The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe









On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0
February 9, 2010
Climate change: the international system required to protect the lives of future generations is failing.
Science & Technology - Andrew Glikson
 
Water is by far the most dominant natural greenhouse gas responsible for heating the planet to its current comfort level.
Science & Technology - Shann Turnbull
 
Australia’s bankruptcy laws are out of step with today’s credit market place: the current reforms need to acknowledge this.
Law & Liberties - Nicole Rich and Fiona Guthrie
 
Developing economies are some of the world leaders in clean technology.
Environment - R. Sean Randolph
 
Terrorists get high on the oxygen of publicity, so how do we go about suffocating them?
International - Judy Cannon
 
No previous time, no previous place, have we ever had it as good as the average Australian has now. But at what cost?
Society - Valerie Yule
 
Cartoon
Matt Bissett-Johnson
mattbj.blogspot.com

Featured Topic - February
China

February Feature - ChinaWhat are the limits to Chinese mercantilism? ...

Read More

Call for Contributions - March Feature
The luxury of wilderness?

Send your submission to the editorOur population is increasing and with it comes some decision making about our land. Can we afford to have land locked up in national and state parks? Can we afford the luxury of wilderness? Or should we be looking at ways to use this land sustainably?

Please send submissions to the editor.


Eureka Street - compassion justice courage reflection analysis discernment ...
Associates
Henry Thornton

Our Members



Ambit Gambit - Our blog
Onward Capitalist Soldiers!

Ambit Gambit Lots of people I know are either still pouring their money into super or leaving it for another few years until it recovers the losses of the past year or so. One friend told me just the other day that...

Read More

Find us on:



Advertisement

Advertisement


Advertisement


Today's Most Popular Articles
»  Indian student attacks: fledgling democracies can do better
»  The size of nations
»  Converging on opportunity
»  The Black Saturday dragon
»  Martyrdom and other revolutionary miracles
This Week's Most Popular
»  The launch, the crash and the recovery of My School
»  Racism an everyday occurrence
»  Adam's rib
»  The kidnapping of Haiti
»  Big girls do cry
This Week's Most Discussed
»  The V word
»  Racism an everyday occurrence
»  Adam's rib
»  Misunderstanding the Family Law
»  Rudd: intelligent, wonkish, cautious and polished


Monday, February 8, 2010

Victoria faces another February with many of the same underlying bleak fire tragedy conditions faced on Black Saturday.
Environment - Max Rheese - 4 comments
 
The assaults on Indians: both India and Australia need to come together to work out a solution.
Law & Liberties - Malcolm King - 4 comments
 
Industry and product convergence are creating new opportunities and challenges for manufacturers.
Economics - Leon Gettler
 
Why are countries these days breaking up quicker than a Hollywood marriage?
International - Andrew Leigh - 3 comments
 
Traditional Chinese is characterised as one of the oldest and most beautiful written languages in the world.
International - Jerry Chuang - 1 comment
 
Mary MacKillop's prospective sainthood has brought miracles into public discussion.
Religion & Spirituality - Andrew Hamilton - 8 comments
 

Friday, February 5, 2010

The 2010 election won’t be particularly meaningful; there is no viable alternative to the Rudd Government.
Domestic Politics - Michael Giannopoulos - 39 comments
 
Politicians loathe being asked about population policy; in Copenhagen the impact of human numbers was officially invisible.
Environment - Melvin Bolton - 32 comments
 
China is flaunting its new found strength and rubbing it in our faces. The West's past arrogance is coming back home to bite.
Feature - Brian Hennessy - 10 comments
 
Flags are currently essential for a nation’s identity, and what we have on our flag requires serious thought.
Political Philosophy - Brian Holden - 8 comments
 
The government's always coming up with ways to spend our money: it won't get out of our pockets so we can look after ourselves.
Economics - Bryan Kavanagh - 17 comments
 
