The Rudd Government is off to a good start with its determination
to right the wrongs of past decades and to confront a set of seemingly
intractable indigenous issues; a determination to move quickly from symbolism
to action. But what will determine success?
KateMason
Articles by KateMason:
Renovating the constitution – why delay?
The issue
of the Republic and Constitutional reform has been been relegated to a ‘second term issue’ under the Rudd Government. In the event of a
referendum, voters would first be asked if they want a Republic and then,
later, what kind of a President they prefer and how this person should be
elected. This procedure risks failure. The more important question – to find out what kind of a Republic is needed in the twenty
first century – is still quite remote. Indeed, as one monarchist sympathetic to system reform summed it up to me recently: ‘Republicans still need to
more
InSight Edition | April 2008
InSight Edition | March 2008
Photo courtesy of John Perivolaris.
InSight Edition | February 2008
The new government will not have the luxury of avoiding difficult issues, but it must also avoid the temptation to play Santa and drop policy solutions on the populace like packages down a chimney. more
Climate change litigation – the heat is on
If it has taken governments so long to accept the reality of climate change, how long will it take them to agree on finding solutions? Will they look for the best way of tackling it, or simply the most politically expedient? Is there anything we can do to force them to act, and to act properly?
On matters to do with climate change our governments have forsaken objective inquiry, blinkered any capacity for sensible foresight and long ago abandoned intelligent planning.