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Keywords: Political Bias

  • ENVIRONMENT

    Climate catastrophe and the irrational race

    • Megan Graham
    • 05 August 2019
    7 Comments

    The debate around climate change shows the danger in believing we humans are principally rational. History gives example after example of how our biases can make us do very irrational things. In the words of Dan Ariely, our species is 'predictably irrational'. It is helpful for us to know this, so that we can become better.

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  • MEDIA

    The creators of fake news are winning

    • David James
    • 30 July 2019
    12 Comments

    They vastly outnumber journalists, their industry is far bigger than the shrinking media organisations, and the concentration of media ownership means that they can do deals with proprietors. Understanding that the trail with fake news leads to the spin doctors can be a useful way to detect what is, and is not, propaganda.

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  • MEDIA

    Dissecting Australian media's Trump moment

    • Eliza Berlage
    • 22 May 2019
    5 Comments

    Morrison heralded his win as a 'miracle' and the media ran with it, leading to headlines like 'Messiah from the shire'. But while it was unexpected to those reporting on it, a look at deeply divided and change-averse Australia makes the Coalition win seem less remarkable.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The casual service industry is broken

    • Devana Senanayake
    • 14 December 2018
    8 Comments

    David Leyonhjelm recently thanked men from South Asian backgrounds for delivering his pizza, groceries and online purchases; for rolling up their sleeves for jobs others refused. This gesture is seriously problematic. The casual service industry is broken and exploitative and needs to be carefully regulated and constantly audited.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Challenges to respect in the Kavanaugh case

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 17 October 2018
    4 Comments

    The charge brought against Kavanaugh invites reflection on what past actions and allegations should disqualify a person from holding public office. And in a society where increasingly traces of our past actions will be indelibly recorded, what scope should there be for remission and wiping the slate clean of past offences?

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  • RELIGION

    Towards credibility and a clean conclave

    • Gail Grossman Freyne
    • 05 October 2018
    26 Comments

    The numbers show this is not a witch hunt, merely the tip of a conclave. Any man who becomes a seminarian, then a deacon, then a priest, then a bishop, then a cardinal, will almost certainly have bumped into, bounced off or blindfolded himself to the endemic problem within the Church of the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable persons.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The loss of Julie Bishop is more than optics

    • Kate Galloway
    • 27 August 2018
    3 Comments

    Regardless of one's politics, the loss of Bishop from cabinet should be a wake-up call, prompting reflection on how our socialised norms work together with our institutions to keep women from power. We need women — and far greater diversity in other respects also — at the table, making decisions.

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  • MEDIA

    Attacks against the ABC are undemocratic

    • Fatima Measham
    • 20 June 2018
    20 Comments

    There is political hay to be made in convincing the right that the ABC has a leftward bias. The strategy counts on short memories. When Labor was in power, it would routinely complain that, in being too stringent with government, the ABC was aiding the Coalition. This only suggests that the ABC does its job, no matter who is in charge.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Imperfect score for Gold Coast's 'equality' games

    • John Warhurst
    • 24 April 2018
    3 Comments

    The number of medals available to men and women was equal. In this respect the games were better than the cultural norms of some of the competing countries. Integration of disabled athletes was also significant. Against this generally positive background the media persisted in an approach which was needlessly one-eyed.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Our flailing aid created a Pacific problem

    • Eliza Berlage
    • 19 April 2018

    China and India are rising global powers, thanks to a burgeoning middle class, huge export markets and military might. So why wouldn't they take the western retreat from the Pacific as an invitation to dance? But their support comes with a crippling debt levels and the potential for a favour to be called in down the line.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Passport privilege entrenches inequality

    • Sonia Nair
    • 12 December 2017
    12 Comments

    The world is often characterised as porous and easy to manoeuvre in this age of unparalleled technology and a globalised economy. But it's only ever been this way to people who have a combination of a particular passport and cultural heritage, particularly in settler colonial nations such as Australia.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What is identity politics really?

    • Ruby Hamad
    • 04 October 2017
    6 Comments

    The confusion around the term 'identity politics', and its frequent misuse across the political spectrum, sees it regarded with suspicion and contempt, as both conservatives and the traditional left use it as a slur to dismiss any discussions of racism and sexism.

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