Recent Articles
Surprises at a workshop on ‘ice’ addiction.
Danusia Kaska. Recently, I attended a training workshop on ice awareness and use, run by 360Edge and funded by the government. Entitled How to respond to people affected by ice, workshop objectives were to explain what ice is, how it affects people, and how we should respond safely and effectively. It also outlined the policies […]
A Mosaic called Ruben?: with Kurt Fearnley in Nairobi.
Anne Doyle. Making mosaics is the art of crafting broken pieces into a work of beauty. In her book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, Terry Tempest Williams writes: ‘Mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together’. In late February, I flew into Nairobi with a group of people associated with the Edmund […]
In Australia, climate policy battles are endlessly reheated.
Marc Hudson, University of Manchester This article is part of a series examining the Coalition government’s record on key issues while in power, and what Labor is promising if it wins the 2019 federal election. It might feel like the past decade of climate policy wars has led us into uncharted political waters. But the […]
?Uniting against terrorism: Pope Francis & Muslim leaders in Abu Dhabi.
Bruce Duncan. Pope Francis has made dialogue with Islam a high priority, as he is acutely aware that the scourge of war and displacement of peoples will not stop until these great religious traditions can consolidate effective norms of peace, justice, toleration, and cooperation. As the leader of the Catholic Church and a spokesman for […]
Stewardship of our planet
There’s a lot of bad news in the UN Global Environment Outlook, but a sustainable future is still possible.
Pedro Fidelman The University of Queensland. The Sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6), the most comprehensive environmental assessment produced by the UN in five years, brought us both good and bad news. The environment has continued to deteriorate since the first GEO-6 report in 1997, with potentially irreversible impacts if not effectively addressed. But pathways to […]
?Climate change: we all care!
Tony French. Record greenhouse gas emissions are driving global temperatures to dangerous levels. This is the dire conclusion in the latest World Meteorological Organisation report, WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate In 2018. The WMO is part of the United Nations. The WMO report highlights record sea level rises, as well as […]
At a climate tipping point.
Andrew Glikson. According to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chief climate advisor to the European Union, “We’re simply talking about the very life support system of this planet”. As fascism and the horror of murderous hate crimes are spreading around the world, governments are presiding over runaway climate change, leading toward a mass extinction of species, costing […]
Climate crisis: not so slow-burning now.
Editorial. Future generations will struggle to understand why key Australian politicians and sections of the media refused so long to recognise that global warming was an immediate threat to Australia and the world. January 2019 was the hottest month on record in Australia, with the nation’s mean temperature above 30C for the first time. According […]
Asylum Seakers
?Pope Francis in Morocco: building bridges, not walls.
Bruce Duncan. The appalling massacre in March of so many Muslim people in New Zealand’s Christchurch has shocked our countries deeply, and illustrated how urgent is the need to deepen understanding and increase solidarity among our faith communities. The Christchurch event was one in a too-long list of religiously motivated terror acts against Muslims, Christians, […]
Australia Day reminds us that we can overcome the fear of foreigners & ‘boats’.
John Menadue. The Australia of today is vastly different from the Australia of my childhood. With its widespread racism and sectarianism, it was socially suffocating. For those changes, I am very grateful. There is a lot of which we can be proud. No country has integrated newcomers as well as we have. But there have […]
Why Europe shouldn’t follow Australia’s lead on asylum seekers.
Daniel Ghezelbash, Macquarie University Australia’s harsh asylum policies have been touted as a possible solution to Europe’s so-called refugee crisis. Politicians in the UK, France, Holland, Denmark, Austria and Belgium have advocated for an Australian-style approach aimed at blocking asylum seekers from accessing Europe. But there are a few reasons Europe should be wary of […]
Government policies globally and the torture of refugees.
Spencer Zifcak. Nils Melzer is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment. Recently, he presented a damning report to the UN Human Rights Council on the subjection of refugees across the world to torture. Melzer’s fundamental contention was that the primary cause of the massive abuse suffered by refugees globally […]
Politics
Editorial: The ‘election miracle’ is behind us; can the Prophetic Economy be ahead of us?
Peter Whiting. As the recent election result unfolded, Ross Gittins, economics editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote, ‘The day may come when he (Scott Morrison) decides winning the election was the easy bit’.?Gittins was doubtless referring to the many immediate challenges Australia faces economically, socially, and ecologically, and observing that the government was reelected […]
The ethical imperative for a just world.
Peter Whiting. Wedged appropriately into the two days between the Easter celebration of the Resurrection, with its promise of a new order, and the Anzac Day commemorations acknowledging the sacrifice of many for the basic values of life and freedom, the two-day Earth@Peace conference in Melbourne in April addressed action for a Just & Ecologically […]
Editorial. A budget for an election.
Peter Whiting. With a Federal election being tipped for mid-May 2019, and an April budget to accommodate it, it is hardly surprising that the budget handed down on 2 April had a number of initiatives clearly focused on specific community groups and marginal electorates in the hope of influencing electors’ voting decisions. It just would […]
The next long wave of reform: where will the ideas come from? Part 1.
Terry Moran. From an oration in honour of Jim Carlton AO at the University of Melbourne 25 March 2019. I want to talk about what I’m going to describe as a mission – Australia’s next long wave of reform. It is this third wave of reform which must bring us to a compact on the […]
Church & Social Justice
Sr Patricia Fox on Justice for the Philippines.
Conversation over lunch, organised by Pax Christi. Sunday 16 June 12:30 for 1pm lunch (bring something to share)Kildara Centre Rear 41 Stanhope Street Malvern Rita 03 9379 3889 | 0448 701 877Catriona 03 9509 7906 |0419 109 830 After 27 years as a missionary in the Philippines, Sr Pat was expelled by President Duterte, because […]
Global Poverty
Pope Francis and Grand Imam firmly denounce violence in the name of God.
Bruce Duncan. Shocked by savage attacks on Muslims by a radicalised Australian in New Zealand, of all places, and on Christians and other Sri Lankans by Islamists, it is clear that the virus of ISIS is spreading, despite the defeat of the so-called Caliphate in Syria. Islamist and racist violence will never be eliminated simply […]
Indigenous Issues
Australia Day & our ‘culture wars’.?
Peter Whiting. Until recently, for the last 20 years or so, I have celebrated Australia Day at my home with a group of my friends. As part of the entertainment, I would compile a short quiz on a particular Australian theme: bushrangers, prime ministers, Australian poets, prominent Australians, place names, and so on. Intentionally, I […]
A new way to recognise an Indigenous nation in Australia.
Michael Breen?University of Melbourne After years of debate, the process for achieving constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians has reached a crossroads. More than a year has gone by since the Uluru Statement from the Heart, when Indigenous peoples rejected symbolic constitutional reform and asked for more practical changes. Instead of looking at selected components of […]