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06 June 2011
To view the mining sector as central to the welfare of the economy is a furphy. The mining industry is not supporting other sectors of the economy, it's holding them back. Even in the states where mining dominates, the positive effects of the industry boom on the wider economy are questionable.
A December 2000 article in The Age said Robina Courtin has 'been a black belt in karate, one of many daughters in a large Catholic family, a supporter of the Black Panthers, a radical lesbian separatist feminist and a lot else besides'. As a little girl she wanted to become a Catholic priest. Instead she became a Buddhist nun.
In May a German study revealed that one in three students in Berlin would consider sex work as a means of paying for their education. We've seen similar phenomena in Australia. In Sleeping Beauty, Lucy is a university student who finds herself drawn into working a bizarre niche in the sex industry.
Benedict uses large theoretical constructs to reflect on the condition of Western societies and the Church. This can simplify complex realities and provide a focus for reflection and conversation. But the weaknesses of this approach are revealed when he blames bad moral theory for sexual abuse by the clergy.
Panayiotis runs the mini-market he inherited from his father. I have known father and son for 30 years. 'How do you see things at this stage of the krisi?' I ask him, for I'm always asking people what they think of Greece's financial crisis. 'What crisis?' he grins. 'Greece has got a crisis; Greeks haven't.'
Voters who'd otherwise position themselves between the conservative Liberals and radical Greens are stranded. They are looking for leaders who would rather lose big on matters of principle than win by a margin on compromised policy. History has shown Labor to be the natural home for such leaders.
He was deaf as a lamppost in the end, so that he never heard a note of it. We listen still, and we hear the sound of what it was like to be alone. We are surrounded. After all these years we have to believe that god was important.
Far from being demonised, people living rough on the streets should be respected and admired for their tenacity and inventiveness. This week a group of business and community leaders will seek to learn from the people who live in the guts of our greatest social problem.
Considering the severity of South Australia's mice infestation and earlier plagues of locusts, you can be forgiven for feeling positively biblical. Many Australians, some in 'high places', need climate change to demonstrate its presence with such murderous, repeated efficiency.
In declaring internet access a human right, the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression insisted that the internet must be maintained at all times 'including during times of political unrest'. He could have said 'especially'.
The Christian Brothers have made efforts to atone for cases of child abuse that occurred in their institutions. That Oranges and Sunshine condemns them universally is due less to malice than to the fact that the filmmaker's sympathies sit squarely with the victims.
On Tuesday the Government 'suspended' transport of Australian live cattle to Indonesia. This is not a ban, but a hiatus. Public outrage over the export of live cattle is hypocritical given the lack of outrage regarding the inhumane treatment of asylum-seeking children.
Tuc was an officer in the South Vietnamese army. After the war ended in 1975 he was interned by the North Vietnamese for many years, locked up in a hole in the ground. I asked him how he survived. He smiled and pointed to his picture of the Madonna.
The 2011 wage review occurred 120 years after the release of the papal document Rerum Novarum, which had a significant impact on the development of Australian minimum wage-setting. The minimum wage provisions of the current Fair Work Act cannot be regarded as a success.
Everything Western nations do is analysed by the Muslim world in the light of 'conspiracy theories'. Fanatics present the French burqa ban as a reflection of anti Islamic sentiment. In fact millions of Muslim women in France and elsewhere do not cover their faces.
Jesus said 'G'day mate, why don'tcher try a cast off the point there, I had a few bites just now, reckon you'll catch a feed, at least. I'll get the billy on ...'
While Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark pushes for tougher treatment of young offenders, his NSW counterpart Greg Smith is looking to Victoria's current 'enlightened' model, which favours early intervention over punishment.
Woomera, 2001. It's late, and we've been working for days. I give the detainees' children highlighters to draw with; unknown to me, one of them draws on the office wall. The next day an officer from the camp accosts me. 'This is damaging government property. Someone will have to pay for it.'
Fining people for swearing is silly. We can no more control what people say than we can hold the wind, or even a very large fart. Victoria's swear-fine laws are likely to be used either as threat or reality on those who can least afford the fine and cannot fight back.