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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Shariah's threat to beer in Malaysia

    • Simon Roughneen
    • 01 September 2009
    1 Comment

    Shariah law in Malaysia has seen Muslims banned from attending a Black Eyed Peas RnB concert, and a woman sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in public. All's not what it seems in this slickly-marketed, 'moderate Islamic' tourist magnet.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    East Timor needs justice before reconciliation

    • Michael Mullins
    • 31 August 2009
    6 Comments

    There's good reason for East Timor to opt for a tribunal to deliver justice for past crimes. But Australia cannot expect to receive a special hearing. Our attempts to push for justice for the sake of stability would be perceived as a promotion of our own self-interest.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The humiliation of Caster Semenya

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 31 August 2009
    8 Comments

    The issue is not whether South African athlete Caster Semenya is male, hyper-androgynous, or, as she claims, 'entirely female'. More burdensome is the ferocious public response to a predicament that clearly called for maturity and restraint.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Witnessing East Timor's independence

    • Meredyth Tamsyn
    • 28 August 2009
    1 Comment

    Ten years ago, the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly via UN referendum for independence from Indonesia. The euphoria would not last. By nightfall there were over a hundred refugees seeking shelter in the backyard of the UN house where we were staying.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Former politicians make incestuous lobbyists

    • John Warhurst
    • 26 August 2009
    2 Comments

    The process of making public policy shouldn't be like a school reunion. Former politicians have a right to do what they like after leaving Parliament, but those who opt to serve the community sector, rather than hanging around politics, are to be admired.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The case for Abbott as Opposition leader

    • Scott Stephens
    • 25 August 2009
    23 Comments

    Opposition presents the Liberal Party with a rare opportunity to recover its conservative soul and abandon Labor's vapid brand of politics. The only way forward is for the Party to replace Malcolm Turnbull with Tony Abbott as its leader.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Flame blame is a shame

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 24 August 2009
    11 Comments

    The Black Saturday bushfires had the same relationship to previous fires as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima did to other bombing raids. Defects of communication and organisation, while regrettable and costly, were irrelevant: there's no assured safety for those who live near bushland.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How Balibo distorts history

    • Paul Cleary
    • 20 August 2009
    10 Comments

    The first feature length film about Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and the deaths of six Australian journalists fails to inform the audience of the diplomatic dirty tricks, and Australian and American complicity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Yes we can achieve justice for Indigenous Australians

    • Michael Mullins
    • 17 August 2009
    1 Comment

    The death of a WA Aboriginal elder in a prison van last year was one of the worst human rights tragedies in Australian living memory. A recent speech by Governor-General Quentin Bryce evoked a more optimistic outlook for Indigenous justice.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Young Somalis are Australians too

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 12 August 2009
    18 Comments

    If there's a problem with Somali youth integrating into the community, let's all own it. That means taking an interest and being open to friendship. It's not just the responsibility of bureaucrats who devise 'policy solutions'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Regulation could make Kyle a good boy

    • Michael Mullins
    • 10 August 2009
    5 Comments

    Kyle Sandilands and other shock jocks may want to behave well, but they are constrained by commercial logic, and need the helping hand of regulation. Even John Laws intimated this last week when he told VEGA 95.3: 'I never wanted to create mischief that would be damaging to people.'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Generation Y for yoghurt

    • Edwina Byrne
    • 10 August 2009
    7 Comments

    It's fashionable to make all sorts of claims about Generation Y. Among other things, we are spoilt, attention-deficient, highly educated and unemployable. If you stop prophesising our doom for a moment, you might see we're not as hopeless as we seem.

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