Human Rights
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GEORGE BROWNING. Domestic Violence
Last week we were confronted with domestic violence in the most tragic of circumstances as a NSW father became the brutal killer of his two teenage children. Most Australians will have found this news inexplicable. How could a father submerge natural feelings of paternal care and responsibility in an ocean of anger and bitterness to Continue reading »
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ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. A Rose by Any Other Name: Reflections on the future of race discrimination and vilification in Australia
In a penultimate spate of inter-personal hostility between the current Race Discrimination Commissioner and his opponents in government and the media, the future of a Commissioner (RDC) and the enabling Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) have been flagged by Attorney General Porter as being high on his “to do” list. Continue reading »
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JONATHAN FREEDLAND. Inspired by Trump, the world could be heading back to the 1930s.
The US president tears children from parents, and in Europe his imitators dehumanise migrants. We know where such hatred leads. Continue reading »
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ANDREW LEIGH. Rising to the challenge of inequality.
Thomas Piketty and his colleagues have used new data to track inequality and sharpen the choices we face. Continue reading »
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ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. A peace treaty to end the low-intensity guerilla campaign against the indigenous population.
Australia is a nation and a state established on grounds belonging to Indigenous owners, through a war which has never ended. Continue reading »
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ANDREW HAMILTON. Triggs champions common compassion (Eureka Street 12/6/2018)
Common compassion is an aspiration more widely praised as a gift of Western Civilisation than accepted and practiced. But once government trash it with impunity we are all the losers. Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s Government must guard against foreign interference, but not by curbing our rights.
Authoritarian governments around the world use broadly drafted national security laws to silence human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, and critics of the government. Australia should not join them by passing a revised espionage and foreign interference law that excludes safeguards for legitimate disclosures in the public interest. Continue reading »
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KARL HOWARD. The importance of community .
Communities are a fundamental requirement for the human condition; they consist of a group of people with shared interests, similar attitudes – often with aligned social values -resulting in delegated responsibilities. A community is a product of independent actors joining together, operating in a specific habitat, whether a neighbourhood, a gym, a workplace, or a Continue reading »
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JOAN STAPLES. Foreign interference bills threaten civil society freedoms.
The government’s urgent pursuit of foreign interference bills prior to the July by-elections aims to wedge Labor for short term electoral gain. However as Labor agrees to support the bills, yet more of our political freedoms are being destroyed at great loss to our democracy. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL McKINLEY. A possible deep-seated flaw in the ADF’s third inquiry into allegations of misconduct and war crimes.
The allegations against rogue elements within the Special Air Service Regiment are, sadly, almost predictable: other, similar units in the military traditions of both Britain and the United States have succumbed to such behaviour in similar circumstances as those faced in Afghanistan. Indeed, they constitute a virtual template for the decline in discipline which is Continue reading »
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MIKE WALLER. Welcome to the Panopticon: time for an Australian bill of rights?
Panopticon: a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed (Jeremy Bentham). Mr Turnbull has told Neil Mitchell security and police will be given extra power to conduct random checks at airports. Neil: “That’s a big step”. PM: “It is”. Neil: “Why do we Continue reading »
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KIERAN TAPSELL. The ball is in Pope Francis’s court over the culture of cover-up.
Pope Francis’ letter to the people of Chile over child sexual abuse in that country and its cover-up would suggest that he might have read the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Instead of blaming the “bad apples” amongst the bishops for the cover-up, he acknowledges for the Continue reading »
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BIJAY KUMAR MINJ. Modi’s four years ‘have weakened India’s tolerance’.
India Inclusive event hears that attacks against minorities have increased since the BJP came to power Continue reading »
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ROBYN WHITAKER. Christians in Australia are not persecuted, and it is insulting to argue they are.
As Australians wait to hear the government’s response to the Ruddock review of religious freedom (and indeed, the content of the report itself), it is worth considering exactly how the two intersect in this largely secular society. Australia has neither a bill nor charter of rights, leaving us with complex and diverse laws governing these Continue reading »
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PANKAJ MISHRA. A Gandhian Stand Against the Culture of Cruelty
The bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991, blew his face off. India’s former prime minister, and scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, was identified by his sneakers as he lay spread-eagled on the ground. Some Indian newspapers, refusing dignity to the dead and his survivors, published a picture of Gandhi’s half-dismembered body. I Continue reading »
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URI AVNERY. The Day of Shame
ON BLOODY MONDAY this past week, when the number of Palestinian killed and wounded was rising by the hour, I asked myself: what would I have done if I had been a youngster of 15 in the Gaza Strip? Continue reading »
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ELAINE PEARSON. Australia’s lame response to Anwar Ibrahim’s detention was a mistake
The region looks to Australia as a functioning democracy. We shouldn’t sideline human rights issues for trade and security ties. Continue reading »
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TSEEN KHOO. What Anzac Day meant for Asian Australians.
