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Keywords: Christmas Island

There are more than 200 results, only the first 200 are displayed here.

  • AUSTRALIA

    Lone media voices keep government bastards honest

    • Michael Mullins
    • 14 November 2011
    6 Comments

    Matters of national importance are often unreported or glossed over by the major media outlets because they are considered insignificant or difficult. Without quality journalism, a democratic society would lose its greatest source of independent scrutiny.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Asylum seeker Scrabble

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 08 November 2011
    17 Comments

    Last week there were three significant events affecting refugees including, tragically, more deaths. The use of language in the debate about asylum seekers is always striking, and has evolved and adapted over the years. It does not always reflect reality.

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  • RELIGION

    What difference does it make now that Mary MacKillop is a saint?

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 October 2011

    Mary visited Rome as a young religious woman when she was being persecuted by local bishops for being too independent. She got a good hearing from the Pope and great assistance from Fr Anderledy who became the Superior General of the Jesuits. If only Bishop Bill Morris could have received the same sympathetic hearing.

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  • RELIGION

    Kids key to Malaysia solution shambles

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 October 2011
    13 Comments

    No matter how the Government paints the canvas, it can never be in the best interests of an unaccompanied minor who is a refugee to be removed from Australia to Malaysia. And if such kids are irremovable, they will continue to arrive in Australia by boat.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    In a spin over Malaysia solution reboot

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 13 September 2011
    19 Comments

    Yesterday the Government announced it will change the Migration Act to enable the Malaysia solution to go ahead. This latest action reinforces rhetoric about queues and people smugglers that obscures the real effects and motivations of current asylum seeker policy.

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  • RELIGION

    Gillard's Malaysia solution stumble

    • Frank Brennan
    • 09 August 2011
    21 Comments

    The Malaysia solution has hit a snag called the High Court of Australia. The Government is now in very stormy waters, because the rule of law and the separation of powers do not readily yield to the sound bites of populist sentiment and the fear tactics of politicians.

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  • RELIGION

    Churches and the Malaysian Solution

    • Frank Brennan
    • 19 July 2011
    12 Comments

    This is not a regional solution to a regional problem, but a bilateral attempt at solving an Australian problem. To stop the boats, one needs to engage in measures contrary to the Refugee Convention. Church groups can not endorse something they know to be either unworkable or immoral.

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  • RELIGION

    Human rights and Christian lawyers

    • Frank Brennan
    • 18 July 2011
    5 Comments

    When I appeared on Q&A with Christopher Hitchens, a young man asked whether we can 'ever hope to live in a truly secular society' while the religious continue to 'affect political discourse and decision making' on euthanasia, same-sex unions and abortion. Hitchens was simpaticao. I was dumbstruck.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Brother of a suicide and war dead

    • Ian C. Smith
    • 12 July 2011
    1 Comment

    His mother quoted Shakespeare, preferred her husband to their children, placing her faith in him, gin, and ghosts ... When she turned up breast cancer's card she hugged her suffering to herself.

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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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  • MEDIA

    Media gag silences asylum seekers

    • Jo Coghlan
    • 27 June 2011
    19 Comments

    Officially, the ban on journalists interviewing or filming asylum seekers in detention is for the detainees' protection. But it also stops them from sharing their stories with the public. Surely asylum seekers are capable of determining who is and is not acting in their best interests.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Parable of the unwelcome strangers

    • Greg Foyster
    • 20 June 2011
    22 Comments

    One day a stranger knocks on the door. 'Help!' he shouts. 'The people in my house are trying to kill me!' Instinctively, you reach for the door handle. A wrinkled hand, old yet firm, grabs your wrist. You look up and see your landlord, a bald man with thick rectangular glasses and bushy eyebrows.

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