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Reverend Tim Costello's informal status as a nagging conscience to many Australian governments, including the Howard government in which his brother Peter served as federal treasurer, was formally acknowledged when the National Trust of Australia chose him as a ‘National Living Treasure’. Barry Gittins speaks to Tim Costello about the nature of power, and its place and exercise in public life.
Place and identity are fundamental for each of us. They are what our First Peoples had taken from them. In thinking about who I am, I have come to the conclusion that without understanding our First Peoples and their story as told by them I really can't understand myself as an Australian.
Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones' piece is profoundly moving. At first glance it is little more than a quirky reconfiguring of the architectural footprint of the Garden Palace that burned to the ground on 22 September 1882, taking with it a collection of precious Indigenous relics. A more informed engagement however reveals that Jones has created a provocative re-imagining and, through this, a re-membering of Australian colonial contact history which has deep resonances for today.
From the drama-filled mind of a pre-teen girl to the homes of former Indonesian death-squad members; from a day in the life of a transgender sex-worker to a grim and sublime new rendition of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays; from one actor's immense ego to another's fading relevance to an allegedly doomed writer's captivating self-effacement, Eureka Street's resident film buff Tim Kroenert revisits the characters and themes of some of the best and most conversation-worthy films of 2015.
Nathan has been able to refine Ava's software thanks to his unmitigated access to internet users' search data, as well as to their telecommunications. Caleb, too, wonders if his attraction to Ava is due to her design being based on a review of his internet pornography profile. It is no coincidence that Ava replicates an idealised version of the female form. Nathan's and even Caleb's relationship to her is fundamentally exploitative and voyeuristic.
I am a grandmother of six, a practising Catholic and for some years was our local Catholic youth group mum. I was drawn to protest actions because other ways of protecting the future for my grandchildren were proving fruitless. Having stayed with the protesters and seen them in action, I have been impressed with their disciplined dedication to an ethic of peaceful non-violence. It is not 'violence' to frustrate mine workers and annoy the police.
Fake ANZ media release activist Jonathan Moylan did the wrong thing in undermining public confidence in the share trading system. But he would not have seen the need to act if governments and the coal industry were acting with integrity and in the public interest.
'Might not the chief problem with Church language in the public square be that we tend to come from a position of moral superiority, approaching those dreadfully compromised politicians who will do anything to be elected? The abuse crisis reminds us that the Church is not irreproachable.' Text from Fr Frank Brennan's presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia's Public Affairs Commission Conference, November 2012.
As a subject that inflames passion on both sides of the debate, meat eating is up there with abortion and religion. Yet animal agriculture is responsible for a quarter of all emissions. Labor's carbon price is unlikely to produce significant results while animal farmers are exempt.
This theatre of cruelty reflects the preoccupations of a protagonist unrestrained by physical revulsion, and evokes a nightmare world defined by sex and violence, where there is not much difference between the two.
Papua New Guineans have an abiding regard for Australia, and know far more about Australia than we do about their country. The introduction of the guest worker scheme sends a message to the Pacific of trust and respect.
Kiera Lindsey reviews The Best Australian Stories 2004, edited by Frank Moorhouse, and The Best Australian Essays 2004, edited by Robert Dessaix.