Vol 34 No 11

03 June 2024

AUSTRALIA

What does the Cass Report mean for gender medicine in Australia?
- Andrew Amos
- 14 June 2024
1 Comment
The response to the Cass Review by gender medicine specialists and medical authorities in Australia has been deafening silence. Regardless of your position on gender-affirming care, it is unconscionable to stand in the way of a review that would allow for systemic problems to be addressed.
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AUSTRALIA

The fraught search for identity
- Andrew Hamilton
- 13 June 2024
5 Comments
The wonder of Khin Myint's Fragile Creature: A Memoir lies in his calm and magnanimous reflection on his experiences and in his attempt to understand those who treated him poorly. It also provides a lens for reflecting on the dynamic at work in public debates that touch identity.
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EDUCATION

Are international students really to blame for soaring rents?
- Erica Cervini
- 11 June 2024
The Labor government’s plans for managing overseas student numbers seem to be heavily influenced by the belief that these students are at least partly responsible for hikes in rents, housing shortages, and pressure on infrastructure.
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AUSTRALIA

The Sentencing of David McBride
- Binoy Kampmark
- 11 June 2024
2 Comments
Former Australian military lawyer David McBride was convicted for leaking documents to the ABC which exposed war crimes in Afghanistan. He is the sole individual to be convicted in exposing alleged atrocities in the Afghanistan campaign by Australian special forces.
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RELIGION

Women deacons: A closed book?
- Bill Uren
- 11 June 2024
15 Comments
In a 60 Minutes interview, Pope Francis was asked whether there would ever be the prospect within the Catholic Church of a woman being ordained as a deacon. The Pope’s reply was a blunt ‘No’. This negative response came as a surprise to many Vatican watchers.
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INTERNATIONAL

Trump, convicted
- David Halliday
- 11 June 2024
4 Comments
When Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, it represented a long-awaited triumph of the rule of law in the United States. But the verdict may not mean much in the long run, and has not affected Trump's popularity among voters. Watching Trump’s conviction from afar prompts us to consider how good we have it.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Justice and Hope
- Andrew Hamilton
- 07 June 2024
1 Comment
Raimond Gaita insists that there is something precious in each human being. He does not rest this conviction on a particular religious or philosophical grounding. It flows, rather, from a rich reading of human possibilities and questioning of the meaning of life.
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AUSTRALIA

When safetyism leads
- Julie Szego
- 07 June 2024
1 Comment
In response to campus protests, universities erred on the side of free speech when every other day, the prevailing ethos is one of ‘safetyism’, namely suppressing speech or inquiry if an identity group frames it as ‘harmful’ to them. Universities should strive to be uncomfortable and ‘unsafe’ for all, with no identity immune from robust scrutiny.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Autumn's parting prayer
- Warwick McFadyen
- 06 June 2024
1 Comment
The chill of winter is now upon us. It is said that landscape is a defining factor in how a people have developed and how their behaviour is formed and modified. So too it is for the season. So thank you, autumn.
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INTERNATIONAL

Poland and the problem of borders
- Gillian Bouras
- 06 June 2024
7 Comments
The Prime Minister of Poland announced a $2.5 billion plan to fortify borders with Russian Kaliningrad and Belarus, highlighting the ongoing struggle for stability and security in a continent preparing for a future of conflict.
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ECONOMICS

Waiting on the cash flow oracle
- David James
- 05 June 2024
Early every month Australians with big mortgages anxiously wait to find out if the Reserve Bank will raise interest rates and put more pressure on their domestic budgets. It is a bit like waiting for pronouncements from the modern day equivalent of the Delphic oracle.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Elegy for Peter Porter
- John Kinsella
- 05 June 2024
An elegy doesn’t need to be written straight after a death... and maybe one’s own death catches up before the obituary we write is published. It might be something like re-arranging modernism into structurally sound lines, or discussing the context of metaphors in poems about London and friendship.
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AUSTRALIA

Terry Pratchett and the nuclear energy debate
- Juliette Hughes
- 05 June 2024
2 Comments
Since Peter Dutton has reignited the appetite for the dream of unlimited energy from atom-splitting, we have to think about the risks again. Is it more dangerous to keep burning coal and gas and oil and boil the planet than to have a few Chernobyls or Windscales? How do we balance such risks?
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ENVIRONMENT

Raining on Environment Day
- Andrew Hamilton
- 05 June 2024
Days like World Environment Day aim to combat apathy, urging action against the grim realities of climate change. Despite dire headlines, there are grounds for hope, if not for optimism. Any change in environment for the better must be grounded in a change of heart.
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AUSTRALIA

Are boot camps a solution or a symptom?
- Andrew Hamilton
- 03 June 2024
2 Comments
Children should certainly be protected from many experiences that they might enter more safely as adults. But should we not also ask if adults should also be shared these harmful experiences? If social media, nicotine and alcohol are harmful to children, should they be allowed for anyone?
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Vol 34 No 11