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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2011: The murder of Osama Bin Laden

    • Moira Rayner
    • 04 January 2012
    6 Comments

    Barack Obama has committed his people to a legal and ethical mistake which will be a continuing obstacle to the West's integrity in its pursuit of freedom, democracy, internationally recognised standards of justice and human rights, and lasting peace. Published 3 May 2011

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2011: Why I support gay marriage

    • Kristina Keneally
    • 03 January 2012
    30 Comments

    It gives me no relish to be at odds with my Church. But it also gives me no joy to see people who are created in God's image unable to fully express their humanity, or live with the rights and dignity that heterosexual people are afforded. Published 25 September 2011

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rights for kids at Christmas

    • John Falzon
    • 22 December 2011
    7 Comments

    Democracy has been described as 'the intrusion of the Excluded into the socio-political space'. Children and young people figure prominently among the excluded in our society. When you start to wonder why, you begin to re-evaluate the strength of your democracy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Christmas challenge for a nonviolent Australia

    • John Dear
    • 22 December 2011
    9 Comments

    The nonviolent Jesus was born into abject poverty to homeless refugees on the outskirts of a brutal empire. Two thousand years later, the world remains stuck in the same cycle. America's military presence in Australia could mark the beginning of the end for that hallowed land.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When my kids believed in Santa and God

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 22 December 2011
    5 Comments

    My daughter, at seven, imagines a Barbie doll that does not exist, one that has 'a very cool gun and real lipstick'. My son, at five, asks for 'a Jeep, a hot air balloon and real false teeth'. These preserved Christmas lists record my children's growth more accurately than their physical measurements.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    War on terror is beyond the joke

    • Justin Glyn
    • 21 December 2011
    4 Comments

    The US Congress' proposals to allow indefinite military detention of its citizens without charge or trial, and America's ongoing use of unmanned attack drones to assassinate opponents, highlight anew the need for clear thinking when it comes to that much abused term, 'war'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    North Korea's new season of hope

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 21 December 2011
    2 Comments

    He presided over a starving nation, created an unstable nuclear state, and terrified his neighbours. But the death of Kim Jong-il should cause neither terror nor concern as much as the experts would have it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Don't stoop to stupid policy over boat tragedy

    • Aloysious Mowe
    • 20 December 2011
    10 Comments

    Of course we want people to stop making the hazardous boat journey to Christmas Island, but tow-backs and off-shore processing are immoral and stupid. Australia must engage with others in the region to find ways to ensure people are not driven to make desperate journeys.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bill Gates shows us how to give

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 December 2011
    4 Comments

    The main characteristic of giving is that it is an act of free will that comes from the heart. Yet Christmas gift-giving is often the product of a perceived need to conform to expectations. Bill Gates' decision to give away more than a third of his wealth is the reverse of this.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Questions surround latest asylum seeker boat disaster

    • Tony Kevin
    • 19 December 2011
    20 Comments

    The latest tragedy comes ten years after SIEV X and a year after the Christmas Island shipwreck. It will be exploited by both Gillard and Abbott to further their border protection policies. Questions surround the disaster that the Australian Government would prefer not be asked.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Shocking scenes from a teen pregnancy

    • Madeleine Hamilton
    • 16 December 2011
    23 Comments

    When she had her first baby at 18, her neighbour asked if she was trying to make a buck from the baby bonus. Given the liberalisation of abortion laws, pregnant teens are accused of deliberately ruining their lives or ripping off the public purse if they choose to continue their pregnancies.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Life lessons on the Thai-Burma border

    • Duncan Maclaren
    • 16 December 2011
    2 Comments

    Jimmy was among the quietest of the refugee students we taught. He is now a leader with a 'backpack' medical organisation whose members take medicines into the areas where 'internally displaced persons' are found. He risks his life every day since the jungle is awash with Burmese soldiers.

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