Keywords: Victorian Election
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 02 May 2011
1 Comment
Jesuit Social Services recently set up a project in Alice Springs to resource the local parish and local Aborigines who want to take more control of their own lives. If we are to get our teeth into issues of acute injustice, we need to eyeball both the decision makers and those affected by those decisions.
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ENVIRONMENT
- Greg Foyster
- 06 April 2011
14 Comments
Before being elected Premier, Barry O'Farrell described Sydney's new 200km bike network as 'crazy' and an 'inconvenience' to motorists. Given cycling's overwhelming benefits to society, what's really crazy is O'Farrell's populist pledge to keep Sydney car-dependent into the future.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 18 January 2011
22 Comments
I am bloody tired of journalists comparing one woman against another, as if there were a competition to find the 'real' woman leader, a winner and losers. That isn't how women tend to use power: it can be shared, and used for the common good. We saw Bligh and Gillard doing it, and didn't get it.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 05 January 2011
15 Comments
No firestorm of blame would be raging in the media were Christine Nixon not a woman, a decent and strong woman, a prominent woman and an ethically sound woman of an age and with the experience to possess a raging integrity of her own and, by her very being, to offer ruthless men a soft target.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 29 November 2010
16 Comments
Nobody pretends child maltreatment is easily prevented. Yet we are passionate about the evils of same-sex marriage. Wouldn't it be great if we put that energy into providing what children need: a family environment of love and understanding where they can achieve their potential.
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AUSTRALIA
- Ellena Savage
- 26 November 2010
I used to carry a knife in my handbag. Like nearly a quarter of Australians, I believe that 80 per cent of all crime is violent crime; I was concerned for my safety. And then I discovered that if my self-defence weapon were used, it would likely be used against me.
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AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 09 November 2010
12 Comments
Recently Victoria's Catholic Bishops distributed their advice to voters in the November 27 state election. Entitled Your Vote, Your Values, it was quickly portrayed as an attack on the Greens, given its focus on euthanasia. The statement, however, was more complex and interesting than that description suggested.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 04 November 2010
15 Comments
Cardinal Pell, with whom I have voiced disagreement, preached superbly at the mass of thanksgiving after the canonisation of Mary MacKillop. 'She does not deter us from struggling to follow her.' As we wrestle with the common good, let's make a place for all our fellow citizens.
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EDUCATION
- Fatima Measham
- 01 November 2010
16 Comments
Principals and teachers can keep gay young people safe at school only to the extent that they are also safe in the wider community. While ticking boxes on ‘teacher training, resources and consultancy’ may not adequately address the source of the behaviour of homophobic bullies, such programs remain important.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 08 September 2010
22 Comments
Three Independents, belittled as 'The Three Amigos' but riding into the sunset nonetheless, have won the trust of their electorates and been able to exercise a little, meaningful power about how Parliament should work. This may not last, now that the decision has been announced.
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AUSTRALIA
- Colin Long
- 06 September 2010
7 Comments
On the most important issues facing the nation, indeed the world —
climate change — we have had a Prime Minister who vaguely recognises
the problem but resists doing anything about it, and an opposition
leader who trivialises it to a question of tax.
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EDUCATION
- Stephen Elder
- 12 August 2010
26 Comments
I differ with Frank Brennan in his belief that there is no harm in voting Green. The Greens' policy on funding for Catholic schools will force closures, increase fees and change the ability of Catholic schools to be genuinely Catholic. Stephen Elder, Director of Catholic Education, Melbourne
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