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Keywords: Downer

  • RELIGION

    The marginalisation of Ted Kennedy

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 July 2009
    21 Comments

    Fr Ted Kennedy's work with Indigenous Australians brought him conflict with police, landowners, parishioners and church authorities. If you live at the margins, you will be marginalised. How best to handle this marginalisation?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Life after politics is often hollow

    • John Warhurst
    • 20 August 2008
    2 Comments

    The lure of leadership seems to have Peter Costello reconsidering his decision to walk away from the Liberals. Whether motivated by serving the community or by personal advancement, once politics is in your blood it is hard to shake off.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Kangaroo cull echoes colonial shame

    • Tony Smith
    • 23 May 2008
    14 Comments

    One of the most devastating effects of European settlement upon Aboriginal people was caused by fencing. Fences have also disrupted normal behaviour of kangaroos, which have come to be regarded as enemies by landowners.

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  • RELIGION

    Civil disobedience a democratic safeguard

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 March 2008
    8 Comments

    Last month, members of the Pine Gap Four 'citizens inspection team' were acquitted in a Darwin court. Parliamentary committees, juries and the citizen's right to civil disobedience are necessary safeguards for liberty when government is tempted to use the legal sledgehammer to crack the nut of political dissent.

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  • RELIGION

    Time for due process in East Timor assistance

    • Frank Brennan
    • 12 December 2007

    Eighteen months on from the 2006 unrest, Australian and New Zealand troops are still patrolling the streets of Dili. There has been no imperative for them to exchange berets and operate under UN auspices as occurred with the original INTERFET engagement.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Opinion polls still point to a new Prime Minister

    • Jack Waterford
    • 25 October 2007
    2 Comments

    Jack Waterford writes that Australia is likely to have a new government by December 2007.

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  • RELIGION

    Loose reasoning on death penalty - Frank Brennan

    • Frank Brennan
    • 25 October 2007

    We think it is wrong for foreign states to impose the death penalty on Aussie drug traffickers and drug mules. But we apply different reasoning to non-Australians facing death at the hands of the state. The practical, hands on, Aussie approach often plays fast and loose with moral reasoning about what is right and wrong.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Church and Public Debate

    • John Warhurst
    • 12 September 2007
    1 Comment

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  • MEDIA

    The fatality equation: death in Minnesota, death in Iraq

    • Kylie Baxter and Rebecca Barlow
    • 05 September 2007
    2 Comments

    Last month, 13 people died in the Mississippi River collapse. On the same day in Iraq, a suicide bomber killed 14 when he drove an explosive laden car into a line of police. Media coverage suggests a disproportionate amount of Australian grief was directed towards the US victims.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Let's share the burden of overcoming Muslim extremism

    • Saeed Saeed
    • 25 July 2007
    3 Comments

    Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said recently: "Muslim extremists are a Muslim issue - not ours." The fault with this view is that it transfers ownership of this challenge from the elected leaders to a minority group who simply don’t have the resources to deal with such a global crisis.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Justifying civil disobedience

    • Michael Mullins
    • 13 June 2007
    3 Comments

    Rural landowners are planning a day of "civil obedience" on 1 July to assert what they believe is their right to clear native vegetation from their land. How is this different from the civil disobedience of anti-war protestors such as the Pine Gap Four?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Opportunity passes over Beazley and Costello

    • Jack Waterford
    • 24 December 2006

    The idea that neither Peter Costello nor Kim Beazley will ever be Prime Minister of Australia has been reinforced in recent months. From 25 July 2006.  

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