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Keywords: Adf

  • RELIGION

    The Church is not beyond reproach

    • Frank Brennan
    • 23 November 2012
    1 Comment

    'Might not the chief problem with Church language in the public square be that we tend to come from a position of moral superiority, approaching those dreadfully compromised politicians who will do anything to be elected? The abuse crisis reminds us that the Church is not irreproachable.' Text from Fr Frank Brennan's presentation at the Anglican Church of Australia's Public Affairs Commission Conference, November 2012.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott's asylum seeker turn-back policy is a bad joke

    • Tony Kevin
    • 27 July 2012
    15 Comments

    Can Abbott and Morrison be serious about turning back the boats? Do they really want to expose the Navy to the fear, the rage, the encouragement to self-harm and lethal criminality, the emotional damage, the risks to Australian-Indonesian relations that have beset past turn-back policies?

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  • MEDIA

    Vagina dialogue

    • Moira Rayner
    • 25 July 2012
    20 Comments

    Johnson & Johnson's 'Carefree' ads talked unblushingly of women's vaginas, inter-period discharge and daily smells. According to some, we shouldn't talk about such things, not on television. Until recently commercial products for absorbing menstrual blood didn't exist, with dreadful effect on women's participation in community and public life.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sin, spin and sex abuse in the church and military

    • Michael Mullins
    • 16 July 2012
    16 Comments

    Church leaders are often criticised for putting the reputation of the Church before the needs of victims. Last week the Australian Defence Force faced similar criticism following the release of a damning report on sexual abuse. There are lessons for Defence in Pope Benedict XVI's 2010 admission that sexual abuse reflects 'the sin inside the Church'. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia follows US drone lead

    • Fatima Measham
    • 09 February 2012
    27 Comments

    Despite Obama's insistance that the use of drones in Pakistan 'is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists', civilian casualties are inevitable. Australia is also phasing in the use of drones.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard and Obama's mutual exploitation

    • Tony Kevin
    • 18 November 2011
    9 Comments

    Australia is now indelibly associated with Obama's strong messages to China in Canberra. We were used. But our government wanted this, because it will all be popular with the middle ground former Labor voters Gillard is trying to win back from Abbott and the Greens.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Sketching an icon of refugee resilience

    • Vacy Vlazna
    • 06 July 2011
    11 Comments

    I first saw Handala in a painting in the wretched Bourj al Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. In Palestine, Handala is loved and cherished as a symbol of steadfast resistance. But he transcends Palestine: he represents every suffering child.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Border Protection's selective rescue

    • Tony Kevin
    • 10 May 2011
    15 Comments

    Last November, a refugee boat was lost at sea en route to Christmas Island. It's presumed the 97 on board perished. Evidence suggests Australia's Border Protection Command selectively chooses to make little or no effort to find and help SIEV boats in possible distress.

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  • RELIGION

    Coming clean on cluster munitions

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 May 2011
    15 Comments

    We now know that, in the name of the US alliance, our Government attempted to scuttle the significance of the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions. Thus far the Greens are the only party to take the point, and the only party in full sympathy with the Vatican on this issue.

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  • MEDIA

    Defending defence

    • Jim Molan
    • 21 April 2011
    8 Comments

    Defence has the same problem as society in relation to young people's attitudes to sex, alcohol and social media. I wonder if we handle it better than most. The firestorm of ignorant criticism of the ADF and its 'culture' and leadership was mostly undeserved and could be counterproductive. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sex and humility in the church and the military

    • Michael Mullins
    • 18 April 2011
    16 Comments

    In the wake of the defence force Skype sex scandal, former diplomat Bruce Haigh pointed out that things start to go wrong when commanding officers forget that they are there to serve, and instead act to protect their reputations. His point holds true for unions and churches.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Personal reflections on the Christmas Island tragedy

    • Tony Kevin
    • 20 December 2010
    23 Comments

    It is curious and sad that in weeks when our media are celebrating WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, we can accept so easily a government-managed story, whose public accountability obligation stares us in the face. Perhaps because editors know that our complacent society really does not want to go there.

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