Keywords: Governor-General
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AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 06 May 2013
15 Comments
The Coalition's characterisation of the Gillard Government as a lame duck is a tactic to slow down decision-making over the next four months. A government has every right not just to keep the wheels turning but to continue to try to implement its program even if it is just trying to improve its chances of re-election.
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AUSTRALIA
Restarting the republic debate was almost certainly not what Tony Abbott had in mind when he wrote to Julia Gillard about the appointment of our next governor-general. He has unwittingly done Australians a service by reminding us why the people, not politicians, should choose the person who holds the office.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Anne M. Carson
- 19 February 2013
Cash-strapped, post midnight. Transport police rifle our rucksacks, suspicious of backpackers. One prises open my Kodak canister, sniffs, says 'ach!', fires Czech questions at me. 'Vegemite fur frustuck,' I say, trying to convince Vegemite is not hash resin. I smile the smile of someone who doesn't know how bad it can get.
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RELIGION
- Irfan Yusuf
- 21 January 2013
7 Comments
If Pakistan is to remain a nation with something resembling life and soul, it must protect its minorities. But instead, as with India, it is quietly eviscerating them. It isn't just extremists engaging in the self-harm, it happens at all levels of society. Before long the nation may find itself bleeding to death.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Brian Matthews
- 12 October 2012
10 Comments
The name Charles Hughes Cousens is not one that has been canvassed during the lamentable and often tawdry debate about the Alan Jones affair, but perhaps it should have been. Cousens' ordeal as the target of a treason-baying press lies in the distant but pointed background to Jones' assault on Julia Gillard.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
- Gillian Bouras
- 17 February 2012
11 Comments
The dismissal of Gough Whitlam by then Governor-General Sir John Kerr in 1975 has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia's history. It seems pallid in comparison with what is now happening here in Greece.
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AUSTRALIA
- Frank O'Shea
- 20 September 2011
5 Comments
When it comes to leopards changing spots or terrorists turning into statesmen, former IRA chief-of-staff Martin McGuinnes is up there with Mandela and Mugabe. His entry into Ireland's presidential race on the weekend is significant, as the rest of the field is desolately dull.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 16 May 2011
17 Comments
While the Australian bishops' letter indicates that they accept the decision to sack former bishop of Toowoomba Bill Morris, there is nothing to suggest that they agree. In fact they carefully distance themselves from the decision.
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MEDIA
Defence has the same problem as society in relation to young people's attitudes to sex, alcohol and social media. I wonder if we handle it better than most. The firestorm of ignorant criticism of the ADF and its 'culture' and leadership was mostly undeserved and could be counterproductive.
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AUSTRALIA
- Paul W. Newbury
- 23 January 2011
37 Comments
Indigenous antipathy to Australia Day is deeply entrenched. Wattle as a symbol offers an alternative because it is native to this place, and it is not a memorial of our ties with Great Britain.
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AUSTRALIA
- Catherine Marshall
- 10 January 2011
3 Comments
Rudd's eviction should strike fear into the hearts of feminists everywhere. For this is how the Labor Government operates, unsheathing the swords, wrenching power, cutting down a leader before he has had time to really prove himself. Imagine what it will do when that leader is a woman.
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AUSTRALIA
- Moira Rayner
- 25 June 2010
25 Comments
The importance of a woman getting the highest political post in the land is not in its being a 'first', but that Gillard is her own woman. She has not turned into an 'honorary bloke'. Gillard's singular attribute is her sincerity and the genuineness of her public conversations. And she can laugh.
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