Moral imperative to act on indigenous despair

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The debate over whether the government should say 'sorry' to indigenous people is again going through its cycles, and again without much interest from the federal government in apologising for past wrongs. State premiers have, of course, managed to utter the word, but prime ministers have remained silent.

Of course a simple apology is tokenistic and ( Read more... )

I pity our rural towns. For years, many of them, especially the smaller ones, have had to battle severe economic and social hardships. Now a lot of them are facing uncertain futures and painfully difficult choices when it comes to using their dwindling water supplies. Crops or animals? Farms or mines? Economic activity or human sustenance? I do not ( Read more... )

First we had expensive, ubiquitous ads on television hailing the new world of WorkChoices and the benefits it would bring; political self-promotion masquerading as a public information campaign. Then we had the counter-attack by the union movement, emotively depicting stressed workers and encouraging the masses to rise up in defence of "Your rights ( Read more... )

The proposal to expand Penrith Lakes by flooding the Castlereagh Quarries with water diverted from the stressed Nepean river, building thousands of new dwellings, ignoring the local council and letting the whole thing be done by private developers reads like a recipe for disaster.

This scheme will have enormous environmental implications (probably ( Read more... )

Gavin Robinson and Jonathan Whybird (Oz Letters) note that economic theory has been neglected in the current debate over Work Choices, yet their attempts to rectify this are woefully misleading.

Robinson claims that Work Choices has been around long enough to show that our current prosperity is a result of it. This is confusing correlation and ( Read more... )

The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, held on Saturday night, is an event that helps define the city. It brings an estimated $46 million into the economy each year. This year, there were a record 8,000 parade participants and an estimated 300,000 spectators.

Apart from the crowds and road closures (which make getting in the harbour city even harder ( Read more... )

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,2372284,00.html?maca=en-bulletin-433-html

Estonia was part of the Soviet Union up until 1991. If they can do online voting, why can't we?

Elizabeth Farrelly gave a clear, level-headedly eloquent critique of mainstream political responses to climate change and the drought. “We pursue power that guzzles water and water that guzzles power, all of it profiting government,” and our pollies just don’t get it. The point of being green is to allow us to prosper sustainably. The aim should be ( Read more... )

It is disappointing that labour migration is so misunderstood and maligned in Western societies, especially Australia. The globalisation of goods has given us more things to choose from, cheaper prices and higher real incomes. Labour migration, when administered sensibly, can achieve further gains in these areas. Migrants add to overall demand as ( Read more... )