Keywords: Rudd And The Sin Of Overwork
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ENVIRONMENT
The Howard years made me feel ashamed to be Australian, and I felt about his electoral defeat the way East Germans felt about the Berlin Wall coming down: as a kind of cleansing. Rudd disappoints for a different reason.
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ARTS AND CULTURE
Kevin Rudd has raised circumlocution to an
art since coming to office. But recently his polysyllabic heart rate seems to have slowed.
What's changed? Could it be the patter of Tony feet? Time to restart that
'working families' mantra: plain prose beats purple.
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AUSTRALIA
- Michael Mullins
- 14 December 2009
5 Comments
If Hawke and Keating had failed to act on economic reform, the opportunity cost would have been devastating unemployment during the GFC. It is not difficult to imagine the opportunity cost of the priority Rudd is giving to his own popularity over reforms that are now urgently needed.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 24 June 2008
9 Comments
Many Australians still believe US President Harry Truman made the right decision in authorising the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Philosopher Michael Walzer calls it an act of terrorism designed 'to spread fear across a nation and force the surrender of its government'.
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INFORMATION
- Graham Holmes
- 13 June 2008
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AUSTRALIA
Kevin Rudd's visit to Jakarta today and continued inter-cultural dialogue could do much to enrich Australia's friendship with Indonesia. Indonesia's labelling as a basket case of corruption and terrorism denies the significant strides the country has taken since its democratic reformation.
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RELIGION
- Andrew Hamilton
- 12 June 2008
15 Comments
Since public service is often seen as a sheltered workshop for bludgers, Kevin Rudd won sympathy for demanding heroic work practices. Overwork is morally unjustifiable because it makes instrumental goals central, and fails to respect deeper human values.
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RELIGION
- Frank Brennan
- 02 April 2008
5 Comments
The Rudd Government is consulting and working out what to do about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The symbolism of reversing Australia's vote against the Declaration would need to be matched by more work in partnership with indigenous Australians.
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AUSTRALIA
- Tony Smith
- 12 December 2007
A new government enjoys public goodwill as it tackles a residue of issues, resentments and injustices. How quickly this dissipates is a measure of the sincerity with which the new government operates. Hopes are high for Rudd Labor.
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AUSTRALIA
- Scott Stephens
- 17 October 2007
11 Comments
The great hypocrisy of Kevin Rudd’s style of politics is that he launched his challenge for the Labor leadership twelve months ago with an appeal to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One cannot help but be sickened by his recent rebuke of the politically and morally courageous Robert McClelland, for expressing unbridled opposition to capital punishment in Indonesia.
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RELIGION
- Richard Mulgan
- 22 January 2007
2 Comments
Kevin Rudd and other Christians have been inspired by Christ’s concern for the disadvantaged. They have seen state-based social justice policies as a way of institutionalising this concern. But such compassion can easily slide into patronising assumptions about the distance between those who give and those who receive.
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