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Keywords: Committees

  • AUSTRALIA

    The iPhone 5 and Apple's profit fetish

    • Michael Mullins
    • 17 September 2012
    5 Comments

    Ahead of his Australian visit earlier this year, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak criticised the company for subjecting local consumers to 'horrible' price-gouging. Last week's release of the iPhone 5 has reinforced perceptions of Apple as an odious corporation that exploits consumers, alongside the likes of tobacco companies, big banks, McDonald's, and Coles and Woolworths.

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  • MEDIA

    Orwell in 2012 Australia

    • Fatima Measham
    • 16 July 2012
    2 Comments

    As word of the national security inquiry filtered through Twitter last week, one wit remarked, '1984 is meant to be a cautionary tale, not a manual'. The proposed reforms constitute a disturbing concession that our intelligence sector is not equipped to deal with the increasing sophistication of covert online activity, without resorting to questionable laws.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Refugees in the dark over security checks

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 25 May 2012
    5 Comments

    Hayder and Mariam were found to be refugees in mid 2009. This year they had their second child. They have patiently awaited their security clearance, but when they make inquiries they are merely told that Immigration is awaiting the security checks from 'outside agencies'. The long process is affecting them mentally.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Time to re-imagine the Australian flag

    • Philip Harvey
    • 11 May 2012
    50 Comments

    The readiness of Australians to design a flag that is agreed to and honoured ought to be on the agenda of any forward-looking party. Otherwise a day will come when a design will be foisted on us that no one likes and has no distinctive meaning. One only has to listen to the national anthem to know Australians are capable of embracing second best.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Church transparency key to protecting children

    • David Cappo
    • 06 March 2012
    21 Comments

    The Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry has set a new benchmark. A particular challenge to churches is the recommendation regarding mandatory reporting for clergy and church personnel. Any equivocation on this would be viewed with disdain by the community.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    All democracies great and small

    • John Warhurst
    • 27 February 2012
    5 Comments

    From strata communities to federal politics, citizens of democracies exhibit similar characteristics. These include limited knowledge and interest, suspicion of office-holders, and assertions of self-interest. Those who stand for election deserve more credit than they often get because they are a small minority.

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  • RELIGION

    Religious groups and the Bill of Rights debate

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011

    Speech given by Fr Frank Brennan SJ at the 'Law and Religion: Legal Regulation of Religious Groups, Organisations and Communities' Conference Dinner in Melbourne on 15 July 2011.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hope for a stitched-up government

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 September 2010
    12 Comments

    Many of us will wish the new government well, but refrain from putting our own money on its survival. Hopefully our two major parties, which were so happy to do whatever it took to win, no matter what the cost to human lives and ethical values, will recover a deeper sense of what matters. 

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  • RELIGION

    The apology Benedict should have given

    • Garry Eastman
    • 23 March 2010
    12 Comments

    Pope Benedict's letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland released this weekend is a watershed in the way the Church speaks on abuse committed by priests and religious. The Pope's letter would have been better received, not just in Ireland but throughout the world, if he had added a few extra paragraphs.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Spin and the art of democracy

    • Alex McDermott
    • 15 March 2010
    7 Comments

    Two of the most significant changes in Australian history, the post-war migration scheme and the 1980s economic reform, would not have occurred without political spin. It is no accident that the first teaching to devote itself to the art of spin was born simultaneously with democracy in ancient Athens.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Blind anxiety

    • Brendan Forde
    • 22 July 2009
    10 Comments

    I gag in social situations. Visual cues that mediate conversation are not available to me, so halfway through a sentence, confidence evaporates. I'm convinced they're not interested, or I think I hear them stifling a yawn. Why did I ever start to talk?

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  • RELIGION

    Bikies have rights too

    • Frank Brennan
    • 02 April 2009
    3 Comments

    We need to be on our guard against laws and policies enacted in the name of the public interest but with insufficient consideration for the human rights of the minority.

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