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Once upon time, the chorus of outrage over Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers included sitting Liberal MPs. Those who remember the Howard years will also remember Judith Troeth and Petro Georgiou — Liberal MPs who broke ranks over the government’s approach to refugees.
This week, Australia has again been confronted with the impact its border security policies have on real people, real families and real kids. The image of an unwell three-year-old Tharunicaa Murugappan, crying in a hospital bed, is hard to ignore.
And yet many within the Coalition are managing just that. As chief political correspondent Michelle Grattan writes, small-l Liberals are now more or less an endangered species. “Those that exist in the government’s most senior ranks … are rather like people who used to actively practise their religion but now have become nominal believers.”
Granted, border security is politically sensitive. But, in this case, why can’t the government take the logical course and allow the Murugappan family to go back to Biloela, where they want to go and where the community will welcome them? “The people smugglers are not going to snap back into action … just because a humanitarian exception is made for one couple and their kids.”
Meanwhile, Tharunicaa and her big sister, Kopika, remain the only two children in immigration detention in Australia.
And finally, if you value our work and haven’t already, please support us with a donation. With your help, quality information can reach more people.
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Judith Ireland
Deputy Editor, Politics + Society
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Biance De Marchi/AAP
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
If the government is considering the release of the Biloela Tamil family, they may force the family to take a tortuous route rather than the simple one, writes Michelle Grattan.
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Joel Carrett/AAP
Maria O'Sullivan, Monash University
Australians will be able to show specific online proof if they have had two doses of a COVID jab.
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Photo: Thomas Astell-Burt
Thomas Astell-Burt, University of Wollongong; Xiaoqi Feng, UNSW
For the areas of cities with less than 10% green space, increasing that to 30% could cut the overall odds of residents becoming lonely by a quarter.
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Sant-Rayn Pasricha, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; Paul Monagle, The University of Melbourne
If you have risk factors around blood clots, heart attack or stroke, this should actually be an impetus to get vaccinated sooner rather than later.
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Bjorn Sturmberg, Australian National University; Kathryn Lucas-Healey, Australian National University; Laura Jones, Australian National University; Mejbaul Haque, Australian National University
The electric vehicle transition is about more than just scrapping petrol cars. We must also ensure quality technology, anticipate the future and make sure no-one gets left behind.
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Warwick Bowen
Warwick Bowen, The University of Queensland
Quantum microscopes reveal biological structures that would otherwise be impossible to see.
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Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (2017).
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Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato
We may never know whether the pandemic began with a leak at the Wuhan lab. But even the possibility shows we need a universal biosafety code to prevent something similar happening in future.
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Arts + Culture
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Maria Takolander, Deakin University
In popular films and TV shows, poetry is typically used to express human feelings. This popular wisdom chimes with findings in cognitive neuroscience about how language works.
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Education
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Matthew Mclaughlin, University of Newcastle; Luke Wolfenden, University of Newcastle; Nicole McCarthy, University of Newcastle; Nicole Nathan, University of Newcastle
Nine in ten parents agree school uniforms should support their kids to be active. That's only one reason schools should let kids wear sports uniforms. They're also cheaper and kids prefer them.
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Health + Medicine
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Michelle Wise, University of Auckland
The latest advice is to offer COVID-19 vaccines to women at any stage of pregnancy to protect them from a higher risk of severe disease – and to give their babies an early boost of antibodies.
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Fiona McKay, Deakin University
COVID has exposed how vulnerable Australia's food charities are in times of crisis. But we can prepare for the next disaster.
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Science + Technology
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Melissa Southey, Monash University; Tu Nguyen-Dumont, Monash University
Two decades after the 'full' human genetic code was released to global fanfare, researchers have finally filled in the blanks that made up 8% of the sequence, thanks to recent advances in genome sequencing.
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The haul from Operation Ironside is impressive. But it has also shown how Australia has become a destination of choice for transnational organised crime groups.
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