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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Lucking out in Libya

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 26 August 2011
    2 Comments

    Obama and NATO have been lucky that this campaign has worked thus far. To participate in a brutal civil war is always a dangerous game of chance. So far, the rebels have limited their bouts of revenge to arson and looting. A blood bath has not ensued, at least not yet.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Improving the refugee debate

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 24 August 2011
    4 Comments

    This week as we mark the 10th anniversary of Tampa, the High Court is hearing a legal challenge to the Malaysian solution and an inquiry into suicide and self-harm in detention is underway. Meanwhile a new report hopes to change the direction of the debate on refugees.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Behind Berlin's and Israel's walls

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 22 August 2011
    8 Comments

    Walls are not merely concrete manifestations but cultural and psychological ones. One East Berlin native recalled his mother 'cried for hours when the Wall fell'. Israel, in constructing a wall around Jerusalem, faced a host of issues as complex as those that faced East Germany.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    ABC deaths put journalism in perspective

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 22 August 2011
    12 Comments

    The image of journalism that has dominated the news in the last month has been one of grubbiness, corruption and cover-ups. The of ABC journalist Paul Lockyer in a helicopter crash reminds us how much we are indebted to ordinary, decent and self-effacing journalists.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    'Boat people' and the ethics of presence

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 17 August 2011
    29 Comments

    Suppose that in France under Hitler's occupation, a bloodied man arrived at our doorstep asking for shelter from a Nazi mob. The claim made by the presence of the endangered and injured man would precede questions of fairness and relative need.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    An ethical defense of the Malaysia solution

    • David Palmer
    • 16 August 2011
    20 Comments

    In this debate, moral passion is common, especially among those who cast themselves as refugee advocates. But moral passion should not be confused with moral superiority. Any claim to occupy the moral high ground in this complex area of public policy is at best brave and at worst self-serving.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Disaster capitalism on Manus Island

    • Michael Mullins
    • 15 August 2011
    6 Comments

    'Disaster capitalism' entails profiting from the misery of others. Papua New Guinea's motives for agreeing to the reopening of the Manus detention centre are economic. By proceeding with the plan Australia would be complicit in the exploitation of asylum seekers for financial gain.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Myths of wartime good and evil

    • Zac Alstin
    • 15 August 2011
    22 Comments

    It is a weakness of human nature that we forgive in our friends what we despise in our enemies. If Germany or Japan had achieved a nuclear weapon and launched it on an Allied city, our condemnation would be unrelenting.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Disability reform shows Labor has a heart

    • Moira Byrne Garton
    • 12 August 2011
    11 Comments

    Julia Gillard this week described access to disability services as a 'cruel lottery', and declared support for proposed reforms. Her response demonstrates compassion and goodwill during a time when many citizens have expressed disgust at Labor's treatment of asylum seekers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Discerning Britain's smoke and fire

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 11 August 2011
    14 Comments

    'It's what happens when it's the school holidays and the kids are bored,' quipped one British Jesuit. 'Bit of heavy rain would put a stop to it.' His minimalist explanation rightly questions the apocalyptic theories that are being erected on the behaviour of excitable young people.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Britain's riots and the new financial crisis

    • Michael Kelly
    • 11 August 2011
    5 Comments

    London is burning. Throughout the rest of the world, stock markets are tumbling at a rate not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis. Unemployment in the US and parts of Europe is high and refuses to come down. What we are seeing in Britain could be just the beginning.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hooked on monogamy

    • Jen Vuk
    • 10 August 2011
    6 Comments

    New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said recently that  sanctioning gay marriage could lead to demands for the legalisation of polygamy. US author Sidney Callahan argues that, gay or straight, we all strive for 'pair bonding that contributes to equality and unity'.

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