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Keywords: Federation

  • AUSTRALIA

    Reflections on Gillard's atheism

    • John Warhurst
    • 17 October 2011
    10 Comments

    Gillard's atheism puts her in stark contrast to her immediate predecessors Kevin Rudd and John Howard. We consider several implications of Gillard's position, including her relations with church-state issues and community attitudes towards gay marriage and euthanasia. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Why Mabo deserves a holiday

    • Paul W. Newbury
    • 03 June 2011
    12 Comments

    The anniversary of the Mabo decision is significant enough to be made a public holiday. If it replaced the Queen's Birthday, this would reflect our maturation as a nation, as we grow away from Britain, and grow up by owning the past and our mistreatment of Indigenous Australians.

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  • RELIGION

    Health and ethics

    • Frank Brennan
    • 06 April 2011
    7 Comments

    We need clever strategic and moral thinkers among our health professionals, who can engage with the demands of an aging population, with the gap in life-expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, and with the increasingly politically correct debate about euthanasia.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Small parties, big ideas

    • John Warhurst
    • 29 March 2011
    6 Comments

    More Labor and Coalition MPs than Green MPs are pro gay marriage and pro euthanasia. It is these major party social progressives who should be most feared by opponents of gay marriage and euthanasia. The Greens will only ever play a ginger-group role.

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  • RELIGION

    Vatican targets Caritas

    • Duncan MacLaren
    • 21 February 2011
    24 Comments

    In an extraordinary move, the Vatican has denied approval for Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight to stand for a second term. There is outrage in the Confederation, and with good cause. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard, Bligh and leadership in a crisis

    • Moira Rayner
    • 18 January 2011
    22 Comments

    I am bloody tired of journalists comparing one woman against another, as if there were a competition to find the 'real' woman leader, a winner and losers. That isn't how women tend to use power: it can be shared, and used for the common good. We saw Bligh and Gillard doing it, and didn't get it.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Thirty years of Jesuit Refugee Service

    • Mark Raper
    • 17 November 2010
    3 Comments

    May I tell you about one refugee whom I met during the 20 years I lived and worked JRS? The story has no happy outcome, indeed far from it. But it may help to communicate some of the feelings that inspire many who accompany the refugees.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The religious beliefs of Australia's prime ministers

    • John Warhurst
    • 11 November 2010
    12 Comments

    Nine prime ministers have been observant Christians. Two have been conventional Christians. Ten have been nominal Christians. Five have been articulate atheists or agnostics. One was a nominal atheist or agnostic.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Jews fenced in by Aussie intolerance

    • Catherine Marshall
    • 02 August 2010
    27 Comments

    Given that eruvs are inconspicuous, and religious freedom in Australia is a fait accompli, there can be only one explanation for the prevailing sentiment, and that is a subtle prejudice which represents the great big elephant in the room for anyone living on Sydney's North Shore.

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  • RELIGION

    Speaking for country, speaking for self

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 July 2010

    Fr Frank Brennan's address to the Melbourne College of Divinity Centenary Conference, Trinity College, University of Melbourne, 6 July 2010.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gillard mining deal betrays the common good

    • Michael Mullins
    • 05 July 2010
    17 Comments

    Julia Gillard is expected to exercise moral authority because she was chosen by her party to work for the common good of the nation. Her agreement with major mining companies to take the sting out of the mining tax shows a poor start.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    World Cup bid looks to Australia's self-serving aid program

    • Evan Ellis
    • 05 July 2010
    14 Comments

    We assume aid is 'helping people'. But the 2006 White Paper on Australian Aid specified its purpose to help countries 'reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development, in line with Australia’s national interest'. We'd be mortified if a church agency came out with such a self-serving clause.

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