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Keywords: Comment

  • AUSTRALIA

    Australia's autism strategy is a test of national empathy

    • Anthony N Castle
    • 04 July 2024

    The National Autism Strategy is the first coordinated national approach designed to support autistic people at each stage of life. But the draft strategy’s lack of conclusions has provoked some frustration and unless more autistic people are truly heard we won’t arrive at the practical solutions they need.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What does the Cass Report mean for gender medicine in Australia?

    • Andrew Amos
    • 14 June 2024

    The response to the Cass Review by gender medicine specialists and medical authorities in Australia has been deafening silence. Regardless of your position on gender-affirming care, it is unconscionable to stand in the way of a review that would allow for systemic problems to be addressed.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How Sam Kerr sparked a national conversation on racism

    • Joel Hodge
    • 27 March 2024
    8 Comments

    Sam Kerr’s alleged comment to a UK police officer has divided opinion as to whether it constitutes racism. The central question involves whether a structural understanding of racism should supersede a universal, neutral sense of racism of the kind that is enshrined in law.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Impartial journalism in the age of social media

    • Denis Muller
    • 26 July 2023
    1 Comment

    The landscape has changed, and there is no going back. Individual journalists are now integrated into the ranks of pundits, urgers and persuaders who abound online. At their employers’ behest, they blog, they podcast, they ‘engage’ as the current jargon has it, with those who post comments to their articles online. (From 2021)

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Cheers for the five-hat royals

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 22 May 2023
    1 Comment

    During the Coronation of King Charles III, six family members from households scattered across the world unite via Messenger to share real-time commentary. The occasion was less a celebration of tradition than a moment of cross-continental bonding, reminding us of the enduring power of human connection.

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  • ECONOMICS

    Best of 2022: The rise of the machines

    • David James
    • 12 January 2023

    There is a great deal of commentary about the growing importance of artificial intelligence, or AI, especially in business circles. To some extent this is a self-fulfilling prophecy — if people think something will have a seminal effect then it probably will. But if the supposed commercial benefits are significant, the dangers are potentially enormous.

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  • ECONOMICS

    In finance, story matters most

    • David James
    • 16 November 2022
    1 Comment

    Financial markets are made up of human beings and human beings have always been storytellers — long before science, or modern finance, or accounting even existed. Accordingly, the main skill of successful analysts, advisers, financial gurus and commentators is the construction of compelling narratives. They are, if not exactly creators of fairy stories, not too far removed from it. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A brief comment on commentary

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 10 November 2022
    1 Comment

    Reflecting on the value of newspaper commentary on public life prompts self-reflection concerning the quality of what we columnists write and what we hope to achieve through our work. The ephemeral quality of a column suggests how important it is for us not simply to react to the news but to ask what lies beneath it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Three-lie leeway

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 24 October 2022

    How do we go from insisting our children tell the truth, even if it leads to punishment for breaking rules, to casually accepting a lack of veracity from societal ‘leaders’? Why in this age of social media when the mildest of heterodox comments cause a storm of protest do blatant untruths cause not even a ripple? 

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Sadness and forgetting: Queen Elizabeth II, monarchy and empire

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 20 September 2022
    7 Comments

    When more nuanced commentary around the passing of Queen Elizabeth II came to the fore, it was hard to avoid the difficult realities of the British monarchy and an institution that has not, through its history, delighted those conquered in its name. With Elizabeth II, it was notable that she let an opportunity to engage the topic of empire in Britain’s collective memory go begging.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Holy fools and flawed titans: The legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 08 September 2022
    3 Comments

    Greatness for the Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, was not to be found at home. Commentary on his passing is as much a statement of positions, endorsed by admiring beneficiaries, and loathed by those who fell off the train of history.  The millions who delighted seeing the collapse of the Soviet Union and, as a result, a power vacuum and weaker Russia, toast him, eyes filled with emotion. 

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  • RELIGION

    Stray thoughts: On using our talents

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 12 July 2022
    1 Comment

    Last week at the Plenary Council Second Assembly, it seems many of Australia’s bishops, for whatever reason, wanted to bury the talents available to them. They voted down motions related to the equality of dignity between men and women. The reaction according to commentators was visceral with members, not just women, upset and angry. It is likely the anger was more potent for the fact that the motions had become so anodyne that many assembly members are probably regretting the parsing and pruning. 

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