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vol 17 no 22

15 November 2007


 

  • AUSTRALIA

    Our own generational change

    • Michael Mullins
    • 14 November 2007

    Handing responsibility to younger people is a factor lurking in the background of the election campaign, as the major parties struggle to convince voters that they're relevant and focused on the future. For Eureka Street, we're looking to encourage a new generation of writers able to bring ethical argument and human values to their treatment of society and culture.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Tim Flannery's total solution to global warming

    • Luke Fraser
    • 14 November 2007
    8 Comments

    We have Dr Tim Flannery and others to thank for alerting us to the reality of the changing climate. But the hardline strategies he advocates have too many sad and chilling precedents.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Australia's approving silence on US torture

    • Vacy Vlazna
    • 14 November 2007
    4 Comments

    In July 2002, Australia voted against a proposal to strengthen the 1984 UN Convention against Torture. John Howard's friendship with George W. Bush has compromised and tainted our once reputable record on human rights advocacy.  

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  • RELIGION

    Neither John nor Kevin is Lord

    • Kylie Crabbe
    • 14 November 2007
    3 Comments

    The Christian vote can't be bought, not even with tax-free fees for parents of children at religious schools. The early Christians were adamant that Caesar — the political ruler of the moment — was not Lord.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Writers miss out on election handouts

    • Rocky Wood
    • 14 November 2007
    1 Comment

    Elite sportspeople are often lauded by the Prime Minister. But we need to go back to the Whitlam era to find a government that has actively and significantly supported writers and other artists.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Quality observation in no-frills suburban drama

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 14 November 2007
    1 Comment

    Boxing Day is a low-budget Australian film that combines different techniques to achieve a simmering fly-on-the-wall documentary-style drama. It seeks hope and forgiveness against a low-income suburban landscape, in a way that contributes to the broader story of reconciliation.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Heave heavy individualism

    • Daniel J. P.
    • 14 November 2007

    Well-appointed prospects but ill-advised devices | And improper solutions prompting mixed sugar and spices.

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  • RELIGION

    Don't boycott pro-choice Amnesty

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 November 2007
    42 Comments

    Some religious schools have withdrawn from Amnesty because it has become pro-choice on abortion. But members of organisations such as Amnesty, which take a full spectrum approach to human rights, do not generally agree to every item in the organisations' policy statements.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Buying and selling creativity

    • Malcolm King
    • 14 November 2007

    It's time we called big businesses' bluff about their appropriation of the term 'creativity'. For a truly creative nation to evolve, we need to study the wild mutability of the creative process.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Parliamentarians represent

    • John Warhurst
    • 14 November 2007
    3 Comments

    Former Prime Minister Paul Keating famously described the Senate as 'unrepresentative swill'. It's not easy for Labor to rebut John Howard's claim that Labor's former union official representation in Parliament is 'out of whack'.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Good politician

    • Tony Smith
    • 14 November 2007
    1 Comment

    Occasionally individuals manage to defy the negative stereotypes and demonstrate that being a Member of Parliament need not destroy one’s personal integrity. The late Peter Andren, federal member for Calare from 1996 to 2007, was just such an exceptional representative.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mark Latham's War on Everything

    • Scott Stephens
    • 14 November 2007
    2 Comments

    Perhaps the clearest indication of the underwhelming torpor that has become the defining feature of the federal election campaign, is the fact that its highlights have been provided by luminaries of Labor past — Paul Keating and Mark Latham.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Silence has the last word

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 14 November 2007

    The energy of Alex Miller's novel Landscape of Farewell comes from the paradox that is often manifest when people of very different cultures come together and words fail them. Out of their silence can come words more profound than the individuals could have spoken alone.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Romantic poets and climate change

    • Brian Matthews
    • 14 November 2007

    A person unaware of and cut off from nature will be taken by surprise when nature embarks on one of its punitive cycles. The Romantic poets reckoned that there was a spirit within the natural world that you could connect with.

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