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Keywords: Commentariat

  • AUSTRALIA

    Democracy reigns in Rudd's participation nation

    • Ray Cassin
    • 10 July 2013
    9 Comments

    Most voters think that when they fill in a ballot paper they are choosing between the prime minister and the opposition leader. And the fact that they think this makes it so, regardless of the niceties of constitutional theory. The system Rudd is proposing would narrow the gap between voter perceptions and the power of parliamentary blocs to ignore them.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rudd's gay marriage backflip fires church-state debate

    • Ray Cassin
    • 22 May 2013
    62 Comments

    Most responses to Rudd's conversion on gay marriage have focused on the implications for Australia's political dynamic. Those who bother to read the lengthy blog entry in which he announced his change of heart will be drawn into a broader debate about the relationship between church and state that takes place too rarely in Australian politics.

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  • RELIGION

    The Church is not beyond reproach

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 November 2012
    1 Comment

    'Might not the chief problem with Church language in the public square be that we tend to come from a position of moral superiority, approaching those dreadfully compromised politicians who will do anything to be elected? The abuse crisis reminds us that the Church is not irreproachable.' Text from Fr Frank Brennan's presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia's Public Affairs Commission Conference, November 2012.

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  • RELIGION

    Advancing human rights in Australia

    • Frank Brennan
    • 17 October 2012
    1 Comment

    Full text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's address 'Advancing human rights in Australia — lessons from the National Human Rights Consultation' at the 'Human Rights Matters!' conference marking Anti-Poverty Week 2012. 17 October 2012, Cardinal Knox Centre, St Patricks Cathedral, Melbourne.

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  • MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

    Gillard, work and welfare

    • Sarah Burnside
    • 17 August 2011
    8 Comments

    Opponents of workplace regulation are well-resourced and powerful. In order to meet them head-on, the Government must do more than invoke the value of hard work. After all, if work automatically confers great dignity, what does it matter that conditions are unsatisfactory?

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  • RELIGION

    Toothless, Trojan or true to Trinitarian anthropology

    • Frank Brennan
    • 28 January 2010
    1 Comment

    The full text of Frank Brennan's January 2010 address to the Australian Association of Catholic Bioethicists, 'Toothless, Trojan or True to Trinitarian Anthropology? Reflecting on the 2009 National Human Rights Consultation'. 

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  • RELIGION

    Human Rights Consultation and beyond

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 October 2009
    1 Comment

    Even if all our recommendations were implemented tomorrow, there would still be vulnerable Australians missing out on essential economic and social rights. Responsibility for meeting these needs cannot rest solely with government. We need to take responsibility for each other.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    It's time for Australia to reclaim sovereignty

    • Tony Kevin
    • 19 September 2007
    3 Comments

    Australia has ceased to believe in a rules-based international order. Our increasing cynicism about the UN, and participation in coalitions with powerful world players, effectively denies our sovereignty. Rudd Government foreign policy would would need to involve more than fine-tuning.

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  • RELIGION

    Institutionalising Christian compassion for the poor

    • Richard Mulgan
    • 22 January 2007
    2 Comments

    Kevin Rudd and other Christians have been inspired by Christ’s concern for the disadvantaged. They have seen state-based social justice policies as a way of institutionalising this concern. But such compassion can easily slide into patronising assumptions about the distance between those who give and those who receive.

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