Starving the Nation's Mind- David Ritter

One of the features of the premiership of that clever politician John Howard has been the profession of his "full bodied commitment to Australian values",  which he sees as "an outshoot of western civilization."...

The Great Education Consensus - Why Do We No Longer Seem to be Really Interested in Equity? - Martin Forsey

To borrow a well known marketing slogan, 'schools are us'. More than any other social institution, a school offers a powerful lens for viewing and comprehending the wider society in which it is produced and replicated...

Education inequalities in Australia - Fred Argy

In all countries, education performance varies markedly between high and low socio-economic groups. The achievement gap can be partly explained by genetic influences but it is also due to differences in resources and opportunities...

The Lance Barnard Memorial Address to Group Training Australia - Stephen Smith

The Lance Barnard Memorial Address was delivered to Group Training Australia by Stephen Smith MP, Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Member for Perth on 30 March 2007...

Immigrants: the Market Needs Them - Lucy Young

On 23rd February 2007, Phillipe Legrain gave the annual Bill Warnock Memorial Lecture as part of the Words and Ideas programme of the Perth International Arts Festival. Legrain is a British economist and an advocate of globalisation and free migration, and he was speaking about his new book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them ...

The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press (Review) - Marcus Priest

For the last 11 years of the Howard Government, right-wing columnists have done a good job of marginalising agendas which are critical of the conservative agenda. They have done so through the devices of ridicule, misrepresentation, and bullying. More importantly they have effectively hijacked the English language from their privileged position of a weekly column and been allowed to define the terms of reporting for the rest of the popular media...

A conversation with Antony Loewenstein - Melanie Book

Over a decade has passed since Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, supposedly heralding a new era of peace in the Middle East. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on, however, a seemingly endless cycle of bloodshed, tenuous ceasefires and failed negotiations...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Chip Kidd! Review of: Good is Dead: Chip Kidd, 26.03.07. AGDA International Speaker Tour 2007 - Anna Maley-Fadgyas

He stood before the crowd reminiscent of a classic, 50s comic-book character. Hair waxed immaculately, eyes framed with round-rimmed glasses, body clad in a grey suit and waistcoat. Chip Kidd appeared bold, strikingly different, beautifully drawn and ever so faintly exaggerated. Had a speech-bubble appeared containing the words he spoke it may not have seemed out of place...

Architecture on the Edge - Geoff Warn

The OGA (Office of the Government Architect) must be pleased with the first of its series of presentations at the Bakery in Northbridge, Perth, and the team are to be congratulated for the successful and well-attended event that took place in March...

Valedictory Address - Delivered at the UWA Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Graduation Ceremony, March 2007 - Andrew Thackrah

At some point during my arts degree I came across a variation of a Greek proverb that reads "the fox may know many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing and it is enough".  We are often reminded that Western Australia has its share of foxes within its institutions - those who, proclaiming the benefits of experience or the virtues of economic commonsense -seek to put inherently contested issues beyond debate and uncritically shape the direction of public policy. Some wear panama hats - others more conventional attire...

The Corruption and Crime Commission Inquiry - Simon Thackrah

The inquiry by the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) into the lobbying activities of Brian Burke and Julian Grill had all the makings of a great story: the resurrection of a disgraced Premier, a Minister receiving instructions on the floor of Parliament, the rewriting of a parliamentary report at the behest of a mining company, the regular breaching of cabinet confidentiality and the attempted assembling of a cross-factional 'dream team' that would extend the influence of the two svengalis into the future...