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Keywords: Democracy

  • AUSTRALIA

    Aung San Suu Kyi, refugees and bikies

    • Michael Mullins
    • 15 November 2010
    7 Comments

    The release on Saturday of Burma's democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi, and last week's Australian high court decisions regarding refugees and bikies, each contain salutary lessons for governments that attempt to rule by popular fear.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Asylum seeker decision tests Government sportsmanship

    • Kerry Murphy
    • 12 November 2010
    6 Comments

    A litmus test for the health of a democracy is what a Government does when it loses cases in the highest court in the land. The first consequence of yesterday's High Court decision regarding the cases of two Tamil asylum seekers is that many cases will need to be reconsidered.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The problem with prosperous Australia

    • John Falzon
    • 18 October 2010
    5 Comments

    There's something disquieting about quietness imposed from above in the heart of a democracy. Anti-Poverty Week is a good time to reflect on how, as a nation, can hear the revolutionary stories of the oppressed and abandoned in our midst.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Don't wimp out at the ballot box

    • Edwina Byrne
    • 20 August 2010
    22 Comments

    It would be easy to cast a donkey vote or a vote for a minor party and to thus wash your hands of the responsibility for our governance for the next three or so years. In a representative democracy, a vacuous election represents a lazy polity.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Vote 1 bus 'bludger'

    • Sarah Burnside
    • 09 August 2010
    12 Comments

    'This election', says Tony Abbott, 'is about you.' Recently, passengers on a Perth bus found themselves involved in an impromptu social experiment. 'This guy has no money and tried to give me a ticket that's two days old,' the bus driver said, 'What do you reckon? Should I let him on?'

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Election year blogs stifle democracy

    • Ben Coleridge
    • 19 July 2010
    6 Comments

    The fact that we are 'discussing' more than ever before due to the internet and the blogosphere, does not prove that our democracy is in better shape. The environment precludes reasoning because reasoning requires a willingness to listen to the other and to approach questions through mutual respect.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Spin and the art of democracy

    • Alex McDermott
    • 15 March 2010
    7 Comments

    Two of the most significant changes in Australian history, the post-war migration scheme and the 1980s economic reform, would not have occurred without political spin. It is no accident that the first teaching to devote itself to the art of spin was born simultaneously with democracy in ancient Athens.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday behind bars

    • Carol Ransley
    • 19 June 2009
    4 Comments

    Sitting inside a purpose-built cell within Burma's notorious Insein prison, Suu Kyi today turns 64. Despite the 'bells and whistles' of a Burmese court, Suu Kyi is unlikely to receive a fair trial and will likely spend the next few years in prison.

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  • RELIGION

    In honour of Indigenous agitators

    • Frank Brennan
    • 14 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Good intentions are not enough. Gone should be the days when Aboriginals are marginal to the corridors of power. Perhaps it will not be until we have seen the first Aboriginal Prime Minister that agitators for Indigenous justice will be vindicated.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Indonesia's Obama dreaming

    • Dewi Anggraeni
    • 22 January 2009
    3 Comments

    In the big cities in Indonesia, most taxi drivers want to talk about the new president in the USA. Obama lived four years in Indonesia, and the country, the people and the culture left their marks on him, too.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Games won't tame China's internet guard dog

    • Cat Juan
    • 11 August 2008
    2 Comments

    The internet was once touted as a force for democracy. China has successfully turned this threat to its own advantage, and could show the way to other totalitarian nations.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    'Still angry' over Palm Island custody death

    • Pat Mullins
    • 04 July 2008
    4 Comments

    Jeff Waters relates the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island and the acquittal of the police officer involved. Mulrunji's death reflects a nationwide context where cherished institutions of western democracy are unavailable to many Indigenous people.

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