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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    'Bigot' gaffe jars with British presidential politics

    • Peter Scally
    • 30 April 2010
    8 Comments

    Gordon Brown's campaign has hit rock-bottom thanks to an inadvertent remark being whipped into a huge story by mischief-making reporters. He is to Tony Blair what Pope Benedict is to John Paul II — shy, serious, and a little too 'heavy' for our sound-bite culture.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rise of Tasmania's 'Green devils'

    • John Warhurst
    • 27 April 2010
    12 Comments

    The Greens represent not just 20 per cent of the Tasmanian electorate but 10 per cent of the national electorate. Australian politics will benefit when the Greens are better integrated into the system rather than frozen out.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Storm blows Anzac values

    • Michael Visontay
    • 23 April 2010
    9 Comments

    The salary cap in sport is one of the last remnants of Australian egalitarianism. This is one of the reasons why the Melbourne Storm's behaviour is so offensive. It is an offence against one of the values Australians hold so dear, especially at Anzac Day — a fair go.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Manipulating the nation on Anzac Day

    • Aurelien Mondon
    • 23 April 2010
    5 Comments

    As Anzac Day approaches, Australian flags adorn our streets. To many, this display of nationalism is inoffensive and appears even as a sign of cohesion. But it may also be a worrying facet of the growing appeal found in exclusionary identity politics.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott and the new Catholic Conservatism

    • Michael Furtado
    • 20 April 2010
    30 Comments

    There is much to salvage from Howard's policies, misconstrued as universally liberal and bereft of state intervention in the interests of the underprivileged. More could be done to link such a policy frame with several aspects of Catholic Social Teaching.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Palestine's heavy metal revolution

    • James M. Dorsey
    • 19 April 2010
    5 Comments

    Boosted by technologies that facilitate mass distribution without government control, the heavy metal and hip-hop music scene in the Middle East recalls the role music played in the velvet revolution that toppled regimes in Eastern Europe and Indonesia.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Putting patients before premiers' egos

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 April 2010
    6 Comments

    Premier John Brumby's boast that Victoria has the best health system came unstuck during his address to the National Press Club. Putting patients first is about understanding the social context of those with acute health challenges, not the construction of political ego.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Plane tragedy prolongs Polish-Russian curse

    • Tony Kevin
    • 13 April 2010
    4 Comments

    The Devil himself could not have better orchestrated Sunday's air tragedy at Smolensk Airport. It was to be a symbolic moment of reconciliation between two neighbouring countries that have been separated by war.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Yes we can beat church sex abuse

    • Michael Mullins
    • 12 April 2010
    19 Comments

    In his Easter message, Cardinal George Pell made an oblique reference to sexual abuse in the Church. While most Australians dismiss such utterances as too little too late, it is possible to look at them optimistically when set against actions of the recent past.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The crucifixion of Christine Nixon

    • Moira Rayner
    • 09 April 2010
    79 Comments

    No firestorm of blame would be raging in the media were Christine Nixon not a woman, a decent and strong woman, a prominent woman and an ethically sound woman of an age and with the experience to possess a raging integrity of her own and, by her very being, to offer ruthless men a soft target.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to apologise for genocide

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 06 April 2010
    3 Comments

    From Rudd's 'sorry' to the Stolen Generations, to last year's US Senate resolution apologising for slavery, the political apology has assumed freight and relevance. An apology issued in the Serbian Parliament last week is exceptional for its attempt to allow the perpetrator into the moral circle.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why 'welcome to country' is more than formality

    • Tony Smith
    • 31 March 2010
    9 Comments

    Christian prayer at public meetings cannot have the same importance as an acknowledgement of country. Indigenous peoples have a genuine spiritual association with the land. By recognising this, all Australians can be united in a non-denominational spirituality.

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