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Editor's note
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They might have “stopped the boats”, but when it comes to asylum seekers arriving by aeroplane the Liberal Party has nothing to boast about. More than 95,000 people have flown into the country and lodged an asylum claim in the last five years.
Labor’s Kristina Keneally has branded this a “crisis” – but asylum seekers have every right to lodge claims when they’re already on Australian soil and circumstances are beyond their control.
The real “crisis” comes from the organisational failure of the Home Affairs Department’s refugee-processing system.
For one thing, the sky-high staff turnover means there’s a significant loss of corporate memory. Then there’s the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which is stacked with political allies of the Liberal Party with no legal expertise.
Regina Jefferies explains that this leads to long processing delays and backlogs. But she says it can be fixed with more staffing, better resourcing and transparent appointments of decision-makers.
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Anthea Batsakis
Deputy Editor: Politics + Society
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Top stories
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The government gutted the ranks of experienced decision-makers and made organisational changes that undermined the quality of its decisions.
AAP/James Gourley
Regina Jefferies, UNSW; Daniel Ghezelbash, Macquarie University
From high staff turnovers to filling the appeals tribunal with political allies, the Home Affairs Department needs to clean its mess.
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Peak-time drivers to the CBDs of Sydney and Melbourne typically earn much more than the average worker.
Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock
Marion Terrill, Grattan Institute; James Ha, Grattan Institute
Commuters who drive to and from the CBD typically earn much more than most. Concerns about the fairness of charging drivers who use these busy roads at peak times are overblown.
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Accepting a donor kidney with a small risk of carrying HIV or hepatitis B or C might be worth thinking about.
from www.shutterstock.com
Karen Waller, University of Sydney; Angela Webster, University of Sydney
Organs from gay men or injecting drug users, often rejected for transplants, could safely be used, so long as donors test negative for infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C.
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The Australian government refers to asylum seekers who arrived by boat as ‘illegal’ entrants.
James Ross/AAP
Merrilyn Delporte, Queensland University of Technology; Bree Hurst, Queensland University of Technology
Asylum seekers are not permanent residents and have to pay full fees for university courses. Just as doctors led the campaign to get kids off Nauru, academics can advocate for access to education.
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Business + Economy
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David C. Ribar, University of Melbourne
Getting people off welfare appears to "disappear" as many as it puts into jobs.
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John Quiggin, The University of Queensland; Robin Smit, The University of Queensland
Surprise findings have revealed that Australia's cars are getting less fuel-efficient. This is bad news for the hip pockets of motorists – and for the climate.
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Arts + Culture
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Ana Silkatcheva, University of Sydney
No god but God at the Art Gallery of South Australia looks at over 1000 years of Islamic art, from Indonesia to Spain. It is a magnificent and necessary exhibition.
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Claire Hansen, James Cook University
Seeking ways to engage students with Shakespeare's Scottish play in far north Queensland, highlights disjunctions and surprising correlations between play and place.
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Politics + Society
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Jodi McKay and Anthony Albanese have announced an inquiry into the head office of the NSW ALP, following shocking revelations about scandals in the handling of donations.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan discuss the acts of civil disobedience by climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, and consider what Australia's responsibility is in the Turkey-Syria conflict.
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Piero Moraro, Charles Sturt University
They've been branded as anarchists and 'fringe-dwellers', but do Extinction Rebellion protesters really warrant such drastic reactions?
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Science + Technology
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Simon D Angus, Monash University
Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge is bidding to break the mythical 2-hour barrier in Vienna this week. Analysis of previous world records suggest he needs to find an extra 15 seconds from somwhere.
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Adrian Dyer, RMIT University; Jair Garcia, RMIT University; Scarlett Howard, Université de Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier
Honeybees are good at maths, but it was thought they could only count to four. That is, unless you present them with a task in which they are punished with a bitter-tasting drink for getting it wrong.
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Featured jobs
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Odgers Berndtson — Macquarie Park, New South Wales
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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University of South Australia — Adelaide, South Australia
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Macquarie University — Sydney, New South Wales
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Featured events
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TBC, Wellington, 5000, New Zealand — Australia New Zealand School of Government
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Court 8A, Federal Court of Australia, Owen Dixon Commonwealth Law Courts, Building 305 William Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — Monash University
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University of Technology Sydney, Building 8, 14 Ultimo Road, Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — Australia New Zealand School of Government
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Cricket Victoria Junction Oval, Lakeside Drive, St Kilda, Victoria, 3182, Australia — Monash University
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