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Keywords: Public Intellectual

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Robert Manne and the responsibilities of a public life

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 02 May 2025

    In an era of reflex opinion and vanishing accountability, moral seriousness can seem an anachronism. Yet history teaches that ideas — and the people who defend them — shape lives and nations. 

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  • RELIGION

    The legacy of a Jesuit pope

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 April 2025

    Francis was a pope prepared to blur the edges of doctrine, or at least its application, opening the doors of the Church to all those seeking love, mercy and forgiveness. He never doubted God’s capacity to love and forgive all who sought that love and forgiveness. He maintained the certainty, not of doctrine but of the simple piety of believers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The quiet crisis in childhood vaccination

    • Jo Skinner
    • 03 April 2025

    Immunisation has protected communities for centuries, from early smallpox prevention in 200 BC to the eradication of deadly diseases. Yet today, vaccine confidence is slipping. Misinformation, social media, and shifting parental anxieties are fuelling a quiet backlash, raising urgent questions about trust and public health in a changing world.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The roots of American discontent

    • Nirmal Ghosh
    • 14 March 2025

    Donald Trump’s return to the White House was the culmination of decades of economic decline, political disillusionment, and cultural fracture, forces the liberal elite ignored at their peril. As Trump reshapes America’s role in the world, his rise reveals hard truths about democracy, populism, and power in the 21st century.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Cheques and (power) balances reshape aid in a post-liberal world

    • Cameron Hill
    • 26 February 2025

    With cuts to USAID, international aid programs confront mounting challenges. Amid evolving power dynamics and strategic realignment, humanitarian assistance now faces fundamental questions about its future.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Supercharged or superficial? The tax reform Australia can't agree on

    • David James
    • 29 January 2025

    A plan to raise superannuation taxes on high-value funds has stalled in the Senate, sparking a broader debate about government control over retirement savings. Rooted in a unique system that places ownership squarely with individuals, Australia’s approach has delivered impressive returns, yet political pressures threaten to reshape its future.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Russell Brand: Messiah or very naughty boy?

    • Cherie Gilmour
    • 06 December 2024

    Russell Brand's conversion to Christianity has sparked fascination and skepticism. Dismissing his newfound faith as a cynical PR move, critics cite his controversial past. Yet, his public embrace of grace and redemption speaks to a restless spiritual hunger. Is this a genuine transformation or another reinvention of Brand’s ever-shifting persona?

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Theory and Practice: In conversation with Michelle de Kretser

    • Michael McGirr
    • 15 November 2024

    Michelle de Kretser's new book Theory and Practice is a creative combination of fiction and essay, and concerns the moment in which the encounter with literature, a connection with another human imagination, is replaced by something called 'Theory'. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Race Mathews: A Life in Politics

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 November 2024
    1 Comment

      The story of Race Mathews’ career will be an antidote to despair about politics and politicians. It underlines the possibilities of politics, showing how it can be more than a job or a career. It can be a calling to imagine a more just society and ways of building it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Would you bet against inequality?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 October 2024
    1 Comment

    In Andrew Leigh's new book, he argues that inequality matters because it threatens the sense of fairness that is central to our well-being, because inequality prevents the less well off from moving to relative affluence, weakens democracy, and erodes understanding of and commitment to the common good. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The contours of exile: The poetry of Derek Walcott

    • Peter Steele
    • 29 August 2024
    1 Comment

      Good poetry stops us in our tracks, visited as we are by whatever it is that has stopped the poet in his tracks. This agency may properly be, as in Walcott's case, something stemming from cultural marginality, from a fascination with the dramatic, from an equipoise between the lyrical and the epical, or from the interweaving of all these. (From the Eureka Street archives)

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  • RELIGION

    Finding common ground in a post-truth world

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 21 August 2024
    3 Comments

    This year’s Social Justice Statement is ambitious in its scope. From the ravages of war to the erosion of truth, the statement challenges us to confront the root causes of our divisions and seek a path toward a more just and peaceful future.

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