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Vol 30 No 3

09 February 2020


 

  • AUSTRALIA

    ABC raid legitimised by Federal Court

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 20 February 2020
    3 Comments

    The Australian Federal Police raid on the 5th of June last year shook the Fourth Estate and, according to managing director David Anderson, ‘was seen for exactly what it was: an attempt to intimidate journalists for doing their jobs.’ It saw an unprecedented closing of ranks between journalists across the political spectrum, pursuing a campaign that came to be known as The Right to Know. Convincing the courts about this principle would prove to be something else.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Call to revive Australian tourism

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 20 February 2020
    3 Comments

    This communal outpouring during the bushfires has an opportunity to perpetuate itself indefinitely, even though the embers have been extinguished and those not directly affected by the fires have gotten on with their workaday lives. For even as the fires burned, Tourism Australia was mounting a campaign to encourage Australians to holiday locally instead of taking their patronage abroad, and to persuade international tourists to visit, too.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    A sustainable response to disaster

    • Eliza Spencer
    • 19 February 2020
    5 Comments

    In the midst of bushfire relief events and community raffles, concerns about how those in need can be best supported continue as emotions run high. While the nation grieves the loss of life and land, we need to begin the conversation of how we can respond mindfully to disaster and find sustainable solutions for disasters to come.

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  • FAITH DOING JUSTICE

    Social justice is not a spectator sport

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 19 February 2020
    5 Comments

    Catholic reflection on social justice has been supercharged by Pope Francis, who in his encyclical Laudato Si declared the Cry of the Poor and the Cry of the Earth to be central to faith. He also insisted that neither could be addressed simply by technological fixes but required personal conversion to see the world as gift to be respected, a home, and not as a prison or a mine.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The anatomy of hope

    • Fiona Murphy
    • 18 February 2020
    5 Comments

    Over a decade ago, when applying to study physiotherapy, I carefully read through the application form. It contained a brief but troubling caveat: all students must be physically able to participate in the coursework. I felt nervous, even scared. The answer seemed clear cut to me, but would the university agree?

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  • CARTOON

    A vision of the future

    • Fiona Katauskas
    • 18 February 2020

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The unfinished business of colonisation

    • Kate Galloway
    • 17 February 2020
    2 Comments

    Despite claims to the contrary, the decision in Love and Thoms affirms the standing of the common law, including the unassailable power of the Australian State to make and enforce law. It upholds the centuries-long common law principle of accommodation of Indigenous laws in a colonial context.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    I am part of it

    • David L Falcon
    • 17 February 2020
    2 Comments

    Beyond sunlit planes of sea and sand/Like the shade on my front lawn/Nightshadow creeps over continents/Cities light up in glowing clusters/While the deserts hide their campfires.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Indigenous is not alien, High Court decides

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 17 February 2020
    8 Comments

    At its heart, the question was whether an Indigenous Australian who was eligible for citizenship but had never formalised it could be regarded as an alien and therefore subject to removal. In a landmark judgment, a 4:3 majority of the Court found that Indigenous Australians were not aliens, even if they were not citizens.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Still a long way to go in ending family violence

    • Felicity Rorke
    • 14 February 2020
    4 Comments

    The Royal Commission into Family Violence conducted by the Victorian Government in 2015, told many of us what we fundamentally already knew — that family violence is a widespread issue for many women across this state, and that our services, systems, institutions and communities are not doing enough to effectively support victim survivors.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Coming soon or late

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 14 February 2020
    13 Comments

    That’s it. People in mid-life fear death for many reasons, but disappointment must be one of them, for there are always so many things to do, so much in the world to see and to experience, a whole host of people to get to know, various ambitions to be realised, a great number of projects to be finished.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Why business as usual is so scary

    • Cristy Clark
    • 13 February 2020
    10 Comments

    Shortly after Christmas Day, the sky disappeared. It was only then that I realised I’d always taken it for granted. The sky, and the air. I’d always taken the air for granted too, and now it was hazardous.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    AFLW continues to make history

    • Kirby Fenwick
    • 13 February 2020
    5 Comments

    Footy returned to our radios, televisions and suburban grounds right around the country last weekend as the fourth season of the AFLW kicked off. It was a weekend of history making moments but it was also a weekend that highlighted some of the very real challenges facing the competition.

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  • RELIGION

    Religious freedom bill needs more work

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 13 February 2020
    14 Comments

    I don’t need someone to tell me at work that because I’m queer I’m going to hell. Years of church and Catholic schooling and marriage equality debate have already made the coded language very clear when I’m not welcome.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Apology anniversary as a time to reflect

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 February 2020
    5 Comments

    In the Apology to the Stolen Generations the Australian Government spoke on behalf of all Australians in recognising that it acted wrongly in removing Indigenous children from their parents. It recognised also that the reason for the removal was the disrespectful claim that its targets were defined, not by their shared humanity, but by their race. This disrespect caused lasting damage to the children and families.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A discovery of connections

    • Najma Sambul
    • 11 February 2020
    2 Comments

    The group had come together by the chance enquiry from one churchgoer who asked another if they could dedicate time to this — to us. So, we clambered into a mini van with our meagre possessions, and the myths and half-truths we knew about Australia followed suit.

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  • CARTOON

    The Adventures of Barnababy

    • Fiona Katauskas
    • 11 February 2020
    1 Comment

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Trauma revisited: Coronavirus in Hong Kong

    • Jocelin Chan
    • 11 February 2020
    3 Comments

    The coronavirus transfixed everyone; I couldn’t ride a lift or have New Year dinner or go hiking without hearing a conversation about the coronavirus. The demon of the past had reared its head again.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hopeful vision for a better NDIS

    • Helen Burt
    • 10 February 2020
    5 Comments

    My personal experience during the first 18 months of involvement with the NDIS, was frustrating and particularly deflating for someone who had written submissions and emailed politicians and understood the potential of the scheme. My only contact seemed to be with an immovable, impossible-to-navigate bureaucracy determined to stand in the way of me receiving any support I was promised.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Fight against nuclear waste not over yet

    • Michele Madigan
    • 10 February 2020
    26 Comments

    Senator Matthew Canavan made his long awaited, if predictable, announcement: Australia’s long lived intermediate radioactive waste will be stored, and the low level waste deposited, at the Napandee site in the Kimba region of South Australia. It still came as a jolt to most of the farmers and others rightly fearful of the plan to host nuclear waste which even the government now admits will remain toxic for an unimaginable 10,000 years.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    After the fire

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 February 2020
    6 Comments

    After the fire/they found a nail preserved in glass/and piles of dust and ash. After the fire/this place lost its memory/of trees cleared, a slab hut/of fences, a verandahed timber house/and a circle of orange trees.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Choosing to choose

    • Barry Gittins
    • 07 February 2020
    3 Comments

    You’d think it would be easier these days, with the technological resources we have available. Choosing directions seems passé these days, with GPS satnav. Search engines connect us instantly with a plethora of possibilities. But that’s often the problem.

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