Search Results
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How have we come to this? “Othering” is humanity’s original sin
“Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think.” Hannah Arendt Continue reading »
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Voice to Parliament: An Australian test of character
Will Australia today say Yes and agree to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice? Or will we reject the request made to us by representatives of First Nations communities in the Uluru Statement from the Heart? Continue reading »
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Our Central Land Council “overwhelmingly asks you to vote YES”
“For over half a century the Central Land Council has fought for the voices of Aboriginal people from the heart of our nation to be heard. Our 90-member Council overwhelmingly asks you to vote YES, because we know that when decision-makers listen to our voices we end up with policies that help us, not harm Continue reading »
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From our readers: Labor needs the right leaders
In letters to the editor: the case for Tanya Plibersek as Labor deputy leader, the dishonesty of our Parliament, and the climate crisis. Continue reading »
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From our readers: Can independent MPs save our system?
In letters to the editor this week, the case for more independent MPs, Gladys Berejiklian at ICAC, and generational conflict. Continue reading »
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From our readers: The moral issue of Palestine ‘settlements’
In our letters to the editor this week: NSW Labor’s support for a controversial definition of “anti-Semitism”, Scott Morrison’s sales pitch, negative gearing and action on climate change. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Communication in a time of crisis
“Isolation” is also a crisis of communication for us as social beings. And an opportunity to consider with fresh interest how we can more thoughtfully support others – receiving with grace and gratitude what they may have to give. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Doing more in a time of less
The losses in this time of COVID19 crisis are very real. Loss of life is worst beyond comparison. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. It’s indifference to poverty – not refugees – that profoundly affects our “security”
We have a government led by a former Minister for Immigration that’s obsessed with playing power games around the idea of security: who has it, who threatens it, and – most especially – who should define and control it. But while those games grind on, true “insecurity” is being lived daily by hundreds of thousands Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Powerful men vs. Powerless Children: A worse than unequal “battle”
As I write this, from the safety of my inner-city home, two little Australian-born girls are held on Christmas Island with their Sri Lankan-born parents, desperately awaiting some flicker of insight, common sense, common decency, act of mercy that’s most unlikely to come. Continue reading »
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Are “moderates” failing to keep us safe?
Could it be “moderates” – through lack of vigilance, or is it apathy? – who most threaten our safety and existence? Yes, this seems a ridiculous, even immoderate assertion. But let’s think about it. The US, the UK and Australia are currently “led” – though there’s precious little leading – by men unembarrassed to flaunt Continue reading »
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Speaking out loud for the silenced
Scott M. has a new group of faves. It used to be that “hard working Australians” were top of his pops, along with those who benefit from the hard work of others through tax, negative gearing,“canny investments” and superannuation perks. They are still cherished and protected but even closer to Mr Morrison’s heart are “Quiet Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. What should we do?
In the few days since Election 2019, each time I have walked down the main street of my Sydney suburb I have been stopped by people asking me, “What should we do?” I wish I could give one simple answer. I cannot. But two things about the question bring hope. First is the use of Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Election lies we cannot afford
The choice that citizens – not mere “voters” – will exercise on Saturday is primarily between socially beneficial policies, a gender-equal leadership team, a leader who can pause, listen and think – up against a leader weirdly bereft of team or original thought, but ample in promises of yet more protections for corporate and Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Selling a PM – or just trashing the alternative
With only days to go, it’s clear the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is running his campaign not just as a Lone Ranger but as a Marketing Man. Despite his striking lack of past success (“Where the bloody hell are you?”) and the core fallacy that we are yet “Back in the Black” (slogan and image Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. More death than life in the Christian (and secular) Right.
There are many theories as to why the so-called “centre” in Australian politics has moved so far to the right that even moderately progressive views are shrieked at as “dangerous”. There are probably fewer theories as to how and why the radical, genuinely anti-authoritarian teachings of Jesus Christ have been successfully kidnapped and hung out Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. After al-Noor, a new sense of “neighbour” is needed.
