Writings

A collection of 345 posts

Writings

Does Australia Need A National Integrity Day?

Two young Australian reporters refuse to reveal their sources and face jail for contempt of court. A former customs official is convicted for leaking reports about security breaches at Sydney Airport to the media. Allegations of undue interference in a police investigation of a young woman’s rape by an

Writings

Gillard's Misogyny Speech - What Have We Learned?

The dust may finally have settled on the gender debate sparked by Alan Jones’s ‘'destroy the joint’‘ comment and the viral spread of the Prime Minister’s misogyny speech. So much offence taken, so many apologies issued, so many hash tags generated, so much angst and opinion shared

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Dangerous Remedy & the Heroism of the 1st Abortion Rights Activists

Last week, I sat down with an activist colleague to watch the latest dramatic offering from ABC1, Dangerous Remedy. Part Mad-Men, part murder mystery, part historical journey, Dangerous Remedy tells the story of abortion rights campaigners Bert and Jo Wainer. Largely forgotten heroes, Bert and Jo championed the cause of

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Lance Armstrong & Why Cheaters Shouldn't Prosper

Cheaters never prosper, or so we’ve been told. Yet with internet-assisted exam cheating and drugs in sport scandals back in the news, some may wonder whether modern societies have lost their way; whether in today’s world you can either be honest or prosper, but you can’t have

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Leslie on Alan Jones vs the Cyber-bullies in The Drum

The controversy swirling around Alan Jones and the withdrawal of more than 70 sponsors and advertisers from his 2GB radio show illustrates that the absolute power of the mainstream media to determine who speaks – and what they speak about – is no more. Less than a decade ago, anyone who sought

Writings

Leslie on Silence, Shame and Botox

Why do some women hate others who use Botox and other ‘'liquid’‘ facelift techniques but give men who use the stuff a free pass? We like to think of ourselves as individuals and the decisions we make about how we keep our skin, hair and body as based on

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Leslie on the Life-Changing Value of Contraception to the World's Poorest Women

THIS past Thursday, I “live tweeted” highlights from London’s Family Planning Summit, a joint enterprise of the Gates Foundation and the British government. The best of the summit was rolled out for a Sydney conference room crowded with men and women whose tireless advocacy for family planning services in

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To Publish - or to e-publish?

Once upon of time there was a tribe called the Very Smarts. The Very Smarts lived on a island where they planted, tended and then harvested trees from which they carved beautiful and much-sought after canoes. But while the Very Smarts were wonderful craftspeople, they had neither the interest nor

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Separating Church & State - A Call to Action!

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Disappearing Act of the Soul That's So Hard to Bear

To have lived a good life. Everyone wants that. My grandmother lives in California and she is dying. She has a ‘'do not resuscitate’‘ order and her opportunistic infections are not being treated. To manage excruciating pain from the bones she broke in a fall she’s been heavily

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Barking Mad - Puppies and Toddlers in an Intolerant Land

This is my last Moral Maze column. What better way to go out than with mongrels – the word we apply to unlovely people and to man’s best friend. On Twitter recently, a high-profile equality activist announced that while she didn’t love dogs, she did love things feathery. But

Writings

Chris Brown "Slap Tweets" Announce Next Gen of Victims

THE tweets were reactions to Chris Brown’s appearance at the Grammy Awards. All were variations on a theme: domestic violence. Reading through them was an assault, too. A vivid reminder that at the start of the 21st century, there are still plenty of insecure women parading about like peahens

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In China or the West - Look for the Power in Industrial Matters

“Look for the power.” I don’t know if this was the first lesson my sociology professor taught me but it’s the one I most remember. If you want to know why the world looks as it does, follow the power. Changing the world requires a similar insight. This

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Legal bind mean no decent end to suffering for incurably ill

SARA MONOPOLI, a non-smoker, was 34 years old – and 39 weeks pregnant – when diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Alan Rosendorff, 56, was a successful lawyer and strapping bloke who swam kilometres in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay to keep fit, when he learnt his recently diagnosed stomach cancer had metastasised.

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The Name Game Leaves Many Men to Blame

Why do women take their partner’s surnames when they marry? Why, even where a woman keeps her own name, does she follow tradition and give her offspring his surname instead of hers? Of course, all women have a right – when they marry and bear children – to decide as they

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That Poor Little Israeli Girl & the Cost to Secular Democracies of Religious Extremism

Last week in Israel, a news story shocked the nation. It concerned Naama Margolis, an Orthodox Jewish girl, who was shown crying and quaking at the prospect of taking the 800-metre walk from her home to school. The reason for her distress? The harassment and intimidation she has been subjected

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What do Occupy Sydney and Melbourne Want?

What do Occupy Sydney and Occupy Melbourne want? Now in its 65th day, the protest against corporate greed and its effects on the 99 per cent is under pressure. Some dismiss the Melbourne movement as a front for the ‘'Trots’‘ – socialist and Marxist splinter groups that have been around

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We ought to worry about Australia's Democratic Decline

There’s been much talk recently about a decline in the ‘'civility’‘ of our public debate. This follows a long period of anxiety about ’‘values’‘ and disgruntlement about ’‘spin’‘, and – if I’m reading the tea leaves right – will soon give way to sustained fretting about what our Prime

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We need to reform Australia's rape laws

Australians believe they ought to be ruled by laws, not by the arbitrary whims of whoever happens – by might or right – to wield power. We believe those laws should govern the behaviour of all, whether we are a homeless derelict, a wealthy tycoon or the holder of high political office.

Writings

The Fat And Skinny Of Desiring Your Spouse

My Fat Spouse is the brainchild of an American body-builder named Chris. As the title suggests, the MFS website is a space where presumably slim spouses can bitch and worry about fat ones, as well as trade practical tips for “coping”. Since the site’s launch in 2004, the blogosphere

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Court takes stand on decency in Bolt Racial Discrimination Case

The Federal Court recently found Andrew Bolt, one of Australia’s shock jocks of the written word, guilty of violating the Racial Discrimination Act. As the court’s summary of the issues in Eatock v Bolt shows, violations of the Racial Discrimination Act are difficult to prove. Even where successful,

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Abortion & Tony Abbott - It is Black and White

How do we judge what someone might do in the future? Usually it’s a combination of what we know they’ve done in the past, our judgement of their character and how much we trust assurances about what they say they’ll do. I’ve wondered about this recently

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What would Prime Minister Abbott do? (or don't we want to know?)

Not long ago I started a conversation thread on Twitter. My hope was that some of my more than 5000 followers would engage in some informed speculation about what life would be like for working-class people, Aborigines, gays, working parents and women of reproductive age if Tony Abbott became prime

Writings

What Does Occupy Wall Street Protesters want? Listen & you'll learn

Occupy Wall Street – a street rally of disenfranchised Americans in New York City’s financial district – is going off like a frog in a sock. According to Occupy Together, protests by the 99 per cent of the world’s people against the greed of the 1 per cent of the

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Time to weigh anchor on Australa

The most compelling argument for bipartisanship on boat arrival policy is that we could finally stop talking about the issue and deal with something else. Let’s face it. If you didn’t see the boats on TV or hear politicians yakking about them, you’d have no idea what