Rupert Murdoch: The untold story. That’s the promise of 'Inside Rupert’s Brain' by Paul R. La Monica. And it’s also the lie.
Media - Jonathan J. Ariel - 4 comments
 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

'The Biggest Loser' doesn’t inspire health. It's a representation of torture, cultural ideals and placing self worth and value in being thin.
Health - Noelle Graham - 8 comments
 
Despite the recommendations, A-G Robert McClelland has flagged that he is reluctant to change the shared parenting laws.
Law & Liberties - Barbara Biggs - 44 comments
 
Mention art and p*rnography together and people immediately position themselves at opposite ends of the room.
Law & Liberties - Kathy Keele - 13 comments
 
The challenge of Christian art is to get both the theology and the art right.
Religion & Spirituality - Peter Sellick - 8 comments
 
With a new TV ratings season dawning there is no doubt there has been a search for the Holy Grail: that is to find the next Jana Wendt.
Media - Sasha Uzunov - 2 comments
 
Did the National Health and Medical Research Council learn anything from the Marshall and Warren experience?
Science & Technology - Peter Baume - 2 comments
 

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

China generates trade surpluses and foreign exchange reserves at the expense of trading partners’ exports, trade imbalances and employment opportunities.
Feature - Arthur Thomas - 2 comments
 
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude.
International - John Pilger - 22 comments
 
The question must be asked: why, if Haiti matters so much to us now, did it matter so little before the earthquake?
International - Bronwyn Winter - 3 comments
 
Why the dogged misreading of Tony Abbott’s remark? It's important to criticise people for what they've said, not for what they haven’t said.
Domestic Politics - Helen Pringle - 50 comments
 
Country Australia has a long way to go to overcome racist attitudes towards Indigenous Australians.
Indigenous Affairs - Joshua Lloyd - 50 comments
 
Viewing China as an inevitable convert to the religion of democracy is blind and deterministic.
International - Thom Woodroofe - 3 comments
 

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

When the movie 'Avatar' was mysteriously pulled from the cinemas in China, bloggers and pundits suspected censorship.
International - Mary Kay Magistad - 2 comments
 
Labor must either adapt its climate policy to the political realities, or face a third rejection of its CPRS in an election year.
Domestic Politics - Leigh Ewbank - 10 comments
 
Welfare resources that do get to Indigenous communities are often subject to a variety of deductions.
Indigenous Affairs - Ernest Hunter - 5 comments
 
Some people take the Bible as literal truth. They believe that Eve was actually taken from Adam's rib.
Religion & Spirituality - David Fisher - 46 comments
 
Why did a Chinese company buy Swedish brand, Volvo, from an American-owned mother company?
Feature - Roger Kalla - 6 comments
 
The reality facing the Reserve Bank is that inflation is too high for comfort as economic recovery gathers strength.
Economics - Henry Thornton - 1 comment
 

Monday, February 1, 2010

When you get into the business of comparing schools, with all this entails, there can be little margin for error - too much is at stake.
Education - Chris Bonnor - 21 comments
 
There are no limits on China's mercantilist policies because they are appropriate, effective and flexible.
Feature - Peter Coates - 5 comments
 
There is simply no good argument for Australia maintaining a flag which excludes Indigenous Australians.
Political Philosophy - Greg Barns - 28 comments
 
Australia will talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk, as its reliance upon coal exports alone quashes any environmental bid at the domestic level.
Environment - Chris Lewis - 18 comments
 
Labor needs to build an ecosystem for entrepreneurs - an Institute on Entrepreneurship.
Economics - Chris Golis - 11 comments
 
Boronia Pre-Release Centre is an experiment gone right and ignores the crowd-pleasing rhetoric about 'toughness on crime'.
Law & Liberties - Susie Byers - 2 comments
 

Friday, January 29, 2010

The Global Atheist Convention: why won't Richard Dawkins, outspoken atheist, publically debate Carl Weiland, creationist?
Religion & Spirituality - Michael Viljoen - 75 comments
 
