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Keywords: Social Services

  • AUSTRALIA

    For better laws on family violence, we need better data

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 27 June 2024

    In addressing family violence, the immediate emphasis must be to protect women and children. But if the only response is harsher penalties in addressing any social problem, it is bound to be ineffective. Regulation depends also on understanding why people are drawn to behave badly and how the culture that supports it can be changed.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sports betting is ruining more than our sports

    • Tim Costello
    • 26 June 2024

    Gambling is now so entrenched in the AFL and NFL it is changing the way people, especially young people, follow sport. With former AFL chief Gillon McLachlan set to become CEO at Tabcorp, we should consider the profound impact of gambling on Australian society.

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  • RELIGION

    When does news become a distraction?

    • Julian Butler
    • 17 June 2024

    There's a fine line between consuming news as a numbing distraction, and engaging with news that reminds me of human community. Even with the best of intentions to be informed and engaged, too often I find myself if not despairing, then at least lost in the volume. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Hanging in with refugees

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 17 June 2024

    Like all other persons, refugees  cannot be defined in numbers. Nor can they be defined by their condition as refugees. They are human beings like us who belong to families, their hearts are free, and they long for the freedom to live human lives, to work and follow their dreams.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What does the Cass Report mean for gender medicine in Australia?

    • Andrew Amos
    • 14 June 2024

    The response to the Cass Review by gender medicine specialists and medical authorities in Australia has been deafening silence. Regardless of your position on gender-affirming care, it is unconscionable to stand in the way of a review that would allow for systemic problems to be addressed.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The fraught search for identity

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 13 June 2024

    The wonder of Khin Myint's Fragile Creature: A Memoir lies in his calm and magnanimous reflection on his experiences and in his attempt to understand those who treated him poorly. It also provides a lens for reflecting on the dynamic at work in public debates that touch identity.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Justice and Hope

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 07 June 2024

    Raimond Gaita insists that there is something precious in each human being. He does not rest this conviction on a particular religious or philosophical grounding. It flows, rather, from a rich reading of human possibilities and questioning of the meaning of life.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Raining on Environment Day

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 05 June 2024

    Days like World Environment Day aim to combat apathy, urging action against the grim realities of climate change. Despite dire headlines, there are grounds for hope, if not for optimism. Any change in environment for the better must be grounded in a change of heart.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Are boot camps a solution or a symptom?

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 03 June 2024

    Children should certainly be protected from many experiences that they might enter more safely as adults. But should we not also ask if adults should also be shared these harmful experiences? If social media, nicotine and alcohol are harmful to children, should they be allowed for anyone? 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Neither seen nor heard

    • John Falzon
    • 30 May 2024

    In a signature essay published last year in The Monthly, Treasurer Chalmers staked out an ideological terrain he described as ‘values-based capitalism.’ The Budget 2024 is quite the big reveal on what those values include and who they exclude. In it, the people who have borne the brunt of inequality and precarity are neither seen nor heard. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sorry Days for reconciliation

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 30 May 2024

    This Reconciliation Week and Sorry Day, we consider the defeat of the Referendum and the substantial failure to close the gap between the living conditions of Indigenous Australians and other Australians. It means that for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, this week will be less about days of celebration than of grief and of grim resolve to continue to seek justice.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope against the machine

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 23 May 2024

    When Pope Francis delivered a message for the World Day of Social Communications, he focused on AI. The pope posed a wide range of questions including how to regulate its development and use in order to avoid the manipulation of truth and the inevitable centralisation of wealth and power.

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