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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Fraser and Whitlam's fruitful rivalry

    • John Menadue
    • 13 December 2011
    8 Comments

    Bitter rivals though they were, Fraser and Whitlam displayed unity on many issues. It is pertinent to consider how these political enemies contributed to creating a much better society. Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott could learn much from their example.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The dark heart of a European Christmas

    • Bronwyn Lay
    • 12 December 2011
    3 Comments

    The EU was a panacea for Europe's nationalist and imperial history. All hope was pinned on the euro as the saviour able to transcend internal differences. As Christmas approaches, the air feels fragile. Winter will be frugal. Death and disintegration are constantly on the European mind.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The good journalist and the assassins

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 December 2011
    17 Comments

    In Australia free speech is understood as freedom from legal constraint. In the Bolt case, it was defended for commercial reasons. A better understanding of the cost of free speech can be seen in Russian journalist Alexander Minkin's description of an attempt to kill him.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Reinventing the Aboriginal sports icon

    • Michael Visontay
    • 06 December 2011
    6 Comments

    By showing the wider community that an Aboriginal footballer could be smart as well as strong, Artie Beetson set an enduring example to all Indigenous people about what they could aspire to, on and off the sporting field.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Making friends with the landmine capital of the world

    • Michael Mullins
    • 05 December 2011
    1 Comment

    A few years ago, western leaders welcomed the about face of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. Their enemy became their friend, but it ended badly. International opinion should not rescind Burma's pariah nation status until its leaders have taken definitive action that includes ending the use of landmines.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Afghan terror past and present

    • Jan Forrester
    • 05 December 2011
    8 Comments

    In Afghanistan, the past isn't the past yet. The last 150 years bear directly on its present perilous state. Now that the US is leaving, some US lobbyists and Afghan women wonder what will happen if the Taliban return. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Conscience matters in gay marriage vote

    • John Warhurst
    • 02 December 2011
    43 Comments

    Any parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage will highlight the human experiences of MPs, who will reflect, often painfully, on questions of sexuality within their family and among friends. Should same-sex marriage ultimately win out, such stories will play a crucial role.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Jobs lost to the office evolution

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 30 November 2011
    7 Comments

    If you walked into a public service office in the early 1980s, you'd see typing pools, mailrooms and whole floors full of people doing routine clerical work. People with disabilities were disproportionately employed in low level positions. Today, most of those positions have gone.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard's Speaker dirty trick could backfire

    • Michael Mullins
    • 28 November 2011
    30 Comments

    New House Speaker Peter Slipper will have no authority if parliamentarians do not grant it to him. Opposition MPs do not respect him because of his history of disloyalty and questionable behaviour. If Slipper fails to command authority, it is arguable that Tony Abbott should be granted his wish of an early poll.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Family violence and The Slap

    • Moira Rayner
    • 25 November 2011
    20 Comments

    As anyone who has read or watched The Slap would know, violence is intimately connected with power, ego, frustration and sex. The most sympathetic characters are prepared to take on an adult world of subtlety and complication, on honest terms. So let it be with violence in our homes.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Death by a thousand yuppies

    • Ellena Savage
    • 25 November 2011
    2 Comments

    Pubs with boutique beer are creeping their way north. Day-old bread at the café where the yummy mummies drink lattes is $4. Gentrification. The cycle of life. I want to save my heartland from this fate, but I should first register my own complicity. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Time to fix leaky nuclear treaty

    • Justin Glyn
    • 23 November 2011
    5 Comments

    Given the leakiness of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, it is scarcely surprising that Australia is not concerned about the possibility of breaching it in selling uranium to India. If the world is serious about developing real safeguards against nuclear proliferation, the treaty needs to be replaced, not ignored.

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