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Keywords: Liberty

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Friendship in freefall: Unpacking a crisis of civic disconnection

    • David Halliday
    • 13 December 2024

    In 2024, a fifth of Americans reported having no close friends, and the number is growing, especially among those without college degrees. So what are the societal structures behind this crisis in loneliness, and how we can rebuild meaningful connections?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tom Hughes, legend of Australian politics and law, farewelled

    • Peter Craven
    • 05 December 2024

    Tom Hughes, who passed away at 101, was a towering figure in Australia’s legal and political history. A barrister of dazzling skill, an Attorney-General with a penchant for reform, and a man of unshakable conviction, Hughes combined wit, charm, and grit to shape justice and inspire a legacy beyond party lines.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Disclaimer in a streamer world

    • Peter Craven
    • 15 November 2024

    Starring Cate Blanchett at the height of her powers, Disclaimer, the new streamer by Alfonso Cuarón, has already been dubbed the finest thing ever made for the new television, with the director claiming not to have made a serial, but a continuous film. 

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  • CARTOON

    Lost lighter

    • Glen Le Lievre
    • 13 November 2024
    1 Comment

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Race Mathews: A Life in Politics

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 08 November 2024
    1 Comment

      The story of Race Mathews’ career will be an antidote to despair about politics and politicians. It underlines the possibilities of politics, showing how it can be more than a job or a career. It can be a calling to imagine a more just society and ways of building it.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Long-term detention, curfews and ankle bracelets for asylum seekers under the rule of law

    • Frank Brennan
    • 08 November 2024
    7 Comments

    Last week, Australia’s High Court blocked government restrictions on non-citizens with criminal records. As Parliament scrambles to impose new restrictions, Chief Justice Stephen Gageler’s court remains steadfast against policies deemed discriminatory and excessively punitive.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The contours of exile: The poetry of Derek Walcott

    • Peter Steele
    • 29 August 2024
    1 Comment

      Good poetry stops us in our tracks, visited as we are by whatever it is that has stopped the poet in his tracks. This agency may properly be, as in Walcott's case, something stemming from cultural marginality, from a fascination with the dramatic, from an equipoise between the lyrical and the epical, or from the interweaving of all these. (From the Eureka Street archives)

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The two American freedoms

    • Sarah Klenbort
    • 21 August 2024
    2 Comments

    For a nation ‘conceived in liberty’, much of how this U.S. election will play out will hinge on different understandings of the word ‘freedom’, a term that has two distinct and separate meanings depending on whether the person you’re asking votes red or blue.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    In search of lost liberalism

    • Russell Blackford
    • 09 August 2024
    2 Comments

    Once the backbone of Western democracy, the philosophy championing free speech, tolerance, and civil political discourse is often reviled by those on both the Left and Right. In our desire for justice and meaning, is there a need to rediscover the principles that have long fostered human flourishing? 

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  • RELIGION

    Is another Catholic school shutdown on the horizon?

    • John Warhurst
    • 03 July 2024
    8 Comments

    In 1962, Goulburn was the centre of national attention when Catholic schools closed in protest over a lack of government funding and control. Students overwhelmed public schools. Could this happen again? An Australian archbishop suggests it as an option if religious freedom in Catholic schools is threatened.

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  • RELIGION

    Everyone agrees we should protect the vulnerable, but who exactly are they?

    • Justin Glyn
    • 03 July 2024
    3 Comments

    None of us — even those experiencing vulnerability, whether temporary or resulting from a permanent infirmity of some kind — should be perceived as an object of protection; instead, each one of us is a collaborator in our own care, and in the care of others.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Under pressure from High Court and Dutton, government rushes immigration bill

    • Frank Brennan
    • 13 May 2024
    2 Comments

    The Albanese government’s refugee and asylum policy is in a mess. When Minister Giles introduced his Migration Amendment Bill, they bypassed typical parliamentary procedures, wanting to be seen as tougher than Peter Dutton in getting unvisaed non-citizens out of the country. It’s time for the government to return to due process in this whole field. 

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