Vol 34 No 18

09 September 2024

MEDIA

Should children be banned from social media?
- David Halliday
- 23 September 2024
Social media regulation has been a long time coming. For the last eighteen years we’ve been running a social experiment where we watch what happens when we allow children to grow up with unfettered access to this technology.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The end of the morning
- Gillian Bouras
- 20 September 2024
2 Comments
The End of the Morning provides a rich reading experience, showing the reader an Australia that has been largely lost. But most readers will have a sense of dissatisfaction: they will want more. An unfinished novel, and an unfinished life.
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AUSTRALIA

Is peace worth fighting for?
- Andrew Hamilton
- 19 September 2024
3 Comments
Though little known in Australia, Abraham Johannes (A.J.) Muste spent his life commending pacifism and leading movements to make the world more just. His commitments to pacifism may still seem extreme to many. But will anything more mild address the threats facing the world from violence, inequality and apathy?
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AUSTRALIA

Imagine what you could be legislating instead
- John Falzon
- 19 September 2024
1 Comment
We should not be surprised at the persistence of gambling advertising. We are confronted by a federal government that appears to be stubbornly protective of certain private interests while wanting to appear to also be concerned about the harm to the community that is caused by the promotion of those interests.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

The Rings of Power: Flawed jewels
- Juliette Hughes
- 19 September 2024
The latest series of The Rings of Power is a real curate’s egg. Whether having some bits that are good among other bits that are on the nose is a conundrum that this viewer must sort out for herself. Do the bad bits ruin the whole thing?
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CARTOON

Somewhere over the housing affordability rainbow
- Glen Le Lievre
- 18 September 2024
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INTERNATIONAL

The Taliban's war on women
- Warwick McFadyen
- 17 September 2024
2 Comments
How do you try to turn a human into something less than human? You take away their voice. The Taliban in Afghanistan have recently introduced new laws that ban women’s voices and faces in public, continuing the extreme subjugation of half the Afghan population.
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AUSTRALIA

Can Labor survive the inflation backlash?
- Joe Zabar
- 17 September 2024
2 Comments
As Australia heads toward the 2024 federal election, voters are grappling with soaring costs of living, stagnant wages, and weak GDP growth. Inflation is easing but prices remain stubbornly high. Will the Albanese government’s strategies to combat inflation satisfy an increasingly strained electorate?
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RELIGION

I am pilgrim
- Ann Rennie
- 13 September 2024
2 Comments
People visit graves and castles, libraries and mansions, battlefields and places of historical significance to feel a little of the lives of others, to pay homage, to make that human connection. We make secular pilgrimages to places that we have dreamt about or read in books or seen on screen. Wherever we go, these are ultimately visits to places within.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

How 'Slow Horses' became the show of the moment
- Juliette Hughes
- 12 September 2024
4 Comments
Slow Horses is one of those dramas that are even better than the books they’re based on. The TV series is blessed by having Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, the grisly spy-genius with a preternatural instinct for sniffing out hidden agendas.
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AUSTRALIA

Familiar patterns
- Michael McVeigh
- 12 September 2024
I’m now the same age my father was when he was diagnosed with cancer. I wonder about my own genetics and my two young children. Of course, there are things we can do to potentially influence our destiny, but so much of who we are is written in our bodies in permanent ink.
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AUSTRALIA

The dangers of a captured democracy
- Andrew Hamilton
- 12 September 2024
3 Comments
Anxieties about democracy around the world today are well-founded. While we rightly celebrate our democratic institutions, it's crucial to acknowledge the vast wealth disparities and the growing influence of powerful corporations.
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AUSTRALIA

Sports gambling ninjas endangering kids
- Michael McVeigh
- 11 September 2024
2 Comments
Gambling ads are infiltrating children's sports content, raising concerns about the impact on the development of young minds. Is our current gambling culture something we want to hand on to the next generation?
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ECONOMICS

Australia’s property boom is splitting society in half
- David James
- 10 September 2024
2 Comments
As continued high interest rates and stagnant incomes put a strain on households, leading more Australians give up on the dream of home ownership, government attempts to manage both the cost of living crisis and the housing crisis may be doing too little too late.
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RELIGION

In future Church governance, hierarchy meets partnership
- John Warhurst
- 03 September 2024
8 Comments
Lay-led organizations, once marginalised, are now ascendant in the Church, challenging traditional hierarchies and redefining what church might look like in future. Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (MPJPs) have a growing influence, and for some, hold the potential for a more inclusive, lay-led Church.
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Vol 34 No 18