Palm Island investigators avoid charges
After years of apparent weakness in its oversight role, Queensland's CMC has finally decided to take on the Queensland Police Force - but only in a limited sense. It's infuriated people on Palm Island. In an unprecedented move, the CMC Chairman, Martin Moynihan QC, has handed the state's Police Commissioner, Bob Atkinson, a sort of ultimatum. On the surface, it sounds strident.
Raunch culture and the virgin-whore dichotomy
Women are more complex than the virgin/whore dichotomy allows.
Footballers speak for the ugly racist in us all
So it seems there are pockets of backward racist thinking in football codes other than Rugby league. Who knew. Mal Brown, like Andrew Johns before him, used a c-word to describe Indigenous Australians, the media is appalled and will certainly demand he be censured and disgraced. But what does this anger disguise? Do we protest too much? Aren't there more pressing Indigenous issues to face?
When the left attacks...itself
One of the few gratifying things about political discussion at the moment is the willingness of the 'left' to criticise the Rudd Government. This stands in stark contrast to the 'right' side of the aisle who failed to call out the Howard Government even after 10 years of accumulated deception, broken promises, bad practice and policy. Is this willingness of the 'left' to attack its own, to eat its young, a good thing?
A sign of the cities to come
Most Australians live in cities. Our last census (2006) found that two thirds of us were based in a 'major city'. If we want an understanding of how sustainable we are as a nation, we need to look to our cities. This week, two studies have been published examining exactly that.
