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Keywords: Census

  • RELIGION

    Australia's burqa fallacy

    • David Tittensor
    • 03 August 2011
    20 Comments

    Just because we can debate something, doesn't mean we should. As with any right there is the responsibility to exercise free speech judiciously. A quick survey of the Muslim population in Australia highlights the absurdity of debating whether there is a place for the burqa in our society.

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  • EDUCATION

    Religious education ceasefire

    • Fatima Measham
    • 29 July 2011
    7 Comments

    The stoush over school ethics classes recalls the war in US schools over 'creation science' and its place in the curriculum. Christians should support programs that give students opportunities to think deeply about what it means to be a human among other humans.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gender more than anatomy

    • Ellena Savage
    • 22 July 2011
    3 Comments

    The Census won't recognise the fact that some people in Australia don't identify as either female or male, and that such people have specific needs. One advocacy group is urging intersex people to list their religion as 'Intersex' in order that their gender is recognised.

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  • RELIGION

    In bed with Fred Nile

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 27 February 2011
    26 Comments

    In the past, Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile saw conservative Muslims as allies. Now he, like the Australian Christian Lobby, prefers to play sectarian wedge politics. Most homophobic Muslims would rather stay silent on gay marriage than support sectarian bigots.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The religious beliefs of Australia's prime ministers

    • John Warhurst
    • 11 November 2010
    12 Comments

    Nine prime ministers have been observant Christians. Two have been conventional Christians. Ten have been nominal Christians. Five have been articulate atheists or agnostics. One was a nominal atheist or agnostic.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Timor Diggers' guerilla war

    • Paul Cleary
    • 24 August 2010
    3 Comments

    Kevin Rudd's failure to embrace the Timor legend with more imagination and substance was a missed opportunity to connect with Labor's Second World War legacy. Wartime Prime Minister John Curtin saw the guerilla war in Timor as a unique and significant part of turning back the Japanese tide.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The real people of Afghanistan

    • Jan Forrester
    • 28 June 2010
    6 Comments

    I am struck by lurid online comment on whether Aussie troops should go or stay in Afghanistan, a miasma of old-left vs new-right trench exchanges, armchair military strategists and conspiracy theorists. As in the national game of Buzkashi, Afghanistan is a goat carcass fought over by a gaggle of teams.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Making public transport work

    • Paul Mees
    • 14 May 2010
    6 Comments

    A new round of Sydney-Melbourne rivalry has broken out, this one over which has the most dysfunctional train system. It's time Australian cities looked to public transport models that work, such as that of Zurich.

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  • EDUCATION

    Antique religious education policy needs reform

    • Teresa Russell
    • 29 September 2009
    20 Comments

    According to NSW education policy, if a parent wants their child to opt out of religious education, that child is not entitled to any instruction during this period. An alliance of parents and educators is pushing for an ethics-based alternative to religious education.

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  • RELIGION

    The decline of Christianity in Australia and America

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 12 June 2009
    8 Comments

    In the Rudd/Obama era there are new parallels and convergences with regard to religion in Australia and the US. The figures may be on the slide, but rumours of the death of Christianity are greatly exaggerated.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australian superwomen left holding the poison

    • Moira Rayner
    • 03 November 2008
    5 Comments

    Commentators predict the economic crisis will see firms fall back on tried-and-true experienced male managers. Women who mould themselves on men whose language and patterns of relationships were formed in the schoolyard will not last long.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Dirty words for child labour

    • Saeed Saeed
    • 09 July 2008
    1 Comment

    Sold to a contractor at the age of 13, Roghini Govindhan was put to work churning out matchboxes 11 hours a day. Now 24, Govindhan has campaigned as part of World Vision's Don't Trade Lives anti-slavery campaign.

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