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Section: Australia

  • AUSTRALIA

    Guilt edged leaders

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 01 July 2008
    4 Comments

    'Iguanagate' pariahs Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca can hardly be compared with Bush, Blair and Howard, but they are arguably on the same continuum. Surely the notion that leadership and responsibility go together still has some meaning.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Zimbabwe needs the ballot, not the bullet

    • Oskar Wermter
    • 30 June 2008
    4 Comments

    Gangs of party youth rampage through working class Harare assaulting anyone suspected of voting against Robert Mugabe. When they kill, these youths — uneducated, frustrated, high on Mugabe's ideology of hatred — think they are defending Zimbabwe's sovereignty.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The place of plastic

    • Michael Mullins
    • 30 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Plastic is for when when durability is required. The use of plastics in the manufacture of household appliances has enabled them to be priced at a level affordable to most people. But single-use bags and bottles are just too costly to the environment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Democrats' bastard demise

    • Tony Smith
    • 27 June 2008
    6 Comments

    At their best, the Democrats refused legislative trade-offs, viewing compromise as a step towards cynicism. Should deadlocks beset parliament in the months ahead, people may regret the departure of the party that tried to keep the bastards honest.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Taking housing back from the banks

    • Chris Warren
    • 23 June 2008
    13 Comments

    The housing crisis is here, but its effects are just beginning to be realised. A 'common equity' model suggests an alternative means of home ownership that excludes profit-driven banks and lenders, so that housing becomes a right rather than a privilege of the privileged.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The skinny on 'fat' Australia

    • Tim Kroenert and Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 June 2008
    2 Comments

    A new report reveals Australia's battle with the bulge is reaching crisis point, suggesting our lives of comfort and consumption are catching up with us. The weight problem is a symptom of general problematic attitdues towards human dignity and wholeness.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Rudd commission won't stop the bomb

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 19 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Continuing the work of the defunct Canberra Commission, Kevin Rudd's Nuclear Non-Proliferations and Disarmament Commission is re-inventing a wheel that never worked. Preventing freelance scientists from following their career wanderlust is the real challenge in any post-nuclear framework.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Watching the watchdogs

    • Moira Rayner
    • 18 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Bodies such as the NSW Crime Commission and Victoria's Office of Police Integrity have proven either ineffective or vulnerable to influence themselves. Ultimately, we the people are responsible for keeping these bodies accountable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Rudd in rut over national reforms

    • Bill Calcutt
    • 17 June 2008
    3 Comments

    The Howard era was typified by reactive short-term politics, adversarial confrontation, polarisation and a resistance to transparency. Labor must overcome residual community cynicism and grandstanding by the media if it is to advance its progressive agenda.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The nuclear terror of Bush 'negligence' policy

    • Marko Beljac
    • 16 June 2008

    A new Bush Administration policy opens the door to proportionate nuclear strikes against states that transfer fissile material to terrorists — even if the material is stolen, not knowingly leaked. Such a 'negligence doctrine' increases the chance of inadvertent nuclear war.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Consumer confidence can't be bought

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 June 2008
    2 Comments

    Rising petrol prices and interest rates mean Australians' confidence in the economy has declined to the lowest level for 16 years. There is a need for a deeper source of confidence beyond economic good times.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Democratic Indonesia's lesson for Australia

    • Saeed Saeed
    • 13 June 2008
    1 Comment

    Kevin Rudd's visit to Jakarta today and continued inter-cultural dialogue could do much to enrich Australia's friendship with Indonesia. Indonesia's labelling as a basket case of corruption and terrorism denies the significant strides the country has taken since its democratic reformation.

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