Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
Free Liu Xiaobo
[Speech delivered in the Australian Parliament]
The winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo, is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for ‘incitement to subvert state power’, having been sentenced on 25 December 2009. The main reason charges were brought against him was his support for Charter 08, a citizens’ manifesto created to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and conceived as a Chinese version of the renowned Czech Charter 77, which was presented by former President Vaclav Havel as a freedom charter for the Czech Republic. Havel’s charter was an emblem, and was instrumental in people in Eastern Europe achieving their freedom.
Charter 08 states:
… the Chinese people, who have endured human rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these years of Communist rule now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins
