The latest offering from local playwright, Grahame Patterson, was premiered on the weekend of 4-6 May 2012. Entitled ‘Rewind’, this play challenges contemporary attitudes to sexuality, especially female behaviours that mirror the apparently acceptable male sexual mores. The script challenges the audience with the questions, “When is too much of a good thing too much?” [...]
Looking back, I would have to say that the freely made decision to marry the love of my life was the most significant and momentous commitment I have ever made. To make this institution a cause celebre on the grounds of gender is, to put it bluntly, beyond the powers invested in any individual, including [...]
I think that Armidale is very fortunate to have the Belgrave Cinema. Its location is very central to the town and the Ex-Services Club. The staff and their service to the public are terrific. The Belgrave deserves all the help it can be given. May I suggest three ways in which it could be more [...]
There have been recent calls for the Parliament to vote to remove two Members from the House. In Australia, the power to make and manage federal law is divided between three groups: the Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary. This division is known as “separation of powers” and is an important principle in Australia’s system [...]
The ALP’s dallying over the alleged improper actions of Peter Slipper (Speaker of the Federal Lower House) and Craig Thomson (Federal MP for Dobell, NSW) reflected Julia Gillard’s desperation to hang on to the ALP’s one-seat majority in the Lower House for as long as possible. In terms of a near-hung Parliament, it is right [...]
Peter Slipper’s slide down the slippery slope is beginning to smell like a sleazy Liberal “get even†plot. It has been suggested that Slipper’s gay accuser was contacted by the prominent Liberal, Christopher Pyne. If this is true, then it is nothing unusual. His colleague and our future Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was involved in [...]
Several weeks ago callers on talkback radio shows on 2AD were highly critical of the Federal Government spending about $300,000 on a study to examine community views about Anzac Day, in preparation for the centenary. Typical views on 2AD included “If those people who come to Australia don’t like what we do here, then they [...]
I write on behalf of The Salvation Army to ask if your readers would be kind enough to help with this year’s Red Shield Appeal. Right now The Salvation Army’s resources are absolutely stretched to the maximum. Our people on the front line are seeing huge numbers of vulnerable Australians coming to our doors with [...]
As a Tasmanian student at UNE, I was glad to see the letter praising Bob Brown’s political career in your columns. It is rare to see an MP from another state given so much support from what we call The Big Island. It’s worth remembering that Bob was born and grew up at Oberon in [...]
Anzac Day services in Armidale this year had the biggest attendances anyone could remember, and the organisers and attendees are to be congratulated. Darkness was already dispelled when the beat of a drum and the flashing lights on an escorting police car heralded the imminent arrival of marchers to Central Park for the Dawn Service. [...]