This year, just before ANZAC Day, I read a poignant, insightful piece by Nadine Chemali about what new migrants to Australia really thought about Anzac Day. Continue reading »
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RICHARD ACKLAND. Peter Dutton’s power grabs may yet be his undoing
The fate of Amber Rudd offers some hope to Australians who disapprove of Dutton and his methods. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL KEATING AND JON STANFORD. Australia’s strategic risks and future defence policy; Part 2: Future defence strategy, capability and submarines
In this second article we discuss the need to develop a defence strategy that involves shifting from a force structure designed for coalition warfare to one optimised for the independent defence of Australia. We focus on the requirement for new submarines, given that these are the assets best suited for the prosecution of asymmetric warfare Continue reading »
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SUSANNE ROBERTS. Hugh Mackay reimagines a more compassionate Australia (Book Review)
Esteemed social researcher Hugh Mackay’s latest book Australia Reimagined: Towards a more compassionate, less anxious society is exquisitely timed. As the daily headlines tell of bank and church scandals and failures in the health, education and housing systems, many of us are asking what went wrong and are increasingly preoccupied with searching for solutions. We Continue reading »
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MARGARET O’CONNOR. Institutional reform following the Royal Commission on child sex abuse is women’s work.
Women – from those who quietly brought pressure on parliamentarians through to the Prime Minister and Governor General – brought about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Yet the response to the Commission is being handled as if it is all blokes’ business. Continue reading »
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RICHARD FLANAGAN. Freedom means Australia facing up to the truth of its past. (Part 2 of 2)
We should, of course, question these things more. We could ask why – if we were actually genuine about remembering patriots who have died for this country – why would we not first spend $100m on a museum honouring the at least 65,000 estimated Indigenous dead who so tragically lost their lives defending their country Continue reading »
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RICHARD FLANAGAN. Australians in WWI didn’t die for Australia. They died for Britain. (Part 1 of 2)
And so, the Monash Centre, for all its good intentions, for all the honour it does the dead, is at heart a centre for forgetting. It leads us to forget that the 62,000 young men who died in world war one died far from their country in service of one distant empire fighting other distant Continue reading »
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GARRY EVERETT. Importance of seeing the ‘big picture’.
Failing to see or accept the big picture is a condition that is currently affecting many organisations in our world, says Garry Everett, and four particular organisations stand out as having significant problems in this regard. Continue reading »
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TIM SOUTPHOMMASANE. Australian business and other organisations persistently fall short on cultural diversity.
Australia is widely celebrated as a multicultural triumph, but any such success remains incomplete. There remains significant under-representation of cultural diversity in the senior leadership of Australian organisations. Our society does not yet appear to be making the most of its diverse talents. Continue reading »
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JIM COOMBS: The “moral crisis” in Cricket is a “beat up” with media frenzy making a mountain out of a molehill.
One would have to assume that all these outraged commentators have never played cricket with anything more substantial than a used tennis ball. For those of us who have played the game with any interest in the techniques and science of the game (alas, I am one such eccentric) know the true facts. The ball Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LIFFMAN. Tribalism, anti-racism, and over-reach
Living, as the world does, with slavery, colonialism, brutal civil conflicts, and the Holocaust still casting the blackest of clouds over us, the principle of ‘anti-racism’ has – rightly – been developed to become an incontestable foundation of our ethics and morality. This is as it should be, and arguably can be seen as one Continue reading »
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SUSAN RYAN. Homelessness, Australia’s disgrace ignored.
The last few days have seen a media preoccupation with relentless attacks on a new federal Labor proposal to eliminate the payment of cash cheques to those who don’t need their dividend imputation credits because they pay no tax. The media has channelled expressions of shock and rage, and accusations of robbery, from Coalition politicians Continue reading »
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JOAN STAPLES. Bill weak on stopping foreign donations, but strong on silencing NGOs.
The current Bill before parliament to reform electoral donations is the most comprehensive attempt I have seen at silencing public advocacy in 30 years. It does not succeed in its supposed aim to restrict foreign donations – an aim that is supported by NGOs. Instead, it is a convoluted, excruciatingly complicated maze that will undoubtedly Continue reading »