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Keywords: Chris Bowen

  • AUSTRALIA

    Canned pairs reveal Opposition's fruity strategy

    • John Warhurst
    • 30 March 2012
    9 Comments

    The Opposition has unrelentingly resisted pairs, whereby an MP from one side doesn't vote in order to allow an MP from the other side to be away. Their strategy is to emphasise the closeness of the numbers in parliament. This hardline attitude has recently led to some crazy and downright silly situations.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The slow torture of kids in detention

    • Michael Mullins
    • 26 March 2012
    16 Comments

    Julian Burnside taunted his audience at La Trobe University in 2010 with the suggestion that we take a couple of children out of detention and publicly execute them. His point was that we are not bothered by the mental torture of children in immigration detention because it is out of sight.

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  • RELIGION

    Best of 2011: Gillard's Malaysia solution stumble

    • Frank Brennan
    • 05 January 2012
    2 Comments

    The Malaysia solution has hit a snag called the High Court of Australia. The Government is now in very stormy waters, because the rule of law and the separation of powers do not readily yield to the sound bites of populist sentiment and the fear tactics of politicians. Published 8 August 2011

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  • RELIGION

    The role of religious faith in modern society: a renewed vision

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 November 2011

    Fr Frank Brennan SJ's address at the 'Ethics in a Multi Faith Society: Muslims and Christians in Dialogue' Conference, Conference under the auspices of the Fethullah Gulen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, 23 November 2011.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Wreckers at work in leaky Labor

    • John Warhurst
    • 02 November 2011
    9 Comments

    The Gillard cabinet leaks are a sure sign of government instability. The worst aspect of the leaks is the likelihood that they are the product not just of understandable policy differences, but of leadership destabilisation.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The twin terrors of 2001

    • Michael Mullins
    • 05 September 2011
    8 Comments

    Before Tampa, refugees were regarded as a positive for Australia's economy and lifestyle. After Tampa they were a threat to our sovereignty that was somehow grafted on to the sense of public malaise prompted by the 9/11 attacks on the sovereignty of the United States.

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  • RELIGION

    High Court grounds Malaysia Solution

    • Frank Brennan
    • 01 September 2011
    39 Comments

    From now on, the High Court will apply a very fine tooth comb to any legislation allowing ministers to ship asylum seekers offshore.  Unless there were to be a bipartisan agreement in the Parliament or a government deal with the Greens, asylum seekers arriving by boat now need to be processed fairly, promptly, on our terms and on our turf.

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  • RELIGION

    Gillard's Malaysia solution stumble

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 August 2011
    21 Comments

    The Malaysia solution has hit a snag called the High Court of Australia. The Government is now in very stormy waters, because the rule of law and the separation of powers do not readily yield to the sound bites of populist sentiment and the fear tactics of politicians.

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  • RELIGION

    Religion and Australian law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 02 August 2011
    1 Comment

    I am bemused that whenever I agitate questions of Aboriginal and refugee rights I am well received by liberals, who then question my clerical entitlement to speak when I buy into debates on issues like euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. On same sex marriage, I am attacked from both sides.

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  • RELIGION

    Malaysia solution pros and cons

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 July 2011
    30 Comments

    The Malaysian solution is unprincipled, but it might just work — stopping the boats. If other countries try to replicate it, we will have to tear up the Refugee Convention and start again. And the plight of unaccompanied minors transported from our shores to Malaysia will be on our conscience. 

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  • MEDIA

    Media gag silences asylum seekers

    • Jo Coghlan
    • 27 June 2011
    19 Comments

    Officially, the ban on journalists interviewing or filming asylum seekers in detention is for the detainees' protection. But it also stops them from sharing their stories with the public. Surely asylum seekers are capable of determining who is and is not acting in their best interests.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Back to basics on asylum seeker policy

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 23 June 2011
    2 Comments

    The Rudd Government promised positive reforms after a decade of 'boat people'-bashing from the previous government. Three years later, we are back where we were. To understand how this happened it is helpful to overview the changes under Labor and the gradual decline in 'key immigration values'.

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