We should shame Tony Abbott for his hypocrisy every time he sounds off on moral behaviour.
Society - Helen Dale - 40 comments
 
What exactly did Tony Abbott, father of three beautiful teenage girls, say to get him into so much trouble?
Society - Warwick Marsh - 50 comments
 
Liberalism today has been forced to become the defender of the status quo.
January Feature - Andrew Carr - 12 comments
 
As a disabled person living on welfare you are politically dead, silenced by the conviction that your source of income is somehow a sign of moral damage.
January Feature - DeusEx Macintosh - 6 comments
 
There is a sense that increasingly the modern Australian nation is coming to terms with its past.
Society - Tristan Ewins - 18 comments
 

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Racist attacks in Melbourne: time for some deeper thought.
Law & Liberties - Brad Ruting - 13 comments
 
It's clear Julia Gillard believes 'underperformance' by teachers and schools is the biggest obstacle to getting a world class education.
Education - Mike Williss - 27 comments
 
Google: advantage China for now, but it can’t stop the march of globalisation.
International - Jeffrey Garten - 5 comments
 
Major car companies and well-funded startups are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.
Science & Technology - Jim Motavalli - 15 comments
 
Negotiations between Israel, Jordan and Egypt remain the only way to resolve sovereignty in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
International - David Singer - 17 comments
 
'Lost' and its relatives are part of a broader transformation of television drama.
January Feature - James Bradley
 

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Our teenagers are becoming increasingly alienated: youth culture is not one of belonging anymore.
Society - Kirsten Oakley - 8 comments
 
Oil palm is substantially more sustainable compared with other oils: it needs less land and less resources to produce more.
Environment - Tim Wilson - 9 comments
 
Copenhagen: the end point in a long cycle of top-down, bureaucratic, multilateralism launched at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
Environment - Jeremy Gilling and John Muscat - 21 comments
 
The Government has introduced a Bill into Parliament offering greater protection to refugees fleeing human rights violations.
Law & Liberties - Jane McAdam - 5 comments
 
Having seen the brilliant work that is 'The War of the Roses', dropping the company that made it seems like a terrible failure of imagination.
January Feature - Alison Croggon
 
This post is a creative, experimental mash-up of personal experience plus one of the poems Bernhard Schlink.
January Feature - Angela Meyer
 
Conservative politicians don't seem to notice that the institutions promoting a liberal/left wing agenda are the police and the army.
January Feature - Andrew Carr - 5 comments
 

Monday, January 25, 2010

Australia Day 2010: learn something new about Australia and then tell someone you know or meet.
Society - Rosie Williams - 22 comments
 
Just a year after the 'change you can believe in' election of Barack Obama things have turned out to be a lot more complicated.
International - Brendon O'Connor - 7 comments
 
Are Australians finally about to get the protection of a national human rights act?
Law & Liberties - Susan Ryan - 42 comments
 
Inflation is a hidden tax, an insidious crime against the public.
Economics - Puru Saxena - 13 comments
 
The more we can help poor governments provide basic services to their citizens, the less space we allow for radical rebels to fill the void.
Society - Andrew Leigh - 5 comments
 
The Indigenous representative body, the Ethics Council, should be 'a new dawn', but instead seems reminiscent of ATSIC’s final days.
Indigenous Affairs - Stephen Hagan - 6 comments
 

Friday, January 22, 2010

As the Obama administration responds to this crisis in Haiti, it should learn from past experience.
International - Roger Noriega - 19 comments
 
The closure of iconic rock venue The Tote provoked a groundswell of opposition to Victoria’s draconian liquor licensing laws.
Law & Liberties - Chris Doig - 6 comments
 
However unhappy, no one can divorce China now.
Law & Liberties - Jonathan Fenby - 11 comments
 
A good law has to set up a system of incentives to make people keep it along with disincentives to stop them breaking it.
Law & Liberties - Legal Eagle - 32 comments
 
