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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Houses without walls

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 07 July 2011
    8 Comments

    Two creative housing researchers argue for a 'housing first' approach, that offers permanent housing to homeless people without first putting conditions on their behaviour. The concept flies in the face of politicians and welfare agencies in Australia. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Indigenous Australians taking the next step

    • Brian McCoy
    • 06 July 2011
    4 Comments

    I have just returned from visiting friends in remote Aboriginal communities. It was a sad trip. A large number of young people have died in recent years, some close friends. They represent the trifecta of young peoples' deaths: car accidents, suicides and chronic disease.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Regional issues beyond the mad hatter's tea party

    • Rachel Baxendale
    • 04 July 2011
    4 Comments

    Some regional Australians may be enjoying the political day in the sun of rural independents Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott. But despite the prominence of the NBN and the Murray Darling Basin, flippancy and apathy dominate metropolitan Australia's attitude to regional and rural issues.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Aung San Suu Kyi's inner freedom

    • Michael Mullins
    • 04 July 2011
    4 Comments

    Over the weekend, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had the privilege of spending two hours with Burma’s pro-democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi. In her Reith Lectures for the BBC, she explains that her release from house arrest last November was almost inconsequential. Freedom is something else.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The neo-liberal face of the new Greens

    • Matthew Holloway
    • 01 July 2011
    12 Comments

    The current narrative about the ALP says the party losing its soul and ultimately turning its back on those Australians it is meant to represent. The Tasmanian experience suggests the same might be said for the Greens in the Federal Parliament, who assume the balance of power in the Senate today.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ethical demands of a regional solution

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 June 2011
    21 Comments

    Even if the Malaysian government guaranteed the security, sustenance and education of the asylum seekers, the human dignity of those found to be refugees would still be significantly infringed. They would be unable to enter Malaysian society equally, and they have no possibility of prompt acceptance into another society.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard the least of Labor's worries

    • John Warhurst
    • 29 June 2011
    14 Comments

    The media are not indulging in fantasies, but feeding off rumours around Parliament House and gossip from within Labor. The message is that Gillard has until Christmas to improve the party's standing. But the party has bigger problems than an unpopular leader.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Peace in Syria will stop the boats

    • Michael Mullins
    • 27 June 2011
    3 Comments

    The international community tends to back 'democratic' revolutions, rather than national unity, in countries of the Middle East. This is good for majority populations, but Christians and other minorities can be the losers. If they're forced to flee, they become part of the 'refugee problem'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mourning Kevin Rudd

    • Lyn Bender
    • 24 June 2011
    27 Comments

    Since even the best leaders are not infallible, we must decide who is good enough. Abbott is not, and the jury is still out on Gillard. The anniversary of Rudd's fall provides an opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps regret, what we have lost.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Back to basics on asylum seeker policy

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 23 June 2011
    2 Comments

    The Rudd Government promised positive reforms after a decade of 'boat people'-bashing from the previous government. Three years later, we are back where we were. To understand how this happened it is helpful to overview the changes under Labor and the gradual decline in 'key immigration values'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Forgiving Japan

    • Zac Alstin
    • 23 June 2011
    27 Comments

    The disasters in Japan early this year left scenes of destruction reminiscent of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Australian experiences of Japanese wartime cruelty have never been forgotten or forgiven. But the problems are not all on the Japanese side.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Doubting democracy in Muslim Turkey

    • William Gourlay
    • 22 June 2011
    7 Comments

    Much has been made of Turkey as a model for reform and democratisation in the Muslim world. If the Turkish experience is indicative, then the process of establishing robust and viable democracies in the Middle East will be long and slow.

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