August 13, 2016

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POETRY

Poetry Letters & HumourAugust 13, 2016

For Sister Pauline Fitz-Walter All speaking needs this meaning, God is love: To breathe this sentence into breaths of life Through all conjunctions – to the heart of strife, Perfects believing, or attracts the Dove. The words are twigs of olive, topping the grove, Angelic fingers that prevent the knife; Or blood, the secret where the bride’s a wife; They’re water burning red in grace above. God is, but hangs upon our utterance, We burgeon or we wither as we speak, Creation trembles on our moving lips: Is love – and there we predicate the dance; Is love – and…

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Aug132016

CANBERRA OBSERVED Despite bumbling, youth detention inquiry is needed

Politics, UncategorizedAugust 13, 2016

The first major decision in the new term of the Turnbull Government was made in haste, without consultation and based on a visceral response to an ABC TV program. Co-royal commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda The Royal Commission into Juvenile Justice has been almost universally welcomed as a means of getting to the heart of revelations raised on the ABC’s Four Corners of mistreatment including tear gassing, hooding and restraint chairs. But the calling of the royal commission has reflected badly on the Government, with its selected commissioner having to resign even before he started. In fact most commentators…

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Aug132016

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Erdogan’s political coup will transform Turkey

Foreign AffairsAugust 13, 2016

In the aftermath of a failed military coup organised by some elements in the Turkish military, Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has organised a mass roundup of public servants, lawyers and academics – as well as a third of Turkey’s military leadership – in what is clearly an attempt to use the military coup as an excuse to silence his domestic opponents and concentrate more power in his own hands. President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has been battling a corruption scandal that goes to the heart of his government. Last December, Turkish law enforcement officers raided several…

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Aug132016

Transgender Olympians: what about the AFL?

Human Rights & Freedoms, Life Marriage & Family, UncategorizedAugust 13, 2016

The announcement that the Olympics will accept transgender athletes is set to raise a host of issues, particularly in contact sports, including the Australian Football League (AFL). But first the Olympics. Since 2004 male-to-female transgender athletes have been allowed in the Olympics after surgery and two years of hormone therapy. But they will be allowed in the Rio Olympics without surgery, as long as their testosterone levels have been below male levels for a year. The advantage male-to-female transgender men have over women in sport is a hotly debated issue, particularly in contact sports. In 2014,…

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