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Gaia Theory – Reflections
on Life on Earth William Grey
Greek mythology gives us the goddess
Gaia, who brought order out of chaos, and the tempestuous
and destructive Medea. These figures provide powerful—and
opposing—metaphors for understanding the history of
life on earth. As ever, how we understand history shapes
how we move forward, and as global temperatures continue
to rise, some tough decisions are needed.
The Case for Liberal
Women Marian Sawer
The Liberal Party of Australia has
eschewed quotas as ‘patronising’ to women. The
effects of this approach seem evident enough in the proportion
of Liberal women in Australian parliaments: currently an
average of 20 per cent, compared with 37 per cent on the
Labor side. If the Liberal Party did more to assist the entry
of more talented women, it might assist in the rebuilding
of the party and its electoral appeal.
Politics is a Messyanic
Business Patrick Brownlee
Australia’s last two prime
ministers Paul Keating and John Howard, were tribal warriors,
perhaps the last of their kind. Both are 1950s suburban Sydney
boys of white Christian background, both were administered
a healthy dose of work ethic by their small business parents,
both had entered parliament by the mid-1970s. They do seem
to have a lot in common …
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Test Cricket: Analogy for
Australian Values, or Tool of Hegemony? Tony Smith (Dec
2009)
Along with the other summer sports of swimming
and tennis, cricket dominates myth production and hero generation
in Australia. And most cricket books reinforce the notion that
beneath the commercial imperatives, the game remains in the ‘fair
go’ tradition that has coincided with Australian values.
Can we read between the lines to find a richer—and more realistic—account
of corporate cricket in the postmodern age?
Gay Marriage: Social Revolution,
Evolution or Largely Insignificant? Jane Edwards (Dec
2009)
However much conservatives insist that marriage
is divinely ordained, it is an institution profoundly moulded by
secular events. The changing position of women, the nature of the
labour market, educational and welfare policy, the state of the
economy and other structural factors will continue to shape marriage
into the future. It is the worst fear of conservatives and a fond
hope of non-heterosexuals that gay marriage might also help re-shape
heterosexual marriage. Both groups are likely to be disappointed …
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SYMPOSIUM: Protecting Human Rights in Australia:
Challenges and Strategies (Nov 2009) |
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The Australian Human
Rights Debate: Where to From Here? Louise Chappell
If Australia is to adopt a bill of
rights, three elements need to be in place: an agreed model,
public support and political support. The National Human
Rights Consultation Committee recently submitted its report
to the Attorney-General. The report clearly demonstrates
that one element can be counted on: public support. The other
two still seem to be some way off …
Freedom of Speech and
a Bill of Rights Katharine Gelber
Freedom of speech is at the apex of
the core freedoms considered to warrant protection in any
mechanism designed to protect human rights. Yet developments
in anti-terrorism laws have demonstrated the fragility of
the protection of freedom of speech in Australia. Changes
to sedition and censorship laws have turned sceptics into
supporters of a bill of rights for this country.
Prisoner Voting Rights Lisa
Hill
Australia is a signatory to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates
that ‘every adult citizen shall have the right to vote
without distinction and regardless of their circumstances’.
Yet Australia flouts this commitment by legally preventing
prisoners from voting. Curiously, the same high standards
for political participation do not apply to legislators themselves …
Human Rights in Australia:
Refugees and Asylum Seekers Graham Thom
Fleeing persecution is a fundamental
human right. Despite the 1951 Refugee Convention explicitly
stating that those arriving undocumented, or ‘illegally’,
should not be penalised for doing so, members of this group
are increasingly being stripped of some of their basic human
rights. Their treatment by successive Australian governments
provides a compelling case for a human rights act.
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Is Australia Losing Its Religion? Michael
Hogan (Nov 2009)
The mainstream secularist argument has it
that the more modern, economically developed and technological
a society becomes, the more religion will fade away. Can the argument
be turned on its head? As we advance into the 21st century, are
formerly materialistic societies like Australia facing a religious
revival of hand-clapping religious enthusiasm from populist movements
like Sydney’s Hillsong?
Is Australia the New Economic
and Social Model for the World? Peter Auer (Nov
2009)
During the global financial crisis, the
Australian economy and labour market have fared well—very
well; better even than Denmark; that darling of the new ‘flexicurity’ model
of growth-with-fairness in the European Union. Has Australia defined
the new way forward? Is it time to cast the Scandinavian model
into the dustbin of history?
Must Try Harder: A Report Card
on Australian Democracy William Bowe (Oct
2009)
The qualities or otherwise of democracy
have been the subject of controversy since ancient Greece. In Australia,
the meaning of the term has been one more battleground in the culture
wars, over which the Howard Government continues to cast a long
shadow. A new book from the Democratic Audit of Australia provides
a systematic evaluation of Australian state and society in a single
volume. What does it find?
