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Keywords: Quarterly Essay

  • AUSTRALIA

    Earthquakes, poets and God

    • Michael Mullins
    • 21 March 2011
    13 Comments

    Most of us vehemently reject claims such as that made by FoxNews' Glen Beck, that the Japan earthquake was the work of a vengeful God. In his Quarterly Essay last week, David Malouf gives a nuanced reading of the position that Beck has bastardised.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Gay marriage not a trivial pursuit

    • Michael Mullins
    • 22 November 2010
    24 Comments

    Labor will tear itself apart unless it realises that a 'yes' or 'no' on gay marriage is less important than the process of reaching a position. It can choose to go down the path of political expedience, or it can adopt an approach of moral integrity.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Remembering Rudd

    • Emily Millane
    • 25 June 2010
    7 Comments

    In early 2008, 89 per cent of us thought Rudd to be a 'man of vision'. Recall his essay on Bonhoeffer in The Monthly; the promise of a politics of decency and equality; the Apology; the ideas summit. After that it all goes a bit foggy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Abbott and the new Catholic Conservatism

    • Michael Furtado
    • 20 April 2010
    30 Comments

    There is much to salvage from Howard's policies, misconstrued as universally liberal and bereft of state intervention in the interests of the underprivileged. More could be done to link such a policy frame with several aspects of Catholic Social Teaching.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    John Smith Christmas homily: faith and welfare in action

    • John Smith
    • 10 December 2009
    1 Comment

    Much can be achieved in cooperation with friends who don't necessarilyshare the same faith or any faith at all. If you're homeless, who careswhether an atheist, a Christian or a Buddhist provides shelter?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    How to talk to Aboriginal students

    • Myrna Tonkinson
    • 13 October 2009
    14 Comments

    Some Aboriginal languages do not distinguish the unvoiced and voiced consonants 'b' and 'p', 'd' and 't', and 'g' and 'k'. Julia Gillard's push to provide 'English as a second language' training to teachers in remote communities can address such language obstacles and help lift levels of Indigenous education.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The adventures of Malcolm Turnbull

    • Jonathan Shaw
    • 03 July 2009
    2 Comments

    The great wave of Utegate has passed over us, leaving Malcolm Turnbull on the sands, chastened but apparently unrepentant, and far from exhausted. Reports of his political death are manifestly exaggerated.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Bikers, violence and justice

    • John Smith
    • 14 May 2009
    2 Comments

    Going to jail for the right reasons is noble. In effect Jesus called for a kind of civil disobedience. He went to jail for justice. Today, I would be prepared to be jailed for resisting consorting laws. Exclusive preview: The John Smith Quarterly Essay

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Paid leave fans the maternal flame

    • Jen Vuk
    • 02 July 2008
    6 Comments

    Parenting deserves more than a bonus, it deserves to be exulted and supported in its many and varied forms. With so many women in the workforce a paid maternity leave scheme is the linchpin upon which other 'family-friendly' policies depend.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Greenhouse mafia's scorching approach to climate change

    • John Button
    • 09 January 2008

    No wonder people hope for arguments which suggest climate change will go away. The discussion about climate change has become increasingly feverish, polemical and downright dishonest. From 13 June 2007.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Innocent happiness and heavily curtained windows

    • Michael Mullins
    • 25 July 2007

    The Australian character is set against that of the European nations from which the 'new Australians' arrived after World War II. For them, Australia offered "considerably safety and little menace", but heavily curtained windows rather than dancing in the streets they were accustomed to.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A comfortable nation afraid to get off the couch

    • Scott Stephens
    • 05 June 2007
    3 Comments

    John Howard’s "relaxed and comfortable" approach to national life, then, was not simply a rejection of Paul Keating’s aggressive, deliberate reforms. It represented a vile pandering to our cultural inertia, an affirmation of our basest tendencies.

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