Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Vol 34 No 10

20 May 2024


 

  • Special free e-book gift

    • 27 May 2024

    To mark two years of Eureka Street Plus, we're excited to be able to bring subscribers an exclusive free e-book version of Frank Brennan's latest offering, Lessons from Our Failure to Build a Constitutional Bridge in the 2023 Referendum. 

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In praise of the human kind

    • Ken Haley
    • 31 May 2024

    Social psychologist Hugh Mackay has been people-watching for more than 60 years. At 86 he has published The Way We Are: Lessons from a lifetime of listening, a compendium of his choicest insights on Australian life quarter-way through the new century.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    All sound and Furiosa

    • Eddie Hampson
    • 30 May 2024

    With Furiosa, George Miller returns to the Mad Max franchise that launched his almost five-decade-long career. Apocalyptic wastelands with their cacophony of blaring engines and vistas of desert panoramas are second nature to him by now. But fans of the film (myself included) must sadly admit that Furiosa is tanking at the box office, and is only the most recent in a string of female-led actioners that have flopped.  

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Neither seen nor heard

    • John Falzon
    • 30 May 2024

    In a signature essay published last year in The Monthly, Treasurer Chalmers staked out an ideological terrain he described as ‘values-based capitalism.’ The Budget 2024 is quite the big reveal on what those values include and who they exclude. In it, the people who have borne the brunt of inequality and precarity are neither seen nor heard. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    What's the harm in a bit of porn?

    • Bill Farrelly, David Halliday
    • 30 May 2024

    We don’t need more statistics to prove that addiction to alcohol, gambling and illegal drugs plays a huge role in domestic violence. But what about addiction to pornography? Until now, public conversation on this has been minimal. Despite a wealth of research linking pornography consumption with sexual violence, why are we so afraid to discuss this elephant?

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Sorry Days for reconciliation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 May 2024

    This Reconciliation Week and Sorry Day, we consider the defeat of the Referendum and the substantial failure to close the gap between the living conditions of Indigenous Australians and other Australians. It means that for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, this week will be less about days of celebration than of grief and of grim resolve to continue to seek justice.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Painful times for Church reformers

    • John Warhurst
    • 29 May 2024

    We are now witnessing a changed dynamic within the movement for church reform. The balance within its component parts has changed towards a more pessimistic view. A minority is still hopeful; a few even remain optimistic, but most are struggling.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Walking in two worlds

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 28 May 2024

    When US-based Catholic Jason Evert was due to speak to Catholic schools across NSW,  there was a backlash, sparked by online activists. The controversies around Evert’s visit highlights just how difficult it is becoming to walk that line between the values and demands of the Church we represent, and the society in which we live.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons from our failure to build a constitutional bridge in the 2023 Referendum

    • Frank Brennan
    • 27 May 2024

    Following the failure of the Voice referendum, many believed that the path to constitutional recognition is closed for Indigenous Australians. But they may be wrong. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    The Punisher

    • Barry Gittins
    • 24 May 2024

    In the latest Quarterly Essay profile of Peter Dutton, author Lech Blaine may well describe his work as character delineation, rather than character assassination. But we seem to be at an impasse in Australian market of ideas, and scorn gives greater bang for the buck than dialogue.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The strange case of Australian noir

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 24 May 2024

    What's the appeal in Australian noir crime fiction? The genre has always been popular in Australia, and Australian writers of crime fiction have always had plenty of material to draw on. Led by authors like Garry Disher and Jane Harper, it has experienced something of a renaissance during the last decade.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Budget balancing act fails working poor

    • David Halliday
    • 23 May 2024

    In light of the gains made in lifting people out of poverty during the pandemic, it seems critics are justified in viewing this year’s budget with more than a little disappointment. I wonder, when it comes to the federal budget, who are we trying to serve?

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Pope against the machine

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 May 2024

    When Pope Francis delivered a message for the World Day of Social Communications, he focused on AI. The pope posed a wide range of questions including how to regulate its development and use in order to avoid the manipulation of truth and the inevitable centralisation of wealth and power.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Tangled up in Prussian Blue

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 23 May 2024

    The reissuing of a record is not just news for the record, it’s also a reissuing of that part of the life of the listener who knew the original. Thus it is with Richard Clapton, his debut album Prussian Blue, and me.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Nursing our health carers

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 21 May 2024

    As someone who lately has been closer to witnessing the work of nurses and medical professionals than I’ve really wanted to be, I do not need persuading of their benefit to society. Perhaps every day should be ‘Hug a nurse day’. 

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    How Jung turned grief into a philosophy of life

    • Barry Gittins
    • 21 May 2024

    When friends faced a heartbreaking loss, they found solace in Carl Jung's writings, granting them permission to grieve and hope. Given his life of contradictions, how should we evaluate Jung's contributions and his complex relationship with religious faith?

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Simple fixes not enough to protect domestic violence victims

    • Ulrike Marwitz
    • 20 May 2024

    Domestic violence is not a simple or straightforward issue, and we know that not all cases have the same dynamics or the same causes. Rather than applying one size fits all responses, we need to begin with addressing the diverse underlying causes. 

    READ MORE