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Vol 21 No 15

01 August 2011


 

  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Former diplomat's Australian-American alliance anger

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 12 August 2011
    2 Comments

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Disability reform shows Labor has a heart

    • Moira Byrne Garton
    • 12 August 2011
    11 Comments

    Julia Gillard this week described access to disability services as a 'cruel lottery', and declared support for proposed reforms. Her response demonstrates compassion and goodwill during a time when many citizens have expressed disgust at Labor's treatment of asylum seekers.

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  • EUREKA STREET TV

    Former diplomat's Australian-American alliance anger

    • Peter Kirkwood
    • 12 August 2011

    Australia has this tendency to look for a great and powerful protector, then become slavishly obedient to it ... When we're prepared to sacrifice the human rights of our own citizens in the interests of conducting that alliance, it makes me very angry. –Former diplomat Tony Kevin

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Discerning Britain's smoke and fire

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 11 August 2011
    14 Comments

    'It's what happens when it's the school holidays and the kids are bored,' quipped one British Jesuit. 'Bit of heavy rain would put a stop to it.' His minimalist explanation rightly questions the apocalyptic theories that are being erected on the behaviour of excitable young people.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Britain's riots and the new financial crisis

    • Michael Kelly
    • 11 August 2011
    5 Comments

    London is burning. Throughout the rest of the world, stock markets are tumbling at a rate not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis. Unemployment in the US and parts of Europe is high and refuses to come down. What we are seeing in Britain could be just the beginning.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Heroes and villains are only human

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 10 August 2011

    For those who seek role models at the multiplex, through the polarised lenses of a pair of cheap 3-D glasses, Green Lantern contains two types worth considering. One is 'the villain I hope I'm not'. The other is 'the hero that I could be'. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Child migrant trauma

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 10 August 2011
    3 Comments

    At least adults have a little hope of understanding the pain, and coping with it. Even the most equable of children must find the experience bewildering at best, and agonising at worst. My eldest son had a period of not eating. His migration as a child remains the defining fact of his life.

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  • CARTOON

    A lack of Opposition

    • Fiona Katauskas
    • 10 August 2011

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hooked on monogamy

    • Jen Vuk
    • 10 August 2011
    6 Comments

    New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said recently that  sanctioning gay marriage could lead to demands for the legalisation of polygamy. US author Sidney Callahan argues that, gay or straight, we all strive for 'pair bonding that contributes to equality and unity'.

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  • RELIGION

    Gillard's Malaysia solution stumble

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 August 2011
    21 Comments

    The Malaysia solution has hit a snag called the High Court of Australia. The Government is now in very stormy waters, because the rule of law and the separation of powers do not readily yield to the sound bites of populist sentiment and the fear tactics of politicians.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Friday sex and family

    • Margaret McCarthy | Jennifer Compton
    • 09 August 2011
    7 Comments

    There are weary smiling workers recovering from a Thursday night event. There are men planning this, the second weekend, with their family. There are married couples — one in the throes of giving up hope of being touched, the other working hard to ensure the weekend is chaste. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Census and Labor's Catholic vote

    • Brian Lawrence
    • 09 August 2011
    14 Comments

    The Census will play a central role in the planning of the next Federal election. Past results show that while much of Labor's working class base has abandoned it, a solid base of Catholics remains. But many of these supporters are now standing near the door bemused or angry. These figures show that while low income earners have abandoned Labor, a solid base of Catholics have stuck with it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Anti-gay laws and the right to privacy

    • Justin Glyn
    • 08 August 2011
    2 Comments

    In 1994 gay-rights activist Nicholas Toonen succesfully challenged Tasmanian laws criminalising homosexual acts. As Australia considers reforming its privacy laws, the case remains a good illustration of the deeper questions about the balance between state power and competing moral claims.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Elders' wisdom could save us

    • Michael Mullins
    • 08 August 2011
    10 Comments

    We could be facing a new GFC because many decisions on the financial markets are made by financial traders in their 20s who are uninterested in learning from past experiences. Youth may be the future, but there will be no future without the wisdom of our elders.

