The allegations of sexual impropriety made against Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop, Dr George Pell – allegations which Archbishop Pell has described as “lies”, but which forced him to step aside pending an independent inquiry – have all the hallmarks of trial by media. Despite the willingness of newspapers, radio and TV to fully report the allegations,…
Within days, Federal Parliament will commence debate on the contentious Research Involving Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Bill 2002, which will set the ethical and medical ground rules for research on human subjects for years to come. While many of the issues of principle – in particular destructive research on human embryos, and the…
As drought spreads its tentacles across eastern Australia, forcing destocking of many rural areas and cuts to planting of winter cereal crops, spare a thought for southern Africa, where an el Niño-induced drought, coupled with AIDS and the disastrous policies of the Mugabe Government in Zimbabwe, may cause mass starvation late this year, and early in…
The resignation of former Australian Democrats leader, Senator Meg Lees, and the trenchant attack on current leader, Natasha Stott Despoja, by Senator Andrew Murray as he resigned from the Democrats’ front bench, raises immediate questions about the Democrats’ survival as a political force, and more fundamental questions about why the party is disintegrating. Looking back…