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Keywords: Centrelink

  • RELIGION

    Human Rights Consultation and beyond

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 October 2009
    1 Comment

    Even if all our recommendations were implemented tomorrow, there would still be vulnerable Australians missing out on essential economic and social rights. Responsibility for meeting these needs cannot rest solely with government. We need to take responsibility for each other.

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  • RELIGION

    Who deserves charity

    • Susie Byers
    • 14 July 2009
    10 Comments

    The Pope's social encyclical comes at a time when Australian churches increasingly have to provide charity to those who have been failed by the state. For charity to constitute true giving, social organisations must also be prepared to commit politically.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Plight of the 'skilled unemployed'

    • Beth Doherty
    • 22 June 2009
    12 Comments

    After returning home from six months of volunteer work overseas, my plan was that I would spend a couple of weeks looking, and that after a few resumés were sent out, the phone calls would start pouring in. They didn't.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Laziness wrong target for welfare reforms

    • Susie Byers
    • 04 March 2008
    2 Comments

    Reforms need to be proposed with an eye to compassion, providing real skills and training, and dealing with the underlying issues of racism, mental health, poverty, and education. These have a far greater impact on workforce participation than bone laziness.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Making obligation mutual

    • Frank Quinlan
    • 14 November 2007

    For the unemployed, single parents and people with disabilities, mutual obligation is about pushing income support recipients into the labour market. It’s a combination of help and hassle — but with the emphasis increasingly on hassle.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Voting with instinct

    • Tony Smith
    • 31 October 2007
    1 Comment

    Some political professionals would like to see the state behave just like the market, operating as a heartless machine for maximising outcomes. However, truly rational electors realise that if the system is to be imbued with compassion and humanity, the heart must play a role no less important than the head.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Aboriginal child abuse: whom do you trust?

    • Brian McCoy
    • 25 July 2007
    10 Comments

    We have learned that the damage caused by sexual abuse often continues for decades and into future generations. We can hope that Government interventions will make a long-term difference, but such complex issues cannot be reduced to a simple absolute: ‘the child must come first’.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    National Indigenous TV set for launch

    • Jan Forrester
    • 16 April 2007

    Indigenous programming attracts few national advertisers. Getting more Indigenous content on TV screens requires a dedicated Indigenous TV channel such as NITV, which is finally due to go to air within two months.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Catholic Social Services refuses to police "harsh" Govt policy

    • Frank Quinlan
    • 27 February 2007

    After months of deliberation with Government, other church groups, our board and member organisations, Catholic Social Services Australia has advised its 61 member organisations not to participate in the Financial Case Management measures under the Government’s harsh new Welfare to Work legislation, which came into effect on 1 July this year.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Vinnies' sad heart over Welfare to Work legislation

    • John Falzon
    • 10 July 2006
    5 Comments

    The new Welfare to Work legislation was implemented on 1 July. The St Vincent de Paul Society marked the day with a sad heart. National Council CEO Dr John Falzon says the new laws will see many people with disabilities and single mothers and their children pushed into greater poverty and indignity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Finding common ground

    • David Nichols and John Wiseman
    • 26 June 2006

    Community Development projects can make a difference

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Family ties

    • Greg Barns
    • 23 June 2006

    Commonwealth cousins Australia and Canada  are headed toward distinctly different futures

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