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Keywords: Luke

  • RELIGION

    Show some respect when talking with homosexuals

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 August 2013
    28 Comments

    During part of the conversation that was recorded by SBS but not aired, I told Penny Wong I thought her homosexuality was as natural, complex and mystical as my heterosexuality. It is time we dropped the unhelpful, judgmental language of intrinsic and objective disorder when respectfully trying to determine appropriate laws and policies for all people who want to support and nurture each other and their children.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The public, the Church, and asylum seekers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 August 2013
    1 Comment

    'Like many Australians, I had hoped that the dastardly plan announced on 19 July would stop the boats in the short term, as a stop-gap measure. It is dismaying to learn that appropriate consultations had not occurred with Indonesia with the result that the very people who were to receive the shock and awe message are yet to receive it. There’s only one thing worse than shock and awe; that’s shock and awe that doesn’t work because you haven’t done your homework.' 43rd Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture, Trinity College Theological School, 14 August 2013.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard Government is socially challenged

    • John Warhurst
    • 04 June 2013
    8 Comments

    Groups such as the Australian Union of Students, Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Council of Social Service are feeling lukewarm at best about the Gillard Government. In terms of social movement support a draw is as good as a win for the Coalition. Labor needs to do better with this sector.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When it comes to work and welfare, market rules Labor's roost

    • Luke Williams
    • 27 May 2013
    10 Comments

    If I was a long-term unemployed person, how would I answer the question, 'What has the ALP done for me?' 'Lots, and not much.' The Gillard Government's commitment to developing workforce skills suggests it values decent work, not just jobs, but in positing productivity as the path to prosperity it seems more Reagan than Keynes.

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  • EDUCATION

    Religious schools discriminate against the vulnerable

    • Luke Williams
    • 04 March 2013
    56 Comments

    She was in year nine when people started to suspect she was gay. At that time a lesbian teacher at her Catholic school 'was kicked out' and 'people targeted me even more'. State intervention in religion might be undesirable, but too many religious groups respond to the discrimination debate with rights-based arguments that lack empathy.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Ugly face of a self-help monster

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 14 February 2013
    3 Comments

    Health and beauty executive Amy suffers a breakdown at her company's corporate offices. Flash forward, and she has just returned from a stint at a new-age treatment clinic. Enlightened parodies the self-centred philosophies of the cult of self-help and reveals how they can turn a person like Amy into a monster.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rape culture in life and theory

    • Ellena Savage
    • 26 October 2012
    8 Comments

    A recent column on pop culture site The Vine argued that the misappropriation of the phrase 'rape culture' cheapens 'the rhetorical playing field' and damages the cause of anti-rape politics. The only time I decisively called out a man for touching me inappropriately, he reacted aggressively, as if I had done something inexcusable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Dangers of gay conversion

    • Luke Williams
    • 19 October 2012
    36 Comments

    My first encounter with gay reparative therapy (GRT) was the day I summoned the courage to ask a friend about the cluster of scars on his wrists. The Australian Psychological Society recognises conversion therapy as harmful to individuals' mental health. Yet GRT of minors is unregulated, and in the case of Christian ex-gay groups often run by unqualified laypeople.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Spiritual leader for questioning Catholics

    • Gerald O'Collins
    • 05 September 2012
    27 Comments

    The late Cardinal Carlo Martini reached out constantly to the young, to intellectuals, to all manner of alienated Catholics, as well as immigrants and refugees. He was explicit in expressing his view that the encyclical Humanae Vitae had done 'great damage' reaffirming the ban on contraception. To him, it was why the Church lost credibility with young people on questions of sexuality and family planning.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to handle workplace bullies

    • Luke Williams
    • 28 August 2012
    20 Comments

    The Federal Workplace Bullying Inquiry has been told Australian workers are getting soft. There may be a fine line between robust performance management and workplace bullying, but international surveys have repeatedly shown Australian managers fail international benchmarks when it comes to the treatment of their people.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Fair Work works well

    • Luke Williams
    • 08 August 2012
    4 Comments

    A major review into the Fair Work Act says the nation's workplace laws are 'working well'. Industry response has been predictable, uncompromising and even dishonest. The question we should ask is: do the majority of Australians (not just bosses) think we have a fair system which rewards hard work and productivity?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Intimate study of a failing marriage

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 07 June 2012
    3 Comments

    A group of women debate whether familiarity with a long-term spouse is not better than the passion of a new relationship. Everything new gets old, argues one woman. Take This Waltz is a kind of morality play about a woman torn between the familiarity of the old and the excitement of the new.

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