Human Rights
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Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis supports social revolution among the Zapatistas in Mexico
The western media largely missed the significance of Pope Francis’s visit to the ‘Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas’ in the south of Mexico on the border with Guatemala in February 2016. He not only reiterated the message he bore elsewhere in Mexico, about the Church’s support for a social and cultural revolution in favour Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. Disability support services – effectiveness and efficiency.
Let me be frank. There are many stringencies that have to be faced in the provision of disability support services. We all know this whether we are recipients of in-home one-on-one support, residents, workers or management of disability support services, or even as officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). We all Continue reading »
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Kieran Tapsell. Cardinal Pell and the Church’s “Omerta”
Cardinal George Pell must now be regretting not having come back to Australia to give his evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the relatively small town of Ballarat in the State of Victoria. By claiming that his medical condition did not allow him to travel, and offering Continue reading »
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Terry Laidler. To Michael Pezzullo, Secretary, Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Dear Mr Pezzullo, Starting to get through to you, is it? Great! Forget your law of the land, let alone your direction of the government of the day drivel — neither of these is some sort of absolute that lets you suspend all moral judgment! For, make no mistake about it: the actions of you Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Our humanitarian program.
Some issues have no place in partisan politics, they may be topics that are politically charged, but they are not ideological battlegrounds – they are about the personal and the human. Our stance on refugees and on protection is such an issue. It is an area that has been supported by the left and the Continue reading »
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Measuring the misery of those forced to flee.
Robert Shiller, a 2013 Nobel Laureate in Economics says ‘Under today’s haphazard and archaic asylum rules, refugees must take enormous risks to reach safety and the costs and benefits of helping them are distributed capriciously . It does not have to be this way. Economists can help by testing which international rules and institutions are Continue reading »
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Spencer Zifcak. Special Envoy on Human Rights. Ruddock. What?
In 2003, I wrote a short book entitled Mr Ruddock Goes to Geneva. The book was not as superficial as its title might have suggested. It was in fact a serious study of Australia’s vexed relationship with the UN Human Rights Treaty System. My argument was that the Howard Government should have given the recommendations Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. Neoliberalism and its Perceptions
Politics has changed so much over the years; our political climate is unstable, since 2007 we have had five different prime ministers. A person in my position would ask how does this affect people with severe physical disabilities? Neoliberalism has its aim to put into question all collective structures capable of obstructing the logic of Continue reading »
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The things that must be done…
Some Genuine Decision-Making Power: Dealing with the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the prison system This is an extract from the 2016 Frank Walker Memorial Lecture delivered by the Hon. Bob Debus AM on 16 February 2016. The Hon. Frank Walker QC was NSW Attorney General from 1976 to 1983. He later became a Federal Continue reading »
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Jim Bowler. Mungo Man needs help – to come home
It’s time for funds and a plan to preserve and commemorate this visitor from Ancient Australia, writesJim Bowler, the geologist who discovered Mungo Man’s remains. Forty-two years ago, on 26 February 1974, I first encountered the remains of Mungo Man eroding out of the desiccated shores of Lake Mungo. He had been ritually buried over Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. The Taxpayer’s Liability for Long Term Detention on Nauru (and Manus Island)
As the Commonwealth Government contemplates what to do with the Bangladeshi woman in the recent High Court asylum case and her baby born in Australia, it will be relevant to consider the possible civil liability of the Commonwealth for its participation in her detention on Nauru for six months at a time when the Commonwealth Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The collapse of the Malaysian Arrangement has led to the depravity of Manus and Nauru.
Having done its best in Opposition to wreck the Malaysian Arrangement in 2011, the Turnbull government is now seeking the help of Malaysia over detainees in Manus and Nauru. For political cynicism, this is hard to beat. In May 2011, the Australian and Malaysian governments announced an ‘in principle’ arrangement that up to 800 boat Continue reading »
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Ian McPhee. Let’s talk about dying.
What does it mean to die well? We must acknowledge divergent views on assisted dying and start framing laws that will enable it, writes Ian McPhee. I am a medical specialist with advanced cancer. In a career begun more than 35 years ago, I have seen death in all its guises: in homes, at the Continue reading »
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Culture and Religion, Defence and Security, Human Rights, Politics, Religion and Faith, World Affairs
John Tulloh. Middle East: The Arab Spring becomes the Arab Winter.
‘Arabs have rarely lived in bleaker times’. The Economist. An impoverished Arab would have been been flabbergasted at the consequences of his single, desperate protest five years ago. It precipitated the ousting of his country’s ruler and two other Arab leaders, the greatest upheaval and carnage of this century in one country, protests in others, Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Supporting Adam Goodes.
This blog is a repost from 1 August 2015. Adam Goodes has been bullied and vilified because he has reminded us of our dark history and the discrimination that continues against him and many others in Australia today. We don’t like being reminded of the dispossession, killing, poisoning and discrimination against our own indigenous people. Continue reading »
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What do we owe each other?
In this opinion piece from the New York Times, Aaron James Wendland draws on work by Emmanuel Levinas in response to the surge of refugees around the world and particularly into Europe. Levinas describes the allergic reaction to refugees. In response he suggests three things. First, an appeal to the ‘infinity’ in human beings, that Continue reading »
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How ‘Crazy’ are the North Koreans?
