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Australian Society

Submitted by Megan van der Hoeven on May 5, 2009 - 4:42pm.
Child care affordability: Not as easy as ABC
The collapse of ABC has seen government funds being spent on bailing out ABC, rather than being spent on establishing new centres, or improving the quality of existing ones. One man’s greed has impacted on hundreds of thousands of families across the country.
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Submitted by Nadia Saccardo on May 4, 2009 - 6:56pm.
Liquor licences still out of reach for small Sydney bars
A combination of processing delays at the City of Sydney council and staffing issues at the state government run Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) make applying for a small bar licence unaffordable for many entrepreneurs. Changing the law simply wasn’t, and isn’t, enough.
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Submitted by Louise Easson on May 4, 2009 - 6:48pm.
Appearance matters
Sob-stories about the unfair way that females are judged by their appearance globally have been all over the Australian press in the last couple of weeks, from the frumpy Scottish singer Susan Boyle’s rise to fame, to Veronica Lario’s objection to her husband’s selection of beautiful young women to the European Parliament.
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Submitted by Michelle Webber on May 4, 2009 - 6:10pm.
Social network monitoring: Are employers ‘unethical’ or showing initiative?
It’s no wonder why employers are monitoring social networking sites and sacking workers for posting potentially threatening material to protect their company’s reputation. That’s why employees need to develop some common sense about using social networking services.
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Submitted by Trevor Maddock on April 28, 2009 - 2:55pm.
Halbbildung: Imperialism and education
This is Halbbildung: it is not half-education but the denial of education. Each step in the dismantling of the system through which I was educated, each step in the process from education to Halbbildung, has been marked by the rhetoric of standards and testing. With the implementation of each review standards plunged further into the depths of Halbbildung. Good luck! Get all the private education for your kiddies that you can. It’s not going to make any difference.
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Submitted by Jay Somasundaram on April 26, 2009 - 2:04pm.
The dance of change
Many of the postings on this site discuss problems and solutions. Much of these discussions are about radical change. This thread seeks to contextualise the broader discussions by outlining a model of five types of problem solving: doing nothing; bombing the bejesus out of it; throwing money at it; continuous improvement; and disruptive innovation.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on April 24, 2009 - 1:19am.
We Shall Overcome: Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday
"It's no wonder that Seeger remains such an inspiration to musicians of purpose and conscience around the world. He was a founding member of two highly influential folk groups: The Almanac Singers and The Weavers. Although blacklisted and hounded by the House Un-American Activities Committee in August of 1955, he became a figurehead of the Civil Rights movement, inspiring other folk singers to rise up with a national voice of potency"- David Sly
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on April 8, 2009 - 3:35pm.
We are all in this together: A jobs and training compact with Australia
I am here to issue a national call to arms: and that is for the nation to bind together as one in a national campaign against unemployment. While government must take the lead, everyone has a part to play. And our end point is clear: to do whatever it takes at the global, national and local level to support local jobs and to help those who lose their jobs to retrain and to find a new job. (Kevin Rudd)
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Submitted by Paul Walter on March 30, 2009 - 3:25pm.
The Hanson phenomenon
As to Hanson herself, you have to wonder at the cultural background that created the woman she was: women’s upbringing and enculturisation (and men’s), gender relations, and politics in general over the last couple of centuries and post ww2 in particular, perhaps against a sort of back drop of the sort of stuff that Prof Marilyn Lake discussed, concerning the Henry Lawson Bronzed Anzac / Pioneer myth and its sidelining of women...
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Submitted by Alan Thornhill on March 23, 2009 - 5:24pm.
The End of the Golden Handshake?
Under pressure over the huge bonuses paid to executives of failing companies, the Government has finally announced it will take action. Mounting community outrage at huge payments to departing executives has led the Federal Government to announce an inquiry into the issue — but first it will pass law to give shareholders more power over payments.
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Submitted by John Pratt on March 23, 2009 - 4:23pm.