There’s a simple, eloquent community song written by parish priest and musician Father Kevin Bates SM that begins with a sacred invitation: “Come and sit at my table. Though you have no money, come! Come and sit at my table and make yourself at home.” It goes on to ask, “Are you lonely or fearful? Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. We owe the dead and grieving insight and action as well as unlimited sorrow
The first response of most to the catastrophic tragedy in Christchurch is unlimited sorrow for all those directly and indirectly affected, but most especially for those whose lives have been ended or shattered. “Noor” means light in Arabic. Most of those slaughtered were at al-Noor, the “Mosque of the Light”. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. The LNP have far more than a “women problem”
The “broad church” messaging from the Liberal Party is self-evidently in disarray. The Member for Cook’s eagerness to spend a little shy of $7m on a re-enactment of the Captain Cook circumnavigation-that-never-was may be his major gaffe this past week. Or that dubious prize may go to his choice of newly-hatched Liberal, ex Labor President, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. The Best of 2018: Issues of Integrity, Not Sex.
The story of a middle-aged husband and father talking up the “failure” of his marriage to justify his relationship with a much younger and previously childless woman is too clichéd to have much drama. The effect of this on the abandoned wife and, in this case, four daughters, would of course make for a story Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Glad tidings of great welcome
Among the most affecting, timeless stories known to us is that of a heavily pregnant, very young Jewish woman, barely more than a girl, making her way towards a town called Bethlehem, in an area of the Middle East then called Judea. She was accompanied by her husband, Joseph, although, as the story tells us, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Facts flung overboard on refugee health – and our nation’s.
Thursday 6 December was the final sitting day of the Australian Parliament for 2018 and one of only 10 sitting days between now and next May when an election is expected. It was a day to get things moving. Yet far more was undone than done, and not just for the asylum seekers and refugees Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK: Free the suffering children on Nauru – now.
Most readers of “Pearls and Irritations” will be at least somewhat sympathetic to the plight (what an inadequate word) of the refugee families on Nauru. You won’t need me to remind you that those families sought asylum because they were fleeing violence, war, death. You won’t either need me to remind you that they have Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Exposing the myths of “border protection” we will see the refugees as real people; and act accordingly.
On Thursday morning of the Liberals’ week of mayhem, facing front benches empty of ministers and with the day’s sitting of Parliament about to be shut down, ALP leader Bill Shorten said: “The purpose of government is to uplift the nation’s vision”. He’s right. We all know that he’s right. But vision takes courage. And Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Turnbull’s dead albatross: the National Party –Repost from 21 February 2018
Barnaby Joyce’s downfall has exposed the National Party as an outfit more concerned with dealing with corporate rent-seekers than with attending to the interests of its traditional rural base. It has also exposed Turnbull’s lack of resolve in dealing with deep fissures in the political alliance between the Liberals and the Nationals. Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Do we have a problem with refugees – or war?
In scrambling for solutions to the “refugee problem”, too few are contemplating the pervasively deadly “war problem” that plagues our global family. The article that follows is one of three I had published in July in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, filling in for regular columnist Elizabeth Farrelly in the Saturday editions. I Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. What is education for?
That quite distinctly beautiful word “education” has its origins in the Latin educare – to draw out or bring forth. But we’re entitled to ask: bring forth and draw towards what? It is well established that the happiest (least discontented, least endangering) people across all cultures are those able to participate actively in their society, Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Would ordaining women save the Catholic Church?
In our 21st century, and even allowing for widespread secularism especially in the West, about 2.2 billion people still call themselves Christian. Of these, about 1.2 billion are Roman Catholic. This number is only slightly smaller than the total number of Muslims (1.3 billion). The overall picture is clear: Catholicism is still a force to Continue reading »
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Taxing questions
The duty of any government to keep its citizens safe is apparently taken very seriously in this nation of ours. It justifies the existence of the largest department over which this government presides and gives Peter Dutton, the Minister for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, unprecedented powers with a seemingly unlimited budget. But Continue reading »
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Issues of Integrity, Not Sex
The story of a middle-aged husband and father talking up the “failure” of his marriage to justify his relationship with a much younger and previously childless woman is too clichéd to have much drama. The effect of this on the abandoned wife and, in this case, four daughters, would of course make for a story Continue reading »