Writings

A collection of 345 posts

Writings

Sex Test Engenders a Skewed Reality

The Mother’s Day press release was cloying. The innovation it heralds is unnecessary at best and, at worst, a sexist menace. The product is IntelliGender, a $95 urine test that claims to identify the sex of a foetus from as early as eight weeks. It went on sale last

Writings

Stand Firm Against Race to the Bottom

An Open Letter to the Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon on Australia’s Emissions Trading System Global warming is the most significant moral issue of our time. Current generations still have a choice. We can act to reduce dangerous climate change or persist with business as usual, despite knowing that

Writings

We Must Respect the Wrong Decision

Should pregnant women smoke? OK, that’s a no-brainer but here’s a harder one. When pregnant women do smoke, what should we do about it? The reality is that 16 per cent of Australian women of childbearing age smoked through their last pregnancy. Most would have less education and

Writings

We Need a Population Policy Debate

Tuned into the boat-people debate this week? If yes, you’ll know that the stress and disagreement that has long characterized the debate about migration is over. We all agree now that it’s the people-smugglers we love to hate. People smugglers, the PM said, are “the absolute scum of

Writings

Collaboration Takes Sting Out of Separation and Divorce

A kindler, gentler divorce may be a contradiction in terms, but the means to achieve it has arrived in Australia. Just a few weeks ago at a conference in Sydney, a group of good-hearted, specially trained lawyers met to discuss the ways a marriage in this country could be dissolved

Writings

Private School, Public Shame

Australia has come a long way-some might say the wrong way-when the Education Minister dismisses debates about equity in school funding as a diversion from what she laughably calls Federal Labor’s broad and deep reform agenda. The Labor government’s education agenda is neither broad nor deep, nor a

Writings

Parallel Imports and Copy Wrongs

Australian publishing is a success story. In contrast to the uneven product of the heavily subsidized film industry, publishing continues to go from strength to strength. Around 45% of general audience books sold in Australia have been published here, and 40% of the top 5000 trade books have Australian authors.

Writings

Stop Conroy’s Great Australian Firewall

Fond of kiddy-fiddlers? A friend of the porn industry? You must be, if you oppose a mandatory filter on the net. Or so says Senator Stephen Conroy and his allies in the Christian Right and Authoritarian Left. The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is not alone in

Writings

In the AFL and NRL, Booze No Excuse for Sexual Assault

The rugby and footy season have begun. I know, because allegations of sexual violence are in the news. The charge of sexual assault against Manly Sea Eagles’ poster boy Brett Stewart is now a matter for the courts. A jury of Stewart’s peers will decide the 24 year-old’s

Writings

Give Us Better Biking Infrastructure, Please!

I was centimeters away from death or serious injury. Millimeters, even. The woman in the car hadn’t meant any harm. She had only just parked and was now hurrying on her way, probably wondering if she had enough coins in her wallet for the meter, if the space she’

Writings

Ethics in a Time of Media

We expect a lot of our media. Not more than we should, but a decent amount, often without either acknowledging the importance of a free press to democracy, or the structural factors that can get in the way of well-meaning journalists doing the right thing. In the hot seat this

Writings

Read Leslie’s Expert Comments on Modern Contraception in The Sunday Age

Jill Stark interviewed Leslie for her article in the Age. Publication history > In a spin over safe sex [http://www.theage.com.au/national/in-a-spin-over-safe-sex-20090228-8l1x.html?page=-1] The Age 2009-03-01

Writings

This Valentine’s Week, a Few Thoughts About Love

Philosophers struggle to define love, little less explain it in ways we all crave. Ways that allow us to find and to nurture it, so as we journey through life – with the same lover or someone different – it will continue to flourish. Excuses for this vary, but some put it

Writings

Global Gag Leaves Blood on Our Hands

For Labor, the problem seems grim. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith can either follow the lead of the Obama administration in lifting Australia’s version of the global gag rule, or ensure we remain the only country in the world that limits its foreign aid in this way. What is

Writings

Should We Play Big Brother with our Kids?

British and American parents are about to get it, and Australian parents may want it too. Electronic babysitting, using a hard-to-remove wristwatch device with a GPS chip, is coming to a retail and online outlets soon. Want your tubby daughter to walk to primary school, but need assurance she’s

Writings

Whats Wrong with Adults Paying for Sex

This summer, Norway has quietly joined Sweden in outlawing paid sex. Men who have sex with prostitutes working in brothels or on the street face hefty fines or six months in gaol, while the women involved will be offered assistance to exit the industry. “We want to send a clear

Writings

Why We Must Sometimes Refuse to Help

A while back a reader-let’s call her Sharon-contacted me for help. Her story was confusing and hard to follow, so she directed me a website she had set up to publicise her cause. She also sent me some documents, which I committed to read with the view, if I

Writings

All’s Fair in the Battle of Ideas

On Tuesday, Crikey broke a story about conservative magazine Quadrant’s publication of an essay on scientific criticism by Sharon Gould. Gould is described as having a PhD in Applied Science (biotechnology) and being employed as a biotechnology informatics consultant. But Gould is not a real person. Her essay, “Scare

Writings

Natural Earth Burials: Should our last decision be environmental?

Ethical talk about the dead usually focuses on rights. The rights of the dead to have their last wishes carried out, and their bodies treated with respect. But as the baby-boomers approach old age, this is set to change. Soon, deaths will outnumber births in this country. When they do,

Writings

Women’s Forum Australia is “Faking it”

Tune out or wise up. Late December and January is the season for think-tanks and institutes. The time where the lack of action on the government and university fronts leaves a hole in the news agenda that third-party mouthpieces for political, industrial or religious interests are more than happy to

Writings

Lars and the Real Girl Show Us the Way

It’s that time of the year again. No matter what we believe or commemorate, December offers most of us a few days off work. A chance to reflect on what really matters in our complex, crowded lives, and how it can be nurtured so more will grow. An Israelite

Writings

Torturing Others Does Most Harm to Us

Defenders of torture are fond of the ticking bomb scenario. It describes a terrorist who has planted bombs around a city that are set to blow, but who refuses to tell authorities where they are. The implicit claim of the scenario is clear. That in some cases, in particular where

Writings

Should We Let the Gene Out of the Bottle

How much do you know about your genes? Does your genetic profile match that of a sprinter, or is it more like an endurance athlete? Are you lactose intolerant, malaria resistant, possessed of wet or dry ear wax or at an increased risk, compared to others with similar ancestry, of

Writings

Let Women Speak for Themselves

For years, we’ve been tied up in knots, unsure how to protect the rights of women in male-dominated religions and cultures. In the past weeks, such conflicts have been writ large across the national stage. In Melbourne, traditionally-garbed, western educated Muslim women called for action in the wake of

Writings

Leslie talks abortion rights

Leslie discusses the recent decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria in an article by Stephen de Tarczynski on the Inter Press Service News Agency http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44840 Publication history > RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Abortion Decriminalised But Stays ControversialInter Press Service News Agency 2008-11-25 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.