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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Rise of the urban refugee

    • David Holdcroft
    • 10 February 2012
    2 Comments

    In the last ten years the world of the refugee has rapidly shifted. The refugee camp is now the exception rather than the rule: 58 per cent of all refugees reside in urban areas, mostly in the rapidly growing slums of the cities in the global south.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia follows US drone lead

    • Fatima Measham
    • 09 February 2012
    27 Comments

    Despite Obama's insistance that the use of drones in Pakistan 'is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists', civilian casualties are inevitable. Australia is also phasing in the use of drones.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Keeping Conroy out of bed with Rinehart

    • Michael Mullins
    • 06 February 2012
    6 Comments

    Communications Minister Stephen Conroy appears relaxed about Gina Rinehart's move towards control of Fairfax Media because governments are predisposed to placate media owners. A human rights charter could be the only way to maintain media diversity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Harmonising the government bureaucracy symphony

    • David Cappo
    • 06 February 2012
    2 Comments

    The Federal Government is using the word coordination a lot. But coordination of health, education and employment services could come to nothing if the coordinating bodies are not given power. And power is the very thing bureaucracy treasures and wants to keep to itself.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rage against ageism

    • Moira Rayner
    • 03 February 2012
    14 Comments

    Michael Gill, former editor in chief of the Australian Financial Review, is suing his former employer Fairfax for age discrimination. I will be praying that the provisions prohibiting age discrimination in equal opportunity laws around Australia are exposed for the pathetic non-protections that they truly are.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Catholic social solutions to workplace fairness

    • Race Matthews
    • 01 February 2012
    5 Comments

    The worker-owned cooperatives based at Mondragon in Spain have demonstrated great resilience during harsh economic times. Their model based in Catholic social values provides a contrast to the bruising industrial confrontations we've seen in Qantas and Victorian hospitals.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Opportunists could rule in 'nervous' America

    • Tony Kevin
    • 31 January 2012
    9 Comments

    The US today is a nervous nation. The old small town verities and values can no longer be taken for granted in this apprehensive, celebrity-drugged culture. Conceivably, if the economy tanks or there is some destabilising foreign policy crisis, Newt Gingrich could beat Obama.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Pope's advice for Gillard and Abbott

    • Michael Mullins
    • 30 January 2012
    16 Comments

    Last week Pope Benedict said silence and words are ‘two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance’. This insight could help political strategists charged with explaining why political leaders are failing to connect with voters.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Breaking the 'boat people' deadlock

    • Lyn Bender
    • 30 January 2012
    37 Comments

    In his book They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayor writes of 'the slow lobster boil of erosion of freedom' in Nazi Germany. As a daughter of Jewish refugees I know what this entails. The same process confronts asylum seekers today if we do not begin from a presumption of rights and humanity. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Long road to the Indigenous referendum

    • John Warhurst
    • 27 January 2012
    11 Comments

    The proposed referendum follows the 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations and provides an opportunity for this Labor era to be remembered whenever the Indigenous story is told. Passing a referendum is exceptionally difficult and there is no fool-proof recipe for success.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Beyond Australia's adolescent identity crisis

    • Fatima Measham
    • 26 January 2012
    9 Comments

    While Australia's early history is marked by violence, the Fraser Government's decision to accept nearly 60,000 Vietnamese refugees, the Mabo decision, and Paul Keating's Redfern speech provide positive narrative touchstones that can help lead Australia to maturity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Social networking drives inclusion revolution

    • David Cappo
    • 25 January 2012
    7 Comments

    Due to the prevalence of online opinion and information sharing, access and participation — the pillars of social inclusion — are becoming central to citizens' values. Governments need to be alert, as citizens will increasingly desire a more active role in their system of government.

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