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How can we make progress on the question of whether debate can do harm, and if it can, whether that’s a sufficient reason to suppress particular debates? Or should we adopt a ‘no debate!’ approach to particular topics ourselves?
The next week or so can be a very selfish time, but it does not have to be. Christmas brings hope. The prospect of peace. The possibility of joy. These coming days truly are the best time to be human, to share what we have and who we want to be.
Beneath the facade of Australian prosperity lies a hidden country where over three million citizens, including a staggering 761,000 children, grapple daily with the hard choices that come with poverty. With an urgent need for reform, what policy shifts could bring about the transformation this nation needs?
Despite causing despair and even leading to lives lost, those who orchestrated Robodebt from 2015 to 2019 appear unrepentant. Yet one fact remains unchallenged: this scheme lays bare a troubling disregard for the dignity of the most vulnerable in society.
Budget papers reveal an expected rise in the unemployment rate from 3.5 per cent to 4.25 per cent by June 2024. While the increase is portrayed as modest, it translates to an additional 144,900 people becoming unemployed. The focus must remain on the human stories behind the numbers during this uncertain period of economic recovery.
Gamification affects almost all our online activities, from communicating to shopping, with gaming elements omnipresent in the form of points, avatars, badges, leader boards, and real-life rewards. Stripping activities of their intrinsic value, virtually any online activity could be transformed into a challenge to win. Yet users make the mistake of focusing on the game rewards without seeing how the game itself is subtly changing behaviour.
Perhaps the most dramatic individual result of the Federal election was that Menzies’s seat, Kooyong, has fallen to a Teal independent, Dr Monique Ryan. Xavier College sits in the Kooyong electorate, and Dr Ryan is a parent at the College. Dr Ryan proved to be an impressive candidate who ran as a good a local campaign as I have ever seen. It was marked by a strong engagement by many locals, and especially among professional women, and older residents.
Last Wednesday, the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation chaired by the Government’s Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells tabled a report highlighting problems with a proposed new regulation affecting charities.
With the average length of detention in Australia now at an historic high, it is timely to review how immigration detention is used. It should be a last resort that is used for the shortest practicable time so that people who pose little risk to the community are not unnecessarily deprived of their liberty, and that they are able to contribute to the community.
The Morrison government will use the federal budget to set an agenda which will focus on those policies which will deliver it victory at the next election and reconnect — at a policy level — with its traditional supporter base. The reconnection with parts of its base could spell trouble for charities that undertake advocacy activities.
Last Thursday, Facebook blocked news content in Australia. Many of us had been expecting this in response to the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code. But the breadth and severity of what occurred was brutal. The content blocked was not only that of large media companies. Public interest, not-for-profit, and religious media — many of whom rely heavily on Facebook to share messages with their readers — were blocked as well.
If society were a mine, refugees would be the canaries in it. Their condition reveals whether the currents of public air are pure or toxic. By that standard the present currents in Australia are noxious. They mark a change from the first generous response to the coronavirus to the meaner reconstruction of the economy.