Motorcycle gangs are terrorist organisations
Shouldn’t we be using the anti terror laws to control these thugs? We should make their clubs illegal and destroy the club houses. Anyone known to belong to an outlaw bikie gang should face the same penalties as those belonging to terrorist organisations. There is no difference – both use violence and terror to intimidate the rest of the population.
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Submitted by Anthony Nolan on March 15, 2009 - 12:51pm.
Rudd, neoliberalism, and the poverty of thought
Kevin Rudd has certainly nailed his colours to the masthead with his article The Global Financial Crisis published in the February 2009 edition of The Monthly. As a plain language account of the dominance of neo-liberalism in Western political economy over the last thirty or so years it is exemplary.
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on March 10, 2009 - 3:20pm.
Tax expenditures as welfare for the rich
Imagine a welfare scheme that gave minimum wage earners nothing, but handed out $11,000 a year to those on the top income tax rate. Surely if any political party ever suggested such a scheme they would be run out of parliament and have their doors kicked down by commercial current affairs programs. (Centre for Policy Development)
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Submitted by Hamish Alcorn on March 9, 2009 - 8:44pm.
Hamish's top 100 books
Powerful, yet well-behaved, Webdiarist Hamish Alcorn has been entertaining his friends and admirers in Another Place with the BBC’s Top 100 Books. He and others critiqued the list somewhat severely, as being Anglocentric, containing too much chick lit, and being repetitious. So Hamish (with a little help from his friends & admirers) devised the following.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on February 25, 2009 - 11:53am.
A little cross about the monopoly
So what of the other charities that have been helping to assist?  It's great to see that Sony has put out a fundraiser album (many top-flight musos donating tracks) with proceeds going to the Salvos.  So what about Vinnies?  Wesley Uniting?  Are the Christian church based charities being swept aside as Red Cross becomes the Walmart of charity?   I worry that we're putting too many eggs in the one basket.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on February 23, 2009 - 2:42pm.
Community and Inferno- a survivor's tale
"Alexandra was organized chaos with the high school and basketball courts acting as emergency refuge centers. Countless volunteers tried their best to assist with no power, high temperatures, wind, smoke and very limited information. Little did we know a lot of Victoria was in a similar condition and that the authorities information was way behind the conditions on the ground. "- "David"
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on February 11, 2009 - 2:53pm.
‘Get the dog, get the bucket, put it in the car. The moment we see anything go up to our north, we move.’
You identified with the broken-hearted, with the wounded spirits, with the loss, the grieving and the terrible unprecedented trauma that is being experienced right now. I know there are people who will wake every morning believing that it was all a dream; that it did not happen. And then they will realise it was not a dream and they will cry and they will cry again. (Russell Broadbent)
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Submitted by Justin Obodie on February 2, 2009 - 11:10pm.
Black dogs and diamonds
As the punters get their pink slips one day, their credit card bills the next they are going to find it increasingly difficult to survive; the dole queues (across the globe) will grow and more and more people will be forced to deal with the government for their survival. And it won’t be pretty. After our initial sympathy for these victims wears off, they will become a nuisance to some and an embarrassment to others. Their numbers will grow as the black dog runs wild.
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Submitted by Richard Tonkin on January 26, 2009 - 4:27pm.
Freedom of speech, Aussie style
The most concerning part of the conversation was that this man was quite well spoken, and polite.  He gave his name, why he was upset with me and the threat.   I told him that I was sorry his son had died in Afghanistan. He then repeated his name, grievance and threat.    No swearwords or invective- had he been a foul-mouthed ranter I would be able to dismiss worries much more easily.
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Submitted by Fiona Reynolds on January 25, 2009 - 2:34pm.
Australian of the Year 2009
The finalists for Australian of the Year, and their biographies, appear below. What are Webdiarists’ views on the likely winner – and if none of the below appeals, who would you have nominated instead, and why?