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  • MEDIA

    The commercialisation of the ABC

    • Paul Collins
    • 05 August 2011
    22 Comments

    Increasingly the ABC is 'outsourcing' material to commercial production companies. Interest group Friends of the ABC describes this as 'privatisation by stealth' and is calling for a public inquiry. All who value the ABC and its role as a public broadcaster need to support this call.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Gandhi and Richie Benaud's perfect storm

    • Brian Matthews
    • 05 August 2011
    1 Comment

    Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm makes one marvel at the way events separated by vast times and distances can conspire to produce unpredictable results. In 1959 Australian cricket great Richie Benaud found himself at the end of a chain of events set in motion by Mahatma Gandhi.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    My life as a bully

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 04 August 2011
    8 Comments

    We passed Paul's house each day on the walk to primary school. One day on a whim we knocked and invited him to join us. Once out of sight around the corner we proceeded to berate him, and to rough him up. We thought it was such fun that we did it again the next day. Kids can be cruel. I'm ashamed to say I was.

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  • RELIGION

    Morality plays in sport and politics

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 04 August 2011
    5 Comments

    Sport and politics display in minor key all the basic human drives, passions and political moves that we find on the larger public stage. Melbourne AFL club's sacking of coach Dean Bailey, and the forced departure of South Australian Premier Mike Rann, are cases in point.

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  • CARTOON

    Tea Party tantrum

    • Fiona Katauskas
    • 03 August 2011

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  • AUSTRALIA

    ASIO and me

    • John Warhurst
    • 03 August 2011
    1 Comment

    I received the documents in a battered brown suitcase. They were from a time of high drama within the Movement and the Labor Party concerning the Labor Split. In the course of my research, I wrote to several international sources. This brought me to the attention of the CIA and ASIO. 

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  • RELIGION

    Australia's burqa fallacy

    • David Tittensor
    • 03 August 2011
    20 Comments

    Just because we can debate something, doesn't mean we should. As with any right there is the responsibility to exercise free speech judiciously. A quick survey of the Muslim population in Australia highlights the absurdity of debating whether there is a place for the burqa in our society.

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  • EUREKA STREET/ READER'S FEAST AWARD

    Buying and selling skin

    • Meg Mundell
    • 03 August 2011
    7 Comments

    In her field some ethnic markers can be overlooked, but skin colour has an undeniable influence on earnings. These are suspicious times. Even the new finance minister, whose grandmother was Aboriginal, caved in to pressure and became noticeably lighter prior to his new appointment.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard's chaplaincy challenge

    • John Warhurst
    • 02 August 2011
    13 Comments

    In the midst of debates about same sex marriage that will test and probably break relations between the Gillard Government and some Christian communities, the chaplaincy program is seen by both camps as a win-win. A challenge to be considered by the High Court this month could change all that.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Homeless Grace

    • Brian Doyle
    • 02 August 2011
    7 Comments

    She lived in an alcove outside Saint Brigid's Church. She had been an artist. She drank. She married a man who slept on the avenue, not near the church; he didn't like the church, said it talked to him at night in a stern rumble. He beat her. Her name was Grace.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hinch and other 'hardened criminals'

    • Michael Mullins
    • 01 August 2011
    9 Comments

    Derryn Hinch has been an outstanding social justice advocate, but is also a repeat offender with contempt for the law and no sign of remorse. Because he has a voice, he has managed to avoid social exclusion. Most 'hardened criminals' don't have this advantage.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tony Abbott's FUD factor

    • Neil Ormerod
    • 01 August 2011
    36 Comments

    In the 1980s computer journalists used to refer to the 'FUD factor' and its impact on computer purchases. FUD — Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Tony Abbott has become the master of the FUD factor in the debate over climate change and the carbon tax.

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