The NTEU's implied suggestion that research activity is necessary for effective teaching at university is a red herring.
January Feature - Lucy Tartan - 16 comments
 
It is in the West that Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans mix with ease. It is here that the artifice of partition is most evident.
Society - Tanveer Ahmed - 2 comments
 

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Australians would be astonished to learn how little the Japanese public knows about whaling.
Environment - Junichi Sato - 8 comments
 
Western Australia remains a state firmly wedded to market principles; the mining industry occupies particular pride of place.
Society - Sarah Burnside - 6 comments
 
When writing first drafts you look for the rhythm and the energy. But mostly it’s a matter of feeling a way forward.
January Feature - James Bradley - 1 comment
 
A little look around tells us what a difference humans have made to the world in the past 150 years.
Society - Valerie Yule - 6 comments
 
The vast majority of people, including every national government in the world, accepts the scientific explanation for global warming.
Environment - Mike Pope - 40 comments
 
Celebrating her 51st birthday in 2010, no other doll has influenced popular culture as widely and enduringly as Barbie.
Society - Katie Ellis - 3 comments
 

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Copenhagen was an historical watershed that marked the beginning of the end of climate hysteria and symbolised the loss of Western dominance.
Environment - Benny Peiser - 15 comments
 
A botanical story that questions scientific integrity and the trust we put in our scientists and the scientific process.
Science & Technology - Roger Underwood - 5 comments
 
The sudden closure of an English language school in Shanghai has left the expat teachers marooned and broke, unable to move on.
International - Cireena Simcox - 5 comments
 
Governments, businesses, and homeowners should assume that the world’s oceans will rise by at least two metres.
Environment - Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young - 33 comments
 
By revegetating the countryside and retaining moisture in the environment we can minimise the effects of drought.
Environment - Ian Read - 13 comments
 
THe United States' housing plan response to the GFC is a long-term policy disaster.
January Feature - Christopher Joye - 2 comments
 

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Can one be both European and Muslim?
International - Shada Islam - 80 comments
 
China’s international profile continues to expand in line with its global economic interests and burgeoning military capability.
International - Dean Cheng - 1 comment
 
There is hypocrisy in Australia's decisions on who is let into the country.
Media - Greg Barns - 23 comments
 
There are only a few groups of Aboriginals left in the world, Australia should be proud of those who live here.
Indigenous Affairs - Don Allan - 10 comments
 
The NSW Government is developing mineral resources which require the huge consumption of natural resources like water.
Domestic Politics - Kellie Tranter
 
Three experiments were undertaken to gauge racial and ethnic discrimination in Australia.
January Feature - Andrew Leigh - 23 comments
 

Monday, January 18, 2010

There is no basis for claims that the case for human-caused global warming has collapsed, nor that any climate scientists have been discredited.
Science & Technology - Geoff Davies - 50 comments
 
A letter to the 'NT News' raises questions about equality between the sexes and how the military perceive women.
Society - Mark Chou - 29 comments
 
Nations won't compromise economic growth by losing industry competitiveness in the name of mitigating climate change.
Environment - Geoff Carmody - 4 comments
 
The shift from salaries to performance incentives for executives has been cited as a contributing factor in the GFC.
Economics - David Baker - 2 comments
 
Coptic Christians are the indigenous people of Egypt: their coexistence with the Muslim majority is a tense one.
International - Farid Farid - 5 comments
 
The Australian response to the climate challenge should be direct public investment in renewable energy and sustainability.
Environment - Tristan Ewins - 15 comments
 

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Productivity Commission's Report has shied away from dealing with the huge gap between executive packages and the average wage.
Domestic Politics - Klaas Woldring - 1 comment
 
The Labor Left likes to pretend that it is the conscience of the Party, yet in reality it has become a self serving faction.
Political Philosophy - Marko Beljac - 39 comments
 
