Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Keywords: Ferguson

  • AUSTRALIA

    Outsized party power distorts democracy

    • John Warhurst
    • 05 March 2013
    9 Comments

    What stands out most from the pre-selection defeat of ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries is that less than 200 pre-selectors voted. The power of this small pre-selectorate points to a broader problem in Australian politics. While the major parties are in decline as membership based organisations, they retain disproportionate power.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Electricity price hike won't give us clean energy

    • Brian Toohey
    • 02 July 2012
    16 Comments

    For most Australians, Government compensation for the carbon tax won't cover the steep rise in the cost of electricity caused by unrelated investment in infrastructure. That was not its intention. But the carbon tax will still not ensure the price of 'dirty' electricity is high enough to make coal-fired generators uncompetitive and force a 'clean energy future'.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    We need a pulpit perspective on Papua

    • Susan Connelly
    • 02 March 2012
    8 Comments

    No one has been held accountable for the human rights abuses that occurred in East Timor, and this has resulted in a further vacuum of human responsibility in West Papua. The Australian Government has neglected the situation, but so too have the churches.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    In defence of 'adults only' video games

    • Michael Mullins
    • 20 February 2012
    3 Comments

    Opponents of the government's proposed R18+ video game classification argue that playing violent video games leads to violent behaviour. But researchers have found mental health to be a more reliable predictor of negative outcomes.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Old men behaving badly

    • John Warhurst
    • 01 March 2011
    15 Comments

    Old men are hard to top when it comes to abuse of power: Egypt's Mubarak is 82, Italy's Berlusconi is 74, and Zimbabwe's Mugabe is 88. There are good arguments for removing leaders once they reach 'a certain age', even in relatively benign democracies such as Australia.

    READ MORE
  • ENVIRONMENT

    Best of 2010: Gillard's climate coup

    • Tony Kevin
    • 12 January 2011
    3 Comments

    If the Gillard Government manages to serve a full term, there is a good chance that Parliament will pass a well-designed, effective national carbon pricing policy into law in 2012. This would be a major policy success that Gillard could legitimately boast of going into a 2013 full-term election.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Indigenous jobs another forsaken moral challenge

    • Michael Mullins
    • 01 November 2010
    2 Comments

    At the time of the Apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd committed Labor to halving the gap in employment incomes within a decade. It is now looking like another great moral challenge that Labor has given up on.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Gillard's climate coup

    • Tony Kevin
    • 29 September 2010
    6 Comments

    If the Gillard Government manages to serve a full term, there is a good chance that Parliament will pass a well-designed, effective national carbon pricing policy into law in 2012. This would be a major policy success that Gillard could legitimately boast of going into a 2013 full-term election.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Goodbye Kevin, hello Julia

    • Tony Kevin
    • 25 June 2010
    15 Comments

    We have just experienced a Shakespearean moment. There is real excitement in the land, a sense of new beginnings, as the Elizabethan figure of Julia Gillard takes the reins as Prime Minister. Rudd, to his credit, has accepted the inevitable with grace and dignity.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Schooling for a more cohesive society

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 March 2010
    4 Comments

    The challenges and opportunities are to fund equitably all networks in education and to ensure that robust morale and community engagement are hallmarks of all parts of the network, including state schools and emerging schools such as Muslim schools.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2009: Empathy for paedophiles is not sympathy for the devil

    • Michael Mullins
    • 04 January 2010
    4 Comments

    A bill passed hastily by the NSW Parliament last week, specifically to force released paedophile Dennis Ferguson out of his home, effectively enshrined hate in legislation. Like drug addiction, paedophilia is a problem that requires community empathy, rather than ostracism. September 2009

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Australia needs the Vatican

    • John Warhurst
    • 04 November 2009
    11 Comments

    Tim Fischer, Australian Ambassador to the Vatican, has a vital role in a state he calls a hub of power and intelligence. One can't help but wonder if Cardinal George Pell thinks he, rather than Fischer, should be Rudd's man in the Vatican.

    READ MORE