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Keywords: Tony Smith

  • AUSTRALIA

    Why 'welcome to country' is more than formality

    • Tony Smith
    • 31 March 2010
    9 Comments

    Christian prayer at public meetings cannot have the same importance as an acknowledgement of country. Indigenous peoples have a genuine spiritual association with the land. By recognising this, all Australians can be united in a non-denominational spirituality.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The climate change vanishing act

    • Brian Matthews
    • 27 January 2010
    3 Comments

    Senator Steve Fielding attempted to debunk climate change theories using graphs based on Channel 9's Snicko. The debate petered out when Tony Abbott incautiously declared it was all 'crap'. Re-thinking, he amended crap to tax — it was just a big tax.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Fresh female face of fatigued NSW politics

    • Tony Smith
    • 08 December 2009
    5 Comments

    Some cynics say female leaders are the housewives and mothers of politics, expected to clean the mess left by the men who preceded them. Male premiers have been shaping NSW for over 150 years now, so Kristina Keneally must clean up after 41 predecessors.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    NSW political blood spilled

    • Tony Smith
    • 19 November 2009
    3 Comments

    Premier Nathan Rees asked two ministers for their resignations, effectively sacking them. He will have to hope that he has not thrown away Labor’s last chance to retain government.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The wet sheep: a football eulogy

    • Brian Matthews
    • 07 October 2009
    1 Comment

    The one thing more potent than the anticipation of seeing your team in a grand final is the misery of seeing them defeated. A wet, bedraggled lamb glimpsed en route to Melbourne proved to be an ill omen for one footy fan.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    John Della Bosca and the 'aphrodisiac of power'

    • Tony Smith
    • 02 September 2009
    7 Comments

    Many middle aged males are susceptible to having their egos flattered when women appear to find them attractive. But in the case of politicians, it is possible that the dangers involved make such affairs irresistible.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Holistic history of early Sydney

    • Tony Smith
    • 21 August 2009

    Sydney's history has traditionally been interpreted through the artefacts of a people who are literate and industrial: through documents and buildings. The Colony acknowledges the equal importance of the sparse traditions of the Indigenous peoples.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    National pride begets blind arrogance

    • Michael Mullins
    • 13 July 2009
    10 Comments

    Assumptions that detained businessman Stern Hu could not be guilty because he is Australian show how national pride can cloud perceptions. Something similar was at play in calls for Kevin Rudd to lobby the Pope for the canonisation of Mary MacKillop.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Bird stories for a dry country

    • Tony Smith
    • 26 June 2009
    1 Comment

    Australia leads the world in mammalian extinction and in threatened species. The rag-tag group of contributors to Boom & Bust provide a timely scientific reminder that the fate of birds is inextricably tied to our own.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    An end to rugby's unethical code

    • Tony Smith
    • 19 May 2009
    25 Comments

    It is time we stopped allowing football administrators, advertisers and television stations to set the standards for ethical behaviour. The only way that the current unethical rugby league culture can be removed is for the code itself to disappear.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The questionable ethics of Australia's defence

    • Tony Smith
    • 05 May 2009
    6 Comments

    It is enouraging that the Government's Defence White Paper de-emphasises the US alliance in favour of self-reliance. However, we still desperately need community debate about the ways in which a military force can be used morally.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Living with Australia's beauty and terror

    • Tony Smith
    • 20 February 2009

    In contrast to tabloid television coverage of fires, Lohrey's writing explains much of our relationship to the bush. Like plaques in town halls honouring fallen soldiers, the task of rebuilding devastated communities is embedded in the national psyche.

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