Vol 24 No 21

27 October 2014

AUSTRALIA

G20's opportunity to nail multinational tax dodgers
- Angela Owen
- 07 November 2014
3 Comments
The media has reported that Swedish furniture company IKEA's Australian arm has earned an estimated $1 billion in profits since 2003, almost all of which has been exported tax-free. Action to crack down on tax avoidance is on the agenda of next week's G20 in Brisbane, but it remains to be seen if the interests of developing countries will be looked after.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

David Cameron's shirtfronting impotence
- Brian Matthews
- 07 November 2014
4 Comments
Some aspects of the English/Scottish independence referendum confrontation rang interesting bells for Australia. But British PM David Cameron has had to tread cautiously on foreign policy to avoid adding grist to the 'Yes' campaign's mill. Not so Tony Abbott, for whom strutting the world stage works a treat to lift the pall of governmental confusion and unpopularity.
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AUSTRALIA

There's more to identity than flag-waving
- Andrew Hamilton
- 06 November 2014
8 Comments
In anxious times, people often think about identity in a way that is limited and excluding. But our identity is actually layered, and may include regional, religious, philosophical, professional, sports, social, racial, sexual, and more. If we isolate ourselves in homogeneous and non-interactive groups, any larger national identity we have will be brittle.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Good guy alienated from God
- Tim Kroenert
- 06 November 2014
2 Comments
Bob dutifully attends Mass but never takes communion. He's a fundamentally decent working man, as generous as he is taciturn. He is not the kind of man to, say, turn a blind eye to the plight of an injured dog. But Bob has sinful secrets that he feels alienate him even from God.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Does she really need to know the truth?
- Prue Gibson
- 05 November 2014
3 Comments
How was the funeral? The wooden pews had been waxed and she found it hard to breathe without gagging. The incense incensed her. What rot to swing that horrible stuff around the place. What did the semi-trailer driver see, she wondered? How was Rob thrown out of the vehicle, if his seat belt was fastened? Why did he join the main road, when he could have gone down the old highway, free from any traffic?
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AUSTRALIA

Do we have a right to assisted suicide?
- Frank Brennan
- 05 November 2014
38 Comments
Physician assisted suicide and euthanasia are back, in the courts of Canada and the UK, and in the parliaments of the UK and Australia. The Australian Senate is considering the Greens' formulation of a broad and fuzzy law that goes further than UK proposals in that it would allow Dr Philip Nitschke to administer a fatal injection.
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CARTOON

The neigh sayer
- Fiona Katauskas
- 05 November 2014
1 Comment
View this week's offering from Eureka Street's award winning political cartoonist.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

My friend the ox
- Nola Firth
- 04 November 2014
7 Comments
Great ox, your shoulders, rump, are dark inked and centre stage. But your horns, clear pointed, are mere memories of anger's mark... You no longer snort and stamp, your eye looks shy and hushed
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AUSTRALIA

The Australian Christian Lobby will not go away
- John Warhurst
- 04 November 2014
14 Comments
The ACL's recent national conference was held in Canberra and featured Opposition Leader Bill Shorten as keynote speaker. Appearances at the lobby's conferences have become something of a political rite of passage in recent years. Despite serious academic criticism from Professor Rodney Smith of the University of Sydney questioning its claims to political influence, it is now established in the top echelon of lobbying groups.
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AUSTRALIA

Medibank Private is not the government's to sell
- Michael Mullins
- 03 November 2014
12 Comments
There has been a rush to purchase shares in Medibank Private since the Federal Government's sale offer opened last Tuesday. Past sales of government owned corporations such as Telstra have produced windfall profits for cashed up Australians able to invest. But what about the rights of the policy holders who were told they were members with ownership of equity in the company?
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RELIGION

Constitutionally Australia is a religious country
- Kevin Donnelly
- 03 November 2014
29 Comments
Unlike France, Australia's Constitution specifically accepts the place of religion in the broader society, with its reference to Almighty God in the Preamble. Its only stipulation is that governments should not privilege one religion over another, or unfairly discriminate. Moreover, our legal system and institutions might be secular in nature, but they draw heavily on Christian ethics and morality.
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AUSTRALIA

