It is broadly correct to say 1200 asylum seekers died at sea under Labor. Globally and in our region, however, more asylum seekers than ever are leaving their country by boat.
In his State of the Union address, the President’s core message was that the US has emerged strong from the twin crises caused by the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 global recession. And the challenge…
Giving a gift is a complex transaction. So what makes a gift good?
MattysFlicks/Flickr
The anxiety attached to gift giving is worth considering. The Christian commemoration of Christmas is about celebrating God’s ultimate gift, his only son. Such an exceptional gift reaches its destiny in…
Sharon Stone, in Basic Instinct, dramatised the catastrophic actions of a clever yet unhinged woman.
EPA/ Peter Foley
Mental illness and women’s sexuality are frequently aligned – on screen and off. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, pathologised women’s sexuality. Indeed his definition of a woman as someone…
A number of high-profile cases have put for-profit higher education in the US under the spotlight in recent months. In July, Corinithian Colleges, one of the largest for-profit providers in the country…
Regional tours such as Opera Australia’s cross-country circuit with The Magic Flute deliver real benefits to the communities they visit.
Albert Comper, Opera Australia
Since July, Mozart’s popular opera, The Magic Flute, has been touring regional Australia. The Opera Australia production, a version of Mozart’s classic reinvented by Australian playwright Michael Gow and…
The United Nations Security Council’s primary responsibility is maintaining international peace and security – a task aided by the veto power.
Francois Proulx/Flickr
Recent events in Gaza and Ukraine and the ongoing gridlock in Syria have dominated newspapers and airwaves – and debate in the United Nations Security Council. Despite UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon…
All serious writers should take their own work, and the efforts of others, seriously.
photosteve101
There should be no hard and fast rules concerning book reviewing. That’s because reviewing constitutes a worthy genre in its own right, one that should not be limited by guidelines or mandates. Criticism…
A deeply moving novel about loss, grief and an unconventional coming of wisdom.
yaruman5
Randolph Stow’s To the Islands (1958) is an astonishing novel, a work of poetic skill and political subtlety – and one that is rarely mentioned today. Its omission from Australian literary syllabuses and…
A Guantanamo Bay detainee.
US Department of Defense
Nearly three and a half years ago, and to much fanfare, David Cameron launched a judge-led inquiry into British involvement in disappearance, rendition and torture. This week, he has finally published…
It’s uncertain what effect Indonesia’s downgrading of diplomatic and military relations will have on Australia’s asylum seeker policies.
EPA/Tubagus
Australian-Indonesian military relations have been downgraded in recent days following Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s decision to reduce military co-operation until he receives an explanation…
In 2010, the European Ombudsman ruled that the European Medicines Agency should open access to clinical trials data when companies applied to get their drugs on the market. The ombudsman decided public…
Does the complexity of nuclear reactors mean they will never be safe?
EPA/TEPCO
Last week’s crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan saw radioactive water leak again from the crippled facility, raising fears that groundwater flowing into the Pacific Ocean could be contaminated…
A man in the second group of asylum seekers transferred to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island calls out to journalists, 2 August 2013.
“We want to end the tick and flick approach of this [Labor] government that has seen nine out of 10 people found to be refugees when that doesn’t match what we are seeing in other places around the world…
The regional refugee compact would focus the attention away from border protection and towards refugee needs and service provision.
Image from shutterstock.com
The Australia-PNG regional resettlement arrangement and the “no advantage” policy are based on the incorrect assumption that asylum seekers come to Australia because it’s an “easy” entry point into the…
Children at the asylum seeker camp on Nauru in 2003.
“The truth about the Pacific Solution is that 70%, thereabouts, of those people sent by Mr Howard to Nauru and elsewhere as part of the Pacific Solution, used it as a [way] station and within a couple…
“More than 1000 asylum seekers have perished at sea since Labor relaxed its policies in 2008 - a move it now concedes was a mistake.” - The Australian, 18 July. Asylum seekers drowning on their way to…