Crikey » Politics

The Oz v academics: Manne, universities hit back

Andrew Crook — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:16 +0000

The Australian newspaper has come under sustained attack this morning from several angles as its simmering spat with the nation's academic community threatens to turn nuclear.

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Another day, another business lament: it’s all Gillard’s fault

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:15 +0000

Business leaders keep whingeing about the government, but their problems lie far closer to home, write Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer.

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Bipartisan resistance to scrutiny of one of our worst privacy intrusions

Bernard Keane — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:13 +0000

Despite what Victorian politicians claim, The Age was right to expose what information political parties hold on us without our permission.

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Death of constitutional government in PNG is looming

Damien Kingsbury — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:12 +0000

PNG’s democratic process has been critically, perhaps fatally, wounded.

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Human rights simply not on song in Azerbaijan

Crikey Intern — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:10 +0000

The grand final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the Azerbaijan capital Baku this weekend amidst international turbulence and condemnation. Scott Barnes reports.

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World Championship Chess: the gulag fianchetto

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:09 +0000

According to historian Edvard Radzinsky, the era of political chess in Russia ended in 1985 with Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, writes Australia’s first Grandmaster Ian Rogers from Moscow.

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Brothel baron on Thomson: ‘I think it’s bullshit’

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:08 +0000

Sydney’s brothel barons have cast serious doubt on the integrity of the former prostitute claiming to have had sex with Craig Thomson, writes Chris Seage, owner of Brothel Busters and a former consultant to the NSW sex industry.

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Legal system criminalises Aborigines, says lawyer

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:07 +0000

A lawyer academic sees the legal system as another form of prejudice, saying Aborigines have been treated differently in law "from the time of the initial invasion settlement", writes Des Ryan, of InDaily.

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Letter from: Kharkiv, where Ukraine’s EU bid comes to die

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:06 +0000

For the Soviet-era strongmen of the post-Soviet sphere, politics remains a zero-sum game, writes Matthew Clayfield, a freelance correspondent in Ukraine.

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Fantasy budget: a greener national economic outlook

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:03:05 +0000

A budget isn't just about the line items contained within budget papers, write Simon O'Connor and Charles Berger, of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

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It’s just not worth it, Craig

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:02:59 +0000

Craig Thomson is right about one thing: A Current Affair's pursuit of a prostitute who claims she slept with the embattled MP seven years ago is most certainly "gutter journalism".

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Photos in the White House come and go, but this one remains

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:24:31 +0000

Photographs that line the walls of the White House are regularly changed and rotated. Jackie Calmes explains why one hasn't moved for three years.

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Michelle Obama and ‘food deserts’: fact or deep fried fiction?

Crikey — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:04:37 +0000

Michele Obama's hypothesis about "food deserts" argues that poor health results such as childhood obesity are a result of low density of supermarkets coupled with an abundance of fast food outlets. Alan Davies isn't convinced.

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Poll Bludger’s Seat of the Week: Eden-Monaro

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:13:13 +0000

Eden-Monaro, renowned throughout the land as the bellwether seat that goes with the party who wins the election, is something of a microcosm of New South Wales if not the entire country, writes William Bowe.

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Aluminium, industry policy and losing our way on reform

Bernard Keane — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:47 +0000

The closure of the Kurri Kurri smelter lifts the lid not merely on a troubled industry but a troubled policy process.

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Shared understanding is what’s missing in productivity debate

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:44 +0000

"Productivity" is starting to sound a little "gourmet" -- a word that means very different things to different people, writes Jo-anne Schofield, executive director of policy network Catalyst Australia.

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The bottom line: retail’s doing it tough worldwide

Glenn Dyer — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:38 +0000

You name it, Australian retail is doing it tough at the moment.

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The green tape slugfest that is the EPBC Act

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:37 +0000

Nothing gets interest groups more riled up than a proposal to reduce "green tape". Andrew Macintosh and Richard Denniss on how strangled businesses really are.

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They flew here, but the journey is still long for immigrants

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:37 +0000

With national attention remaining on asylum seekers who arrive by boat, journalist Jack Davies asks who are the plane-people and what are the circumstances in which they can immigrate?

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Campbell Newman’s ‘attack on gays’ could face legal test

Harley Dennett — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:31 +0000

Family and human rights lawyers are considering grounds to halt what they see as a pair of targeted attacks on the LGBTI community from the Queensland government.

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Should the Future Fund be ethical?

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:11:31 +0000

Does it matter that the Future Fund has invested over $200 million in tobacco shares? Should taxpayers be asked to accept a poorer return on their investment for the sake of avoiding a controversial product?

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Concern rises over use of drones in America

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:15:35 +0000

America has used drones largely for anti-terrorist and illegal immigration assignments, but the number of domestic drones are increasing and civil liberty advocates are ringing alarm bells, reports CBS News.

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At the ballot booth, Egypt makes history

Crikey — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:13 +0000

“It is like honey to my heart," said one Egyptian lining up to vote in the country's first free election, of which no clear front-runner has emerged, writes David D. Kirkpatrick.

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Is reducing the number of bottle shops to curb domestic violence a ‘bone-headed’ idea?

Crikey — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:08 +0000

A Melbourne research fellow argues that reducing the density of liquor outlets also reduces domestic violence. The downside in this sort of thinking is that it deflects attention from root causes, writes Alan Davies.

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Thomson could face jail if found in contempt (and he wouldn’t be the first)

Crikey Intern — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:58:44 +0000

The House of Representatives has the power to imprison for up to six months an individual found to be in contempt of Parliament by the privileges committee, and it's a punishment they've doled out before, reports Scott Barnes.

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