Follow the links to read these articles in full.Download a printable version of SPC News. Subsidiarity – empowering people to take responsibility. Peter Whiting We are experiencing around the world a number of unrelated large-scale protest movements, which seem broadly to have in common only that they are each demanding greater political freedom and social […]
Grattan Institute’s Owain Emslie & Danielle Wood The Newstart unemployment benefit is all over the news. It’s the subject of a Senate inquiry. Today, it will take evidence in Elizabeth, in what used to be Adelaide’s industrial north. Should it be increased? Should recipients be paid with a cashless card? Or drug tested? Or stripped […]
Chris Barrie Australian National University. This is part of a new series looking at the national security challenges facing Australia, how our leaders are responding to them through legislation, and how these measures are impacting society. Read the rest of the series here. It is evident from Australia’s increasingly severe droughts and record-breaking heatwaves that […]
Eddie Synot UNSW. Many will feel a sense of déjà vu when reading the minister for Indigenous Australians’ announcement of a co-design process for a ‘voice to government’. This is yet another process in the long journey of Indigenous people to set things right and for our voices to be heard. Ken Wyatt’s announcement states […]
Peter Whiting. Not even sure what ‘subsidiarity’ is, let alone whether it is relevant to today’s problems? No need to feel inadequate. It is an awkward word, and its meaning can be elusive. It emerged in Catholic Social Teaching in 1931 in Pius XI’s social encyclical, Quadragesimo Anno. It was asserted as a fundamental principle […]
Jeremy Smith. While local drought-affected communities are declaring a climate emergency, present proposals to mitigate the impacts of drought fail to address the real crisis. They do not recognise that this drought is not just another variation on ‘normal’ conditions, but a step towards a new climate. Radical and comprehensive planning and action are required. […]
Susan Connelly. A great deal is being written about the violence and deaths in Papua and West Papua, the two provinces of Indonesia which occupy the western half of the island of New Guinea. But what is being done about it? The confusion of names in this region exacerbates the problem. West Irian, Irian Jaya, […]
Bruce Duncan. How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that? Some 65 Australian women […]
Download a printable version of SPC News Climate change: not just about economics, but also about ecology & ethics Peter Whiting Some 300,000 people marched in Australia on 20 September in support of the student-inspired demonstrations, three days before the UN Climate Summit in New York, indicating how many are acutely dissatisfied with the government’s […]
Bill Hare Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. This piece is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. It is almost five years since the landmark Paris deal was struck. Nearly 200 countries agreed to work towards limiting global warming to […]