Looking for depth in the selfie
- Ellena Savage
- 31 October 2014
4 Comments
I take a lot of selfies. Some of them are silly, coquettish, dramatic. Others are just my face looking into my computer, sitting where I work, dressed in work clothes. They mean more or less nothing. They’re just an inane collection of data on my laptop, or too easy self-portraits. Nothing means nothing, but it says something about the culture.
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AUSTRALIA

Who wants to be a capitalist?
- Moira Rayner
- 31 October 2014
11 Comments
Affordable housing ought to be a hot election issue. Sadly it’s not a government priority, with ordinary people being taught to be entitled to look to capital growth in bricks and mortar as the best path to financial security. That is producing a housing price bubble and public housing is being squeezed. As a result, an increasing number of Australians can’t afford to put a roof over their head.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Kabul love story
- Tim Kroenert
- 30 October 2014
1 Comment
Orphan Abdul loves Fatemeh, but her father is demanding a prohibitive dowry for her hand. The financial wrangling between Abdul's guardian Mahboba and Fatemah's father Nik, and all this implies about the ways in which young women's futures can be sold and traded as part of an archaic cultural norm, seems crass and is more than a little disturbing to witness.
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AUSTRALIA

Weighing ANU's coal play
- Andrew Hamilton
- 30 October 2014
11 Comments
When the ANU sold its shares in coal companies recently, it received a mixed response. Critics said investment decisions should be made solely on financial grounds. But investing is done by human beings, who should be guided by their effects of their investment on other human beings, not simply by the profit it brings them.
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AUSTRALIA

Overplaying the Immigration Minister's trump card
- Kerry Murphy
- 29 October 2014
7 Comments
Former Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans once expressed concern about how much personal power was vested in his position when making decisions about particular cases. The current Minister, on the other hand, is trying to increase the number of such powers, and is much more likely to use the ministerial trump card to avoid judicial scrutiny. In a parliamentary system that relies on the checks and balances between the Parliament, Executive and Judiciary, one arm of government should not be able to overrule another.
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CARTOON

The best of times, the worst of times
- Fiona Katauskas
- 29 October 2014
6 Comments
View this week's offering from Eureka Street's award winning political cartoonist.
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EUREKA STREET TV

Sex and gay children in Catholic families
- Peter Kirkwood
- 29 October 2014
28 Comments
Australian couple Ron and Mavis Pirola’s speech at the Vatican Synod on the Family made them unlikely international media celebrities. They spoke frankly about their sex life and the importance of sex in marriage, and they made a plea for a welcoming attitude towards homosexuals in the Church.
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INTERNATIONAL

Nation building by force in Ukraine and the Middle East
- Justin Glyn
- 28 October 2014
2 Comments
Syria and Ukraine are just the latest in the roll of civil wars where ossified Cold War rivalries exacerbate conflicts and prevent the forging of a just peace which is in all parties’ interests. Current insurgencies grew out of disenfranchisement. But the relevant powers have declined to involve United Nations to act as independent broker, knowing that each party has the support of a permanent member of the Security Council, whose veto will hamstring any proposed action by the others.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

An ode to thunder
- Rory Harris
- 28 October 2014
2 Comments
you rattled the night around kitchen tables, water glasses filled with new wine healing history, roses on your cheeks & thunder in your heart
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RELIGION

Buddhism's challenge to Christian churches
- Jenny Stewart
- 27 October 2014
38 Comments
Christianity is a warm, people-centred faith. Buddhism is cool and cerebral. Christianity offers narrative and prophecy of human failing and human glory. The Buddhist sutras are impenetrable discourses on the absolute. Yet Christianity in Australia seems to be fading.
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RELIGION

Pope warns punishment is not a way to peace
- Andrew Hamilton
- 27 October 2014
6 Comments
Pope Francis warns perceptively that the urge to create peace by punishment leads to the search for more targets. The best way to peace and security is not to wage war on people but to be curious about them – what leads them to criminal acts, and how we can intervene to help them make good connections with society.
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Vol 24 No 21