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In A Secret Australia, eighteen independent and prominent Australians discuss what Australia has learned about itself from the WikiLeaks revelations. This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see. However Australians may perceive our place in the world, whether as dependable ally or good international citizen, WikiLeaks has shown us a startlingly different story. This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see, where the Australian Defence Force's 'information operations' are deployed to maintain public support for our foreign war contributions, where media-wide super injunctions are issued by the government to keep politicians' and major corporations' corruption scandals secret, where the US Embassy prepares profiles of Australian politicians to fine-tune its lobbying and ensure support for the 'right' policies. The revelations flowing from the releases of millions of secret and confidential official documents by WikiLeaks have helped Australians to better understand why the world is not at peace, why corruption continues to flourish, and why democracy is faltering. This greatest ever leaking of hidden government documents in world history yields knowledge that is essential if Australia, and the rest of the world, is to grapple with the consequences of covert, unaccountable and unfettered power. Contributors include author Scott Ludlam, former defence secretary Paul Barratt, lawyers Julian Burnside and Jennifer Robinson, academics Richard Tanter, Benedetta Brevini, John Keane, Suelette Dreyfus, Gerard Goggin and Clinton Fernandes, psychologist Lissa Johnson, as well as writers and journalists Andrew Fowler, Quentin Dempster, Antony Loewenstein, Guy Rundle, George Gittoes, Helen Razer and Julian Assange.
'There is something mysterious and wonderful about the act of teaching someone how to do something. Good teaching can lead to personal and social transformation.' In Binding Things Together, author Ronald Noone contends that religion and education remain indispensable vehicles for living authentic, rewarding, and valuable lives so long as these terms are not confined by the institutions that seek to claim ownership of them. One of the many definitions of religion, from the Latin 'religio' means, 'to consider carefully' while re ligare means to 're-connect' following Saint Augustine. The author's preferred definition for religion is 'that which binds things together'; that religion helps makes sense of existence or gives a purpose. Teaching is the act where showing someone how to do something can also give a sense of purpose to both the teacher and the learner. The author addresses the new gods appearing in schooling and education. The god of technology, the pursuit of 'wellness' in school settings, the obsession with data and metrics, and the influence of business on education with the corporatisation of school boards and the demand that schools' chief responsibility is to prepare students for the workforce. Binding Things Together addresses the cultural questions of the day that are facing parents, teachers, school administrators, clergy, and religious laity. The author argues that the broad range of teaching is at a fundamental level, a religious activity.
What is the purpose of an intelligence organisation? The short answer is to transform disparate and ambiguous information into a product that clarifies national security decision-making. Ideally, that process ought to be politically neutral and detached from the policy objectives of the government it serves. But what happens when intelligence ceases to be impartial and is used as a political means to support a policy preference? More significantly, what happens when intelligence is distorted, twisted, or manipulated to achieve this aim? Spinning the Secrets of State addresses these questions by investigating historical case studies developed from assiduous research into previously classified archival documents, political papers, private correspondence, and diaries to show how the secrets of state can be spun into a potent political weapon. In this revealing tour Justin T. McPhee considers the evolution of intelligence politicisation in Australia from before Federation in 1901 through to the modern era, providing a deep historical context in which to understand the convergence of intelligence and politics. Containing much new information, Spinning the Secrets of State offers an illuminating account of the secret inner workings of intelligence manipulation and the conditions that enable politicisation to arise. An essential read for both the general observer and scholars interested in understanding why intelligence and politics seem fated to collide.--
Navigating obsessions, commemorating loved ones, cooking a meal, drinking with friends, picking at our bodies, reckoning with our choices, finding ways to connect, finding ways to exist in a world that doesn't always accommodate us. Rituals give shape to our days and punctuate our years. It's the large ones we remember the most, but it's the small ones that carve out our lives for us. This year's theme resonated with so many creative writers in all different, wonderful ways. Our contributors picked through their lives, minds, and imaginations to bring creative pieces spanning various genres and forms. Some will break your heart, while others will make you laugh. Most will do both.
When Vincent van Gogh picked up his pencil and set out on his artistic career, it was not with the intention of becoming a leader of the avant-garde art world. Rather, his aims centred on earning a reasonable wage and living within the middle-class norms of his family. Van Goghs hope was to become an illustrator of magazines and newspapers. From 1880-85 van Gogh assembled a collection of over 2,000 black-and-white prints, predominately from English publications such as the Graphic and the Illustrated London News. These prints were produced in the thousands to accompany news stories or as stand-alone illustrations to be pinned up in the family home. Vincent Alessi reveals for the first time how van Goghs collection acted for him as both inspiration and manual: a guide to the subject matter demanded by leading illustrated newspapers and magazines and a model of artistic style. These popular images are shown to have palpably shaped van Goghs art, throughout his career, and to open up rich new understandings of a life and body of work that continue to intrigue and inspire.
