With the outcome of the federal election now clear a month after polling day, the Federal Government has announced that it intends to push ahead with the marriage plebiscite promised to the electorate in the run-up to the election. Uncertainty over the Government’s position has arisen, in part, from the fact that both Malcolm…
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,…
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…
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…
