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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Colour, culture and freedom of identity

    • Brian McCoy
    • 06 October 2011
    17 Comments

    I am deeply proud of my Aboriginal friend, who is now a doctor. I have not had the heart to tell her that once she was judged for not being dark enough to be awarded an Indigenous scholarship. While Andrew Bolt argues about freedom of speech, I argue about freedom of identity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Super concessions rob the poor to pay the rich

    • Lin Hatfield Dodds
    • 04 October 2011
    11 Comments

    A third of taxpayer-funded superannuation concessions — around $10 billion a year — are directed to the top 5 per cent of income earners. People living on or below the poverty line get no such support. This week's Tax Forum must ask: Are we proud of how we redistribute our national wealth?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A fair go for all means a higher GST

    • Michael Mullins
    • 03 October 2011
    11 Comments

    The GST appears unfair, as it hits the poor much harder than it does the wealthy. But that's due to the way it is implemented, and it doesn't need to be that way. The St Vincent de Paul Society would like to see it increased, but with a more sophisticated and fairer compensation mechanism.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Watching Athens crumble

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 29 September 2011
    4 Comments

    Two weeks ago two grandmothers met at a popular rendezvous in central Athens. Their talk was the usual leapfrog business, but there was an undercurrent of worry: What was going to happen to this country? Was any sort of solution going to present itself? Suddenly the riot squad hove into view.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Revelations of a detention centre spy

    • Lyn Bender
    • 28 September 2011
    12 Comments

    Employed at the centre as a psychologist, I witnessed riots, hunger strikes, attempted suicides and severe depression. I realised I had a profound ethical dilemma: in being compliant to the administration, I was unable to ensure my duty of care towards these people. So I became a mole.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Radio National slaps intellectual rigour

    • Michael Mullins
    • 26 September 2011
    12 Comments

    Author of The Slap Christos Tsiolkas wrote to the ABC Board last Monday to plead the case for maintaining a stand-alone books program on Radio National. 'Stand-alone' refers to the specialisation that allows for the intellectual rigour that has made the station exceptional.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why I support gay marriage

    • Kristina Keneally
    • 26 September 2011
    108 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.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Palestine takes a stab at statehood

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 23 September 2011
    8 Comments

    It has been said that giving certain countries independence was like giving a razor to a child. As Palestine makes its bid for full membership of the UN, it may do well to remember that any successful strategy should focus not on statehood but on rights.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Former terrorist pres a hard sell for Irish voters

    • Frank O'Shea
    • 20 September 2011
    5 Comments

    When it comes to leopards changing spots or terrorists turning into statesmen, former IRA chief-of-staff Martin McGuinnes is up there with Mandela and Mugabe. His entry into Ireland's presidential race on the weekend is significant, as the rest of the field is desolately dull.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rudd resurrection no miracle cure for Labor

    • John Warhurst
    • 19 September 2011
    9 Comments

    If Rudd was re-installed as leader, Howard's Lazarus impersonation and Menzies' return to office in 1949 would have been outdone by the most remarkable twist ever in Australian politics. Only insiders know whether it might happen. Only voters know whether it might work.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Managing our mining windfall

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 September 2011
    5 Comments

    While we have have East Timorese students coming here to learn about how to look after their oil sector, Australia should be sending people to East Timor to look at their outstanding example of how to safely and wisely preserve oil revenue for future generations.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Gillard is the PM we deserve

    • Moira Rayner
    • 15 September 2011
    21 Comments

    I'm not worried about Gillard's abysmal rating in polls. I'm not convinced anyone but journalists and backbiters have any real desire to roll her. There is no obvious alternative to Gillard as Labor leader, but there is an obvious need for a party which stands for something.

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