‘No One Likes Armed
Missionaries’ Dennis Phillips (Oct
2009)
Who could have predicted that eight years
of George W. Bush’s hapless foreign policy would produce
a crisis of confidence among liberal theorists? Put another
way, did George W. Bush and his neoconservative brains trust so
discredit Wilsonian liberal internationalism that there is nothing
useful left in the grand old idealism for which America’s
28th president, Woodrow Wilson, is justly famous?
Choice, Aspiration and Anxiety
in the New School Markets Julie McLeod (Oct
2009)
At school pick-ups, at homes, in cafés
and at work, worried parents debate the merits of different schools,
share insider knowledge and gossip about school reputations, cultivate
strategies for getting into the ‘right’ school for
their child, and endlessly dissect or defend their decision. The
new school market place is not just changing the topic of conversations;
it is transforming middle-class family life.
Charles and the Women:
Darwinian Psychology Meets the Female Body Paul Griffiths (Sep
2009)
Since its first, confident dawn a hundred
years ago, the conviction that psychology has finally won its long
struggle to attain scientific maturity by embracing Darwinian principles
has recurred several times. Significantly, women have often been
in the front line of the struggle between evolutionary psychologists
and their critics …
Why Copenhagen Doesn't Matter John
Mikler (Sep 2009)
Rather than pinning our hopes on global
solutions, anyone concerned about mitigating climate change should
be hoping that the few big emitters decide to act now, regardless
of discussions at Copenhagen, and regardless of what other countries
decide to do. Otherwise, the inevitable imperative of doing something
will be thrust upon them, and us, in the near future anyway.
Civilising – A Continuing
Australian Project? Tim Rowse (Aug
2009)
It seems to many historians that Australia
was an exception within the story of British colonisation in the
extent to which the native presence here was denied, dismissed
and, subsequently, degraded. And for many, terra nullius has
become the doctrinal summation of Australia’s exceptional,
and distinctly shameful, history. Many, but not all: a new work
uses the conceptual pair ‘civilization’ and ‘savagery’ to
explain relations between the colonisers and colonised in Australia.
Reforming American Elections:
The Problem and a Proposal Peter Brent (Jul
2009)
Election reform is big business in the United
States. Academics meet at conferences to deliver papers explaining
what must be done, while individuals and organisations run blogs
and proselytise in print and on the airways. Yet one suspects that
the American public views electoral reform as they do health reform:
a nice idea perhaps but in practice too much like those socialist
European countries …
A Quiet Revolution: City Governments
Tackle Global Warming Stephen Jones (Jul
2009)
While Australia’s federal and state
leaders have been stuck discussing the introduction of the emissions
trading scheme, some of our local governments have been trying
to do something about the impact of human activity on global warming.
But will climate change policies developed by city governments
be worthwhile? Or will it be negated by the actions—or inactions—of
the other levels of government?
Misinformed Debate on Public
Funding of Universities Brendan O'Reilly (Jun
2009)
OECD educational expenditure data for Australia
have been at the centre of the debate about what happened to university
funding during the Howard years. Ministers of Education on both
sides of politics, as well as a sitting Prime Minister, have provided
Parliament with clearly misleading interpretations of these statistics,
including claims that they are flawed. Is there something wrong
with OECD statistics?
Mortality and the Contradiction
of Modernity Kim Atkins (Jun 2009)
Human destiny will be determined by how
we respond to our mortality, not by technology or television or
dieting, still less the caprices of gods or demons. Instead of
looking to the stars for the meaning of life, we need to look much
closer to home: to our spotty, ageing bodies and to our flawed
and funny minds.
Better Work? Low Pay, Trade
Unions and Regulation Tim Ayres (May
2009)
There were many parallels between the Australian
union movement’s Your Rights At Work campaign in
the lead up to the election of the Rudd Government in 2007 and
the Obama campaign juggernaut in 2008. Both mobilised and engaged
an unprecedented number of campaign workers, donors and activists.
But it’s what happens after the election that counts, for
low paid workers in both countries.
What Would Michael Do? Dennis
Phillips (May 2009)
In Francis Ford Coppola’s film, ‘The
Godfather’, Don Vito Corleone’s sons argue over how
the Corleone dynasty should respond after the Don is wounded in
a ‘hit’ arranged by a rival crime boss. For two heavyweights
of the American foreign policy debate, the ageing and severely
wounded Don represents Cold War American power and his sons approximate
the three schools of thought on American foreign policy. Foreign
policy advice by parable: acute analysis or a cute gimmick?
‘We call them pirates
out here’, and in Mt Druitt Tony Smith (May
2009)
It has always been risky for academics to
study Indigenous issues. These risks increased when the so-called
culture and history wars intensified during the late 1990s and
early 2000s. There are encouraging signs, however, that scholars
are approaching the field with renewed confidence that their work
can make important contributions to historical knowledge and cross-cultural
understanding.
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