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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Demystifying famine

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 26 July 2011
    4 Comments

    If one were to believe the news cycle, the current crisis in Somalia would seem to have arisen without warning. But it is part of a pattern we have had plenty of opportunity to observe and recognise. In fact Eastern Africa is historically well acquainted with famine.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sex abuse action and the seal of confession

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 July 2011
    29 Comments

    Senator Nick Xenophon's call to protect children by ending the seal of confession was an affront to freedom of religion. But he speaks for many Australians, whose goodwill is necessary to preserve such religious practices.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Taming the pokies

    • Jennifer Borrell
    • 25 July 2011
    12 Comments

    Nearly a third of regular poker machine users are problem and at risk gamblers, who spend more than $7 billion a year at pokies, amounting to 60 per cent of total losses. No wonder the gaming industry is threatened by proposed measures aimed at making the machines safer.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gender more than anatomy

    • Ellena Savage
    • 22 July 2011
    3 Comments

    The Census won't recognise the fact that some people in Australia don't identify as either female or male, and that such people have specific needs. One advocacy group is urging intersex people to list their religion as 'Intersex' in order that their gender is recognised.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why we're mean to Julia

    • Moira Rayner
    • 20 July 2011
    38 Comments

    Those who rise by media approval, will fall by it. Once, talkback radio hosts and reporters drummed up Gillard as tomorrow's PM and the day's bright star in the political firmament. Today she's 'JuLiar', the 'witch', a fallen princess. What went wrong?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Remembering Bonegilla's refugee riot

    • Bruce Pennay
    • 18 July 2011
    8 Comments

    50 years ago this week, migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe rioted at the Bonegilla migrant reception centre outside Albury-Wodonga. The Federal Immigration Minister said such behaviour was not tolerated in this country, but investigation prompted public sympathy for the demonstrators.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sharing the carbon price pain

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 July 2011
    10 Comments

    Because the Government will provide compensation for higher fuel bills, there is little incentive to use less electricity. While the Government is to be commended for its attempt to use carbon pricing to redistribute wealth, it is likely the poor will share the greater part of the burden of carbon pricing.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    North Korea's human rights time bomb

    • Lucas Smith
    • 15 July 2011
    4 Comments

    As the world watches the ongoing catastrophe in Syria, state-sponsored destruction of a much quieter but no less brutal kind is afflicting North Korea. Even while the country anticipates next year's 100th birthday of state founder and 'Eternal President' Kim Il-sung, NGOs are reporting that it may have run out of food.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Childbirth grace and agony

    • Jen Vuk
    • 13 July 2011
    6 Comments

    Sydney mother Grace Wang was left paralysed from the waist down due to a botched epidural. When I first heard her story I recalled my own epidural experience with my firstborn, looking fixedly down at the floor trying to ignore the blood pooling around my feet. Childbirth can be a murderous business.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Aborting abnormality

    • Zac Alstin
    • 12 July 2011
    112 Comments

    Research suggests that 85 per cent of Australians support legal access to abortion for 'severe disabilities', and 60 per cent for 'mild disabilities'. While we encourage tolerance and diversity in our multi-ethnic society, our medical culture is moving in the opposite direction.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rupert Murdoch as moral arbiter

    • Michael Mullins
    • 11 July 2011
    6 Comments

    In the wake of the News of the World scandal, the British Government media regulator Ofcom has deferred its decision on whether Rupert Murdoch and his executives are 'fit and proper' media owners. Ofcom does not define 'fit and proper', but it's more likely to be about moral rather than financial solvency.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Welcome the Republic of South Sudan

    • Jack De Groot
    • 08 July 2011
    1 Comment

    Tomorrow, the world will welcome a new nation. After four decades of civil war and six tense months of transition, the Republic of South Sudan will assert its independence. This is an occasion for celebration, but also of new challenges for the international aid community.

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