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Submitted by Veronica Le Nevez on January 19, 2009 - 12:41pm.
How should I live?
'You've MADE it!' That's the message that's used to sell everything, from clothes to diets to holidays. You've made it, you're worth it – we want to shout to the rooftops that we are successful! But the moment of triumphalism is always short-lived, and always followed by a hollowness – the void that waits for the next purchase, the next triumph.
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on January 16, 2009 - 4:40pm.
For most conspicuous acts of gallantry in action in a circumstance of great peril...
Today marks a milestone in Australian military history - the first award (following abolition of Imperial honours in 1991) of a Victoria Cross for Australia.
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on January 11, 2009 - 11:04pm.
But the greatest of these is love
There is nothing like the prospect of a radical life change to concentrate the mind on things that really mater. So I want to identify, if I can, the most important thing that we discover in life. At least, it is the most important thing that I have discovered. I will share it with you, like a precious jewel, fit for this occasion. I refer to love. Love for one another. Love for our community. Love for others everywhere in the world. Love transcends even scholarship, cleverness and university degrees. It is greater than pride and wealth. It endures when worldly vanities fade.
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Submitted by Hamish Alcorn on December 16, 2008 - 10:28pm.
Saving the World Part 2: Literacy
Malthus was wrong as demographers well know. It’s well known that the projections Malthus made of the English population failed to unfold, and the steep upward curve of population plateaued and now actually creeps downward, not just in England but in many parts of the World.  We know perfectly well what the key factor is in causing that plateau, and it’s not affluence as such, it’s not telling the Catholics to shut up (Ireland and Italy have among the lowest fertility rates in the World), it’s not giving out free condoms and abortions, it’s not an authoritarian imposition of small families, and it has nothing to do with immigration. It’s teaching women to read.
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on December 10, 2008 - 12:55pm.
The chance of a lifetime
Today, as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, we've been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to ensure that human rights are finally protected in Australia. (GetUp)
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Submitted by Hamish Alcorn on November 26, 2008 - 11:01pm.
Ecological Keynesianism
Forests pump salt back down into the ground. They retain water to minimise flooding and feed the water into the water-table over a much longer period of time, as well as through condensation contributing further to precipitation, thus pushing back desertification. They stop erosion and rebuild soil. They lock up millions of tons of carbon, provide habitat and corridors for creatures of foot and wing, deal with all manner of toxins in highly creative ways, and produce oxygen. They keep rivers alive.
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Submitted by Jaya Myler on November 26, 2008 - 1:34pm.
Zero hour for Australian fashion
When we swipe our card for a clothing purchase, we might think twice about the price, or the bill we’ll get at the end of the month, but we should really be thinking about what we don’t see when we pick up the end product. Could my weakness for new clothing purchases not only be costing me a pretty penny, but also be costing the environment a fortune?
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Submitted by Guest Contributor on November 21, 2008 - 11:03am.
The commodification of child care: ABC Learning
Child care in Australia is in desperate need of an overhaul. The crisis that we are seeing with ABC Learning Centres is simply the tip of the iceberg. For years and years, we have seen the child-care sector in Australia being taken over by profiteers and being seen as an industry. Child care should be seen as an essential service. (Senator Hanson-Young)
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Submitted by Dylan Kissane on November 21, 2008 - 9:37am.
Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy will not be an instant classic ... . It’s Guns N’ Roses for the twenty-first century with all the rock you were missing but less of the sort of arrogance that led Axl Rose to release songs like the over-produced My World ...
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Submitted by Luke Telford on November 19, 2008 - 7:38pm.
Redfern Blues
The Aboriginal Housing Company was formed in the early 1970’s for the purpose of appropriating property for the purpose of providing affordable housing for the local indigenous community. The AHC gradually acquired the whole of what is now known as ‘the Block’, establishing a strong, family-centred community in the area by the early 1980’s. The 80’s also saw the rise of a hard drug culture in the area...
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