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Keywords: Centrelink

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Nothing romantic about living in squalor

    • Ellena Savage
    • 15 March 2013
    5 Comments

    The Arts Minister Simon Crean's new Creative Partnerships initiative is another more-of-the-same, fund-career-administrators-and-educators-and-leave-artistes-to-their-hellish-squalor kind of model. Art can be a satisfying occupation, but artists cannot live on self-satisfaction alone.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Philanthropy should be a condition of tax relief

    • Michael Mullins
    • 11 February 2013
    6 Comments

    Business Council of Australia president Tony Shepherd justifies superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy: 'We go to work, we get paid. The money is ours.' In the USA, philanthropy is common among self-made men. There is no such tradition here, where taxes are needed to fund welfare and other projects for the common good.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hearing the unheard at Christmas

    • John Falzon
    • 21 December 2012
    17 Comments

    The greatest power for progressive social change lies with the forming of connections between the excluded. This Christmas I invite you to join me in saluting the people who experience exclusion and who are best placed to teach all of us how best to change society for the better. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Immigration for sale

    • Patrick McCabe
    • 24 October 2012
    3 Comments

    Proponent of an immigration 'free market' Gary Becker would accommodate poor migrants by allowing businesses to lend them the 'immigration fee' in exchange for their labour upon arrival. Poor migrants tend to be unskilled, so this scheme would remain largely unutilised. Moreover, this arrangement might amount to indentured servitude.

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  • RELIGION

    Advancing human rights in Australia

    • Frank Brennan
    • 17 October 2012
    1 Comment

    Full text from Fr Frank Brennan SJ's address 'Advancing human rights in Australia — lessons from the National Human Rights Consultation' at the 'Human Rights Matters!' conference marking Anti-Poverty Week 2012. 17 October 2012, Cardinal Knox Centre, St Patricks Cathedral, Melbourne.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Unemployment angels and demons

    • John Falzon
    • 19 October 2011
    8 Comments

    Recently I received an email from a young man in Queensland. He was writing to thank the St Vincent de Paul Society for the stance it takes on the side of people who are demonised for being unemployed. He told me his story. Here are some bits of it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Houses without walls

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 07 July 2011
    8 Comments

    Two creative housing researchers argue for a 'housing first' approach, that offers permanent housing to homeless people without first putting conditions on their behaviour. The concept flies in the face of politicians and welfare agencies in Australia. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When 'sorry' is not enough

    • Mark Green
    • 26 May 2011

    The US Catholic Bishops' pastoral letter 'Economic Justice for All' says the extent of the suffering of the poor 'is a measure of how far we are from being a true community'. It is difficult to imagine how justice can be done for the Stolen Generations without compensation, redress and reparation.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mixed Budget blessings

    • Paul O'Callaghan
    • 11 May 2011
    7 Comments

    The Budget contains a number of positive measures to promote mental health, employment and training. But without greater investment in individualised support for job seekers and those on disability support pensions to assist their transition to work, we are not likely to see major change.

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  • RELIGION

    In bed with Fred Nile

    • Irfan Yusuf
    • 27 February 2011
    26 Comments

    In the past, Christian Democratic Party leader Fred Nile saw conservative Muslims as allies. Now he, like the Australian Christian Lobby, prefers to play sectarian wedge politics. Most homophobic Muslims would rather stay silent on gay marriage than support sectarian bigots.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Brian's story

    • Tony Vinson
    • 25 October 2010
    4 Comments

    My mother never really coped while I was growing up. My dad died when I was seven and she had a nervous breakdown. My sister got murdered when I was about 15. She had just turned 18. That's when my life rolled out of control. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Pork-barrel politics rolls regional Australia

    • Michael Mullins
    • 13 September 2010
    5 Comments

    Deals struck between Prime Minister Gillard and Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott saw hospitals in their electorates receive preferential treatment ahead of regions with greater needs. Pork-barrelling has always been part of politics, but that does not make it any less of a scandal.

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