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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Scapegoating ministers

    • John Warhurst
    • 02 March 2010
    12 Comments

    We are often quick to blame government ministers. In the case of Bill Shorten, Stephen Conroy and Peter Garrett, they may emerge with tarnished reputations. But in rushing to criticise our ministers we often let ourselves off the hook too easily.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Israel's rogue behaviour

    • Michael Mullins
    • 01 March 2010
    14 Comments

    Last week Israel's air force unveiled its Heron TP fleet of unmanned aircraft, which it says can travel as far as Iran. War by remote control is faceless. We remain at a distance from those with whom we disagree. There is no basis for trust.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Kevin Rudd's Iran problem

    • Shahram Akbarzadeh
    • 24 February 2010
    8 Comments

    Australia is committed to nuclear non-proliferation, and the 'Iran problem' offers a chance for the Government to demonstrate its commitment to its ally, the US. This is tricky as Rudd came to office on a wave of anti-war backlash against Australia's commitment to the Iraq war.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Boys with knives

    • Moira Rayner
    • 23 February 2010
    12 Comments

    Adolescence is a time of violent, primitive emotions, of play-acting and the most intensely lived reality. Boys' passionate assertion of relative worth is developmentally necessary. That child's place in the society of his peers is, for that moment, a matter of life and death.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Media's poor need a leg up too

    • Michael Mullins
    • 22 February 2010
    2 Comments

    As the $250 million 'gift' to free to air TV networks was announced, we heard that the Communications Minister had been fraternising in exclusive locations with Australia's richest media moguls. Perhaps Minister Conroy should now play pool at the local pub with a community radio station manager. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Misdiagnosing Benjamin

    • Barry Gittins
    • 22 February 2010
    17 Comments

    The next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders may merge Asperger's into the broader 'autism spectrum disorder'. The father of a misdiagnosed two-year-old boy reveals the emotional and social implications of mental illness pigeonholing.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Real stories betray Abbott's homelessness untruth

    • John Falzon
    • 18 February 2010
    22 Comments

    Everyone has a story, and they don't happen in limbo. Tony Abbott's comments about homelessness mimic the paternalistic attitude pushed by Margaret Thatcher, where the focus is on supposed individual deficits rather than structural deficits.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Legacy of a whingeing bogan

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 17 February 2010
    14 Comments

    It's official: Pauline Hanson the whingeing bogan will soon become a whingeing Pom. She may not remain in Australia in body, but her spirit will stay with us for decades. Our politics, media and public discourse have been infected by Hansonite thinking.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Foodies savour the smell of rich people

    • Georgina Laidlaw
    • 16 February 2010
    1 Comment

    Despite damnation, bombs and climate change, the truffle continues to prove that peasants can eat like kings — just not in Australia where, priced at up to $3500 a kilo, it has been typecast as an indulgence of the wealthy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Winter Games cool Aussies' long hot summer

    • Michael Visontay
    • 15 February 2010
    1 Comment

    The Winter Olympics make for beautiful television — skiers hurtling down the slopes, snowboarders doing somersaults in the air, skaters dancing on the ice. Yet they occupy an unusual place in our imagination. They feel more like recreation than competitive sport.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rudd's apology was also our apology

    • Michael Mullins
    • 15 February 2010
    6 Comments

    On the second anniversary of the apology to Indigenous Australians, we look instinctively to the Prime Minister to tell us what he's done. He presented his report card to Parliament on Thursday. But he's not the only one who needs to account.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Taliban friend's letters to the enemy

    • Benjamin Gilmour
    • 12 February 2010
    21 Comments

    In the tribal areas of Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, Abdullah Khan, a friend and unashamed supporter of the Pakistani Taliban, gives me a present. Slowly I open it. Lying on a bed of white fabric is a US military service medal on a ribbon. 'Just 200 rupees a piece', he tells me.

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