NUMBER 21 SPRING 2006

EDITORIAL: discusses the nuclear option and finds that it is unlikely to be economic in Australia because electricity generation from renewable sources will probably remain significantly cheaper than production from nuclear or clean coal sources.

MARK DIESENDORF: says the main barriers to a clean energy future are institutional together with the political power of the fossil fuel industry.

BRIAN WALTERS: analyses the Dreyfus Affair and its modern parallels with the treatment of David Hicks.

JULIE MARCUS: describes how each of the pillars of Australian democracy – an independent judiciary, responsible and accountable government, an elected parliament, the rule of law, well-resourced opposition parties and a free media – have been undermined.

CHRIS WHITE: points out the right to strike is a basic human right which has been effectively denied to Australian workers by the Howard Government’s WorkChoices legislation.

LANCE COLLINS: describes how the politicisation of military intelligence undermines society as well as leading to costly failures in East Timor and Iraq.

CLINTON FERNANDES: records the history of Indonesia’s involvement in West Papua and argues that the operations of the Indonesian military are the main reason for indigenous pressure for Papuan independence.

ADAM HUGHES HENRY: criticises the Howard government for labelling PNG, the Solomon Islands and East Timor as badly governed while refusing to apply the same standards to Indonesia where corruption and civil rights abuse is worse.

RICHARD DENNISS: calculates Australian taxpayers provide more support for the retirement incomes of high income earners through superannuation subsidies than for low income earners who must rely on the age pension in retirement.

GAYNOR MACDONALD: explains how native title legislation has encouraged an adversarial approach to aboriginal land claims, creating winners and losers, undermining the spirit of reconciliation and often causing conflict between aboriginals themselves.

DENIS KENNY: argues the world operates its political, economic, cultural and religious institutions on the basis of dangerous and outmoded certitudes – these must be replaced by a new set of assumptions based on the scientific developments of the 20th century in order to avoid international conflict and eco-destruction.

FRED ARGY: says that in response to the hardening of community attitudes to redistributive policies the Left should recast the focus of the welfare debate from inequalities of outcome to inequality of opportunity to improve income mobility where it can be shown that such policies generate substantial economic benefits.


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