Joel S. Wit writes about how the North Koreans have played their cards extremely well despite the appalling nature of their regime. See link to an article in the New York Times, by Joel S. Wit, who is a Senior Fellow of the US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins University. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/how-crazy-are-the-north-koreans.html Continue reading »
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Vale Malcolm Fraser
Repost from 21/03/2015 I am sure that Malcolm Fraser’s concerns for human rights were always there. But as he grew and matured, that concern flourished and became obvious to all. He became our moral compass on human rights. I was first conscious of Malcolm’s concern for human rights when I listened to his speech in Continue reading »
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Bob Kinnaird. Foreign worker exploitation.
To reduce foreign worker exploitation, enforce employer sanctions laws 2015 produced a never-ending stream of stories of exploited foreign workers on all kinds of temporary visas. They include overseas students, working holiday and 457 ‘skilled’ visa-holders. Nearly all temporary visas and some permanent residence visas are implicated. A Senate committee on Australia’s temporary work visa Continue reading »
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Kim Oates. Don’t forget children when talking about domestic violence
Children are victims of domestic violence too. Last week the Children’s Commissioner released this year’s children’s rights report. It provided new data about the prevalence of child physical and sexual abuse and their links with domestic violence. Christmas, traditionally a time of peace and goodwill is sadly, a time of increased domestic violence, thought to be Continue reading »
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ISIL is really a revolt by young Muslims against their parents’ generation.
In Quartz on 7 December 2015, Australian journalist, Emma-Kate Symons, shines a particular light on young Muslim terrorists. She argues that ISIL is really a revolt by young Muslims against their parents’ generation. We have seen that many times on numerous issues – younger people who reject the values and materialism of earlier generations. See Continue reading »
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Frank Brennan SJ. Free speech and the plebiscite on same sex marriage
Chris Puplick, a former senator and former president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, is one of a rising chorus expressing strong objections to the Australian Catholic bishops daring to evangelise and speak publicly about their views on same sex marriage. Writing in The Australian on 5 December 2015, Puplick asserts: ‘When a person or group of Continue reading »
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Spencer Zifcak. Co-opting the Judiciary: Counter-Terrorism Laws at Work
Regrettably, one matter that has drifted to the sidelines in Australian debates about the operation of counter-terrorism laws is that these laws consistently marginalise and undermine the role of the judiciary. Judicial power, and hence the rule of law, is being incrementally distorted and diminished. Counter-terrorism law continues to burst from the executive and the Continue reading »
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Andrew Ailes. Does Charity Begin At Home?
Christmas comes but once a year, When in the northern hemisphere, The cold winds blow, the sun goes down, Now every day some children drown. The Christmas story’s full of hope, Yet life and death hang by a rope. It’s not the sword of Damocles, It’s shipwreck in the angry seas. The icy waves show Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. The standardisation of services for people with disabilities.
WHAT IS MEANT BY EFFICIENCY IN THE PROVISION OF SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES? IS IT JUST A COVER FOR GREATER STANDARDISATION? The State Disability Plan is not the only endorsement of the need to emphasize the individualising of care for people with disabilities. We now hear of a profound development – person-centred planning is Continue reading »
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Spencer Zifcak. UN Human Rights Council Weighs in on Australia
On 21st of March 2000, an Australian delegation appeared before the UN Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Geneva. The Hon Philip Ruddock, then Minister for Immigration in the Howard Government, led the delegation. The meeting did not go well. Confronted by exceptionally well-informed and assertive questioning by the Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. Friendship and Service Provision Ethos for People with Disabilities
In this article I want to discuss an aspect of the standardised procedures set by service providers in facilities that serve people with disabilities. More to the point, I am keen to explore how this affects the ethos of service delivery for people with severe or profound physical disabilities within such shared supportive accommodation. Let Continue reading »
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Climate, Economy, Health, Human Rights, Immigration, refugees, Infrastructure, Media, SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security, World Affairs
Michael Keating. The role of government in policy renewal.
In thanking Ross Gittins for launching ‘Freedom, Opportunity and Security’, Mike Keating explains the reasons why he and I decided to launch this series, first online and now in a book. Mike Keating’s book launch notes follow. I will also be posting Ross Gittins’ comments. John Menadue. Thank you Ross Gittins and thanks to you all Continue reading »
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Good Samaritans in Greece
We have been told in Australia that asylum-seekers are so inhuman, that they would even throw their children overboard; that they are all ‘illegals’ and akin to criminals; and that they bring disease and wads of cash. Fortunately, helpers in Greece have taken no notice of this characterisation of asylum seekers. See the link below Continue reading »
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Misha Coleman. Open Letter to Julie Bishop on Sri Lankan war crimes.
8 October 2015. Dear Ms Bishop Thank you for co-sponsoring the UN Human Rights Committee resolution negotiated by the Sri Lankan Government, which will hopefully provide some answers and finality to the mothers of 146,679 missing people, through the establishment of a domestic war crimes panel. You’ll know that these Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian Continue reading »