Only the terminally gormless remain true to the Obama brand of 'world peace'.
International - John Pilger - 14 comments
 
Tony Abbott: political leaders become interesting when they show us who they really are.
Domestic Politics - Martin Stewart-Weeks - 7 comments
 
Tony Abbott’s leadership of the Coalition will fully test the Rudd Labor government prior to the next federal election.
Domestic Politics - Chris Lewis - 12 comments
 
To rely on a government warning system during bushfires is to rely on something that is inherently unreliable.
January Feature - Roger Underwood - 4 comments
 

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Summernats: where women become decorations and objects adorning the trays of souped-up holden utes.
Society - Beth Doherty - 23 comments
 
Al Qaeda recruits terrorists online, turning the democratic space on its head.
International - Gabriel Weimann - 4 comments
 
The ideal of sustainability is a dream of stasis; a utopian fantasy of paradise.
Environment - Justin Jefferson - 25 comments
 
Is the highly flammable eucalypt the right tree for rural dwellings, the urban fringes and semi-settled areas?
Environment - Robert Darby and Nick Brown - 14 comments
 
When the Egyptian government closed the crossing into Gaza, it ironically provided more opportunities for the Gaza Freedom Marchers.
International - Ron Witton - 2 comments
 
Towns such as Fushun can be found in their thousands across the length and breadth of China. But dig a little deeper ...
International - Brian Hennessy - 4 comments
 

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Nuclear reactor sales to Arab countries are drawing little criticism because they benefit the West.
International - Peter Coates - 17 comments
 
Tiger Woods has given the gossip magazines heaps of material over the usually-dull Christmas period.
Society - Peter West - 19 comments
 
A child is defined by age, which is not always consistent with the age of consent, or age of majority.
Law & Liberties - Bob Ryan - 26 comments
 
We tax people who are doers, yet reward those who live off the citizens’ rent.
November Feature - Bryan Kavanagh - 42 comments
 
The Gazan people are being collectively punished to pressure the democratically elected Hamas Government.
International - Antony Loewenstein - 6 comments
 
Israel: the EU needs to recognise Jewish rights to sovereignty in the West Bank and understand its current legal status.
International - David Singer - 5 comments
 

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Victorians need to send a message of aggressive intolerance towards the racist and prejudiced bottom crawlers in our society.
Law & Liberties - Tim Watts - 39 comments
 
Yemen is a vital battlefield in the war against Al Qaeda but the epicentre is still in Pakistan.
International - Bruce Riedel - 1 comment
 
How many books come with a warning? The 'Guinness World Records 2010' trips out some more amazing facts and figures.
Society - Ben-Peter Terpstra
 
A rampant Tony Abbott is no good to anyone, inside the Liberal Party or out.
January Feature - Andrew Elder - 7 comments
 
Local government needs clear strategic direction and guidance to incorporate affordable housing into their policy frameworks.
Society - Jieh-Yung Lo - 6 comments
 
From fruit farms to travel agencies, experiments represent a powerful challenge to business as usual.
Economics - Andrew Leigh - 3 comments
 

Monday, January 11, 2010

The big lie peddled by the UN is the notion that a doubling of CO2 concentration will cause as much as 2-4.5C of 'global warming'.
Environment - Christopher Monckton - 238 comments
 
'Banking' is a necessary public good that all Australians require access to in order to make their way in life.
Economics - Christopher Joye - 5 comments
 
Three new diseases have decimated populations of amphibians, honeybees and, most recently, bats.
Environment - Sonia Shah - 5 comments
 
Asylum seekers: a regional problem has become very much Australia’s problem alone.
Society - Helen Dehn - 24 comments
 
The next decade risks seeing an acceleration of the European decline and its increasing global irrelevance.
International - Jean-Pierre Lehmann - 2 comments
 
The Chinese paradox: a grassroots counter-argument to why China has no soft power.
International - Ming Hwa Ting - 7 comments
 

Advertisement
About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy