy Barton’s question: what is the point of a life?

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  • The storm

    • Damian Balassone
    • 01 May 2025

    Despite the raging storm, I clearly see a figure on the Sea of Galilee/ a Son of Man/ with outstretched hands/ and he is calling me.

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  • The king of the Cross

    • Barry Divola
    • 10 April 2025

    Vittorio ‘Vito’ Bianchi was small in stature, but a giant of a man who ruled over the Piccolo Bar café in Kings Cross for over 50 years. To live in the Cross meant that you knew Vittorio Bianchi. It was impossible not to. 

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  • The fable of suicidal empathy

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 30 April 2025

    And so as the 21st century marked its first quarter, reality in the most powerful country on Earth slipped into a vortex of blurred lines of what it meant to be a living, moral being. 

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  • What happens when the west abandons foreign aid?

    • Joe Zabar
    • 16 April 2025

    As Trump dismantles America’s global aid program, and Europe follows suit, developing nations are left to fill the vacuum often with partners unfriendly to Western interests. In this new geopolitical terrain, Australia faces a choice: retreat with the rest, or lead through renewed investment in aid and regional diplomacy.

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  • In the name of God, stop the killing

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 April 2025

    What makes a war just? Can any goal justify the deaths of tens of thousands, the bombing of hospitals, the starvation of civilians? As the devastation in Gaza deepens, these questions press harder. In a conflict marked by profound suffering, what moral, legal, or human standards can still hold?

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  • What kind of society do we want?

    • Paul Smyth
    • 08 May 2025

    The 2025 election marked a pause in Australia’s political life. As old policy narratives falter, we have an opportunity to ask ourselves: what kind of society are we trying to build? Across faiths and traditions, the idea of the common good offers a path forward beyond division and drift.

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  • What the election says about us

    • Max Jeganathan
    • 07 May 2025

    In the wake of an unexpectedly decisive election, Australians rejected grievance politics from both right and left. What emerged instead was a quiet preference for stability, civility, and competence: qualities that don’t often headline campaigns, but this time shaped the outcome. In 2025, trumpery just didn’t cut it.

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  • Can Australia become self-sufficient?

    • David James
    • 05 May 2025

    As Donald Trump’s trade war upends decades of global economic orthodoxy, globalisation is quietly folding. Protectionism is back, self-sufficiency is in vogue, and Australia, thanks to its deindustrialised economy, largely escapes the fallout. But in a shifting world of tariffs and deficits, what comes next is anyone’s guess.

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  • Why the world still needs a pope

    • Miles Pattenden
    • 07 May 2025

    In an age of transient politics and market-driven morality, the papacy remains a rare constant. The pope has enduring significance as a global moral figurehead whose authority lies not in power but in the stubborn articulation of what ought to be.

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  • The papal conclave is a referendum on the Church's future

    • Miles Pattenden
    • 01 May 2025

    As cardinals gather in Rome, they must confront declining trust, shifting global power, financial scandals, and unresolved doctrinal divides within the Church. More than a choice of leader, this moment is a reckoning with modernity and the future direction of the Church itself.

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  • Three elections with a single focus

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 01 May 2025

    Three elections, three systems, one shared question: what kind of person should lead? As voters and cardinals choose their next leaders, attention turns from policy to personality — to character, courage, and conviction. In an age of division, the qualities that guide a life may yet decide the fate of nations.

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