Ken Inglis was one of Australia's most creative, wide-ranging and admired historians. During a scholarly career spanning nearly seven decades, his humane, questioning approach - summed up by the recurring query, 'I wonder...' - won him a large and appreciative audience. Whether he was writing about religion, the media, nationalism, the 'civil religion' of Anzac, a subject he made his own, or collaborating on monumental histories of Australia or the remarkable men aboard the Dunera, he brought wit, erudition and originality to the study of history. Alongside his history writing, he pioneered press criticism in Australia, contributed journalism to magazines and newspapers, and served as vice-chancellor of the fledgling University of Papua New Guinea. This collection of essays traces the life and work of this much-loved historian and observer of Australia life.
Winner of the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, 2019.
From the maelstrom of the Depression and World War II, from Communist Party membership in the 1930s-1950s, and early attachment to the feminism and peace, Jean Blackburn emerged as a significant public intellectual. Her life work was the attachment of education policy to the causes of social equality and opportunity. She worked with Peter Karmel on the most significant government report framing school policy in the twentieth century, the blue-print for the Australian Schools Commission. Blackburn was the architect of the Disadvantaged Schools Program, which revolutionised the way that public and Catholic schools delivered education to families marked by many disadvantages, including poverty. She was an architect of the Girls, School and Society report of 1976. Jean Blackburn possessed a charismatic presence, never more in evidence than as she worked on senior secondary school reform in Victoria in the 1980s. As a feminist Blackburn bridged the generations. She was a fiercely independent, courageous, creative and effective social reformer and public intellectual.
Dennis Altmans long obsession with the United States began when he went there as a graduate student during Lyndon Johnsons Presidency. His early writing stemmed from the counter-culture that developed in the States in the mid-1960s. Altman was involved in early Gay Liberation, and his 1971 study: Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation is regarded as a classic work in its field. Since then, Altmans writings have touched in various ways upon the shifting terrain of sexual politics, including the AIDs epidemic, which he witnessed from the onset while living in New York. Altmans memoir, Unrequited Love, is as wide-ranging and remarkable as his career, moving between Australia, the United States, Europe and parts of Asia, and influenced by encounters with intellectuals and writers including James Baldwin, Gough Whitlam, Dorothy Porter, Christos Tsiolkas, Anne Summers, Gore Vidal and Susan Sontag. Written through the lens of recent activism and the global rise of authoritarianism, this is a story of a half century of activism, intellectualism, conflict and friendship.
Lajjagauri is perhaps one of India''s oldest goddesses with images of her in South Asia dating back to the Indus Civilisation c. 3,000 to 1,500 BC. Her devotees can be traced back even earlier to the Ukraine c. 10,000 BCE. In India, new finds continue to expand the geographical spread of Lajjagauri''s devotees, most recently to Odisa. Ḍhere''s work on Lajjagauri is based on a tireless pursuit of her image throughout western India. In contrast to the other thousands of Indian goddesses whose images are super abundant, Lajjagauri has become more reclusive as other deities have risen. This work by the towering Marāṭhī cultural specialist Ramacandra Cintaman Dhere is a unique and important study, painstakingly and lovingly translated here by Dr Jayant Bapat.
The strangely familiar. The alien within the home. The repressed impulse. Bloodsucking counts in castles. Dismembered limbs. Wax models of famous figures. Trying to find a lost car in a parking lot. Being given seat E21 at the cinema when you live at 21 Rose Grove and your 21st birthday was last week. Doppelgängers, ghosts, déjà vu. This is the fourteenth issue of Monash University's creative writing journal, Verge. Established and emerging writers have come together to fill this collection with poems, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, and short stories that converge on the theme of the uncanny.
Australian society and its leaders generally take for granted the importance and value of this nation's relationship with the United States. The US is commonly thought of as the world's great purveyor of liberal values and the rule of law, and as a powerful friend indispensable to Australian security. In The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy Vince Scappatura demonstrates how these conceptions are underpinned by the work of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, Australia's most important, private, pro-US lobby group. As the inner workings of this lobby are unveiled for the first time, Scappatura also discusses the considerable costs to Australia of its strong military ties to the US, draws into question notions of "benign" US power, and demonstrates that suggestions of the US keeping Australia safe from invasion are flatly wrong. For Australia's national security elite, other considerations, to do with power and wealth and spreading political influence, are to the fore...
What makes one nation curious about another nation? Curious enough that the study of the other''s culture and language becomes a natural commitment or something that could be described as a national project? This question lies behind much of the writing in this book as it explores the history, education policy and changing fortunes of the Indonesian/Malay language in Australia. While formal education programs are central to this discussion, individual effort and chance encounters with the language are also examined in the context of Australia''s evolving historical ties with its near neighbours. These relationships have grown in importance since the end of the Second World War, but Australians typically continue to view the region as ''testing''. This is exemplified by the Australian-Indonesian relationship, the primary focus of this volume. While much has been written on the political relationship, this book builds its view of the two countries interactions on the cultural activity of language learning. This is, perhaps, the most fundamental of cultural activities in any effort to promote mutual understanding.
What was it like to be involved in the heady days of second wave feminism in Australia, when the role of women at home and at work changed decisively? Iola Mathews was one of the founders of the Womens Electoral Lobby, a journalist at The Age, and later a leading ACTU advocate for women workers during the Accord with the Hawke-Keating Government. She was one of the first generation of women trying to have it all with a career and children. In this honest and revealing memoir, she takes us inside the day-to-day groundwork required to bring about reforms in areas like affirmative action, equal pay, superannuation, childcare, parental leave and work-family issues. This is an important record of a pivotal time for women in Australias history. Iola brings wisdom and experience to it, reflecting on where we are today, with suggestions for further reform. Its a vital source for policy makers and all those interested in women, work and families.
Jakarta based Andreas Harsono is one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, high-profile and courageous of reporters and commentators on contemporary Indonesian society. Race, Islam and Power: Ethnic and Religious Violence in Post-Suharto Indonesia is the result of Harsonos fifteen year project to document how, in post-Suharto Indonesia, race and religion have come to be increasingly prevalent within the nations politics. From its westernmost island of Sabang to its easternmost city of Merauke in West Papua, from Miangas Island in the north, near the Philippines border, to Ndana Island, close to the coast of Australia, Harsono reveals the particular cultural identities and localised political dynamics of this internally complex and riven nation. This informed personal travelogue is essential reading for Indonesia watchers and anyone seeking a better understanding of contemporary Indonesia. A passionate seeker of human rights protections, civil liberties, democracy, media freedom, multiculturalism and environmental protection, Harsono reminds us that Indonesians still have not found the light at the end of the tunnel.
Comic actors have made a particularly strong contribution to cultural life in Australia over the past sixty years. They have brought a range of memorable characters to the stage, television and film; they have transformed our image of ourselves, helped to overturn the crippling cultural cringe, and brought Australian humour and satire to the world. The Australian theatre, television and film industries are dynamic in ways that could never have been imagined fifty years ago. These industries have expanded and demonstrated extraordinary vitality, with actors, as the public face of the performing arts, carrying the immediate responsibility for the success of each show. It is the actors, and often the characters they play, that we remember when we recall a favourite television program, film or play, long after we have seen it. In spite of this they are frequently left out of history. This book draws on extensive interviews to present full, rounded portraits of seven significant Australian comic actors: Carol Raye, Barry Humphries, Noeline Brown, Max Gillies, John Clarke, Tony Sheldon, and Denise Scott. Taken together, these actors careers span the period from the Second World War until the present and contributed immensely to the cultural life of millions of Australians.
In 1969 car crashes killed over 1000 Victorians, making Victorias roads some of the worlds most deadly. By 2016, the fatality rate had been cut by 85% and Victorians are now taking seriously the goal of eliminating death on the roads altogether. This extraordinary achievement is the product of sustained and ground-breaking approaches to preventing injury, saving lives and optimising recovery. Beginning with the worlds first seatbelt legislation in 1970, Victorians repeatedly charted new territory in health and public policy. In 2001 the system to care for severely injured people received a major overhaul. The new Victorian State Trauma System halved the risk anyone injured would die, and became the envy of the world. From Roadside to Recovery is the story of the evolution, implementation and impact of the Victorian State Trauma System, and those who championed it. It is a story of vision, leadership, determination, and achievement, about which there is much to celebrate. As road trauma is now one of the worlds leading causes of death there is also much to learn from it. For those who care about making a difference, this story will guide and inspire showing what is possible when a community is determined to address the tragedy and cost of road trauma.
Professor Lord Meghnad Desai is a world-renowned commentator on globalisation and de-globalisation. He is currently Chair of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) Advisory Board, founder Chairman of the Meghnad Desai Academy of Economics in Mumbai (MDAE), and Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE). Desai has published many scholarly articles and a number of books, as well as having been a regular columnist for British and Indian newspapers over many years. This collection of essays has been collated from Professor Lord Meghnad Desai's published and unpublished papers written between 1994 and 2016.
In a world of fake news and populist politics, elections can seem like theatre. With growing rates of informal votes and a perceived narrowing of differences between the major parties, do Australian elections really matter? Taking ten examples, this book argues that elections do matter (even when you think they dont). It is not just elections with memorable jingles or triumphant campaigns from opposition to government that can shape the nation. Could it be that the Labor loss in 1969 formed the country more than the famous win in 1972? Or did the return of the Coalition in 1954 have more impact than securing government in 1949? Elections Matter looks at prime ministers and policies that never were and examines how the democratic process could have produced a different country. Had key elections taken a different turn, Australia might have had a different constitution, a different head of state, a different health and education system and a different foreign policy approach. This book looks at ten elections that formed Australia.--
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