Vol 35 No 10

19 May 2025

AUSTRALIA

Are we diagnosing the human condition?
- Jo Skinner
- 22 May 2025
As grief, anxiety, and everyday struggles are increasingly pathologised, are we losing sight of what it means to be human? A GP reflects on the difference between normal emotional pain and clinical illness—and why, sometimes, what patients need isn’t a prescription, but time, compassion and support.
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RELIGION

Two institutions, one crisis: The Church and the Liberal Party face the future
- John Warhurst
- 22 May 2025
As Australia emerges from its latest election, two pillars of public life — the Church and the Liberal Party — face strikingly similar challenges: aging leadership, waning influence, and resistance to reform.
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AUSTRALIA

Bridging now to next: Can reconciliation rise from the ashes of the Voice referendum?
- Frank Brennan
- 22 May 2025
As Reconciliation Week approaches, Australia confronts the unresolved challenge of constitutional recognition for First Nations peoples. The failure of the Voice referendum exposed deep divisions in both the political system and public trust. If progress is possible, it must begin with inclusion, bipartisan support, and a renewed commitment to meaningful change.
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RELIGION

The legacy of Pope Francis in an unjust world
- Bruce Duncan
- 21 May 2025
Pope Francis’s legacy is one of bold moral clarity: a Church allied with the poor, a planet in peril, and a global economy in need of reform. From synodal listening to fierce critiques of neoliberalism, his vision offers both rebuke and hope; a call to conscience in an age of crisis.
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AUSTRALIA

Inequality in an age of weather extremes
- Barry Gittins
- 21 May 2025
As extreme weather becomes more common in Australia, so too do deaths from heat and cold. And those who suffer most are the most vulnerable: the poor, the unhoused. What does it mean to survive the climate when comfort is a privilege, not a right?
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AUSTRALIA

Sussan Ley's mission, should she choose to accept it: Rebuild the Liberal centre
- Julian Butler
- 21 May 2025
Sussan Ley inherits a fractured Liberal Party. To lead effectively, she must look beyond cosmetic changes and read the electorate’s deeper mood of the nation and offer a principled, centrist vision capable of governing a modern Australia.
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RELIGION

Gift or grift?
- Andrew Hamilton
- 21 May 2025
When Donald Trump accepted a luxury jet from Qatar, many shrugged. It was just Trump being Trump. But his brazenness reveals deeper fault lines in our culture, where gifts are rarely free and power expects reward. Has our transactional age eclipsed ideals of grace, gratuity, and service completely?
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Vol 35 No 10

Are we diagnosing the human condition?

Two institutions, one crisis: The Church and the Liberal Party face the future

Bridging now to next: Can reconciliation rise from the ashes of the Voice referendum?

The legacy of Pope Francis in an unjust world

Inequality in an age of weather extremes

Sussan Ley's mission, should she choose to accept it: Rebuild the Liberal centre

Gift or grift?