AQ - Australian Quarterly Volume 79 Issue 4

Wiki Goes to War

Mat Hardy

Since launching nearly six years ago, Wikipedia has exhibited sustained growth as an internet encyclopaedic resource. Amongst the millions of pages, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict is one of the most revised and popular topics of all, ranking even above the Second World War. Why is this and what do Wikipedia and its daughter project, Wikinews, have to offer history, academia and journalism in their coverage of the Middle East?

 

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The great Australian housing Nightmare
Gerard Watkins

In January this year, it was estimated that for the first time in 25 years, the average Australian household could not afford to buy the average house. Housing affordability is worse now than when interest rates were 17 percent. Many people are spending more than 30 percent of their household income in their quest to buy or rent a home. Despite this, there appears to be a substantial lack of interest in housing at a federal government level.

 

The Problem of the Pro-War Greens
James Page

The Greens are by name an environmentally oriented political party, although an equally important aspect of policy has been an avowed support for peace and nonviolence. One important problem for the Greens, however, is the emergence of pro-war support within sections of the leadership in recent years. This essay examines five episodes of the leadership of the Green Parties that give cause to reflect on the commitment of the Greens to peace and nonviolence.


Global Warming, Contemporary Politics & the Principle of Least Disruption
Tony Lynch & Bert Jenkins

In the great extinction at the end of the Permian era life was reduced to 5-10% of previous species diversity. This resulted from an increase in average world temperature of 5-7 degrees Celsius which took place over 10 000 years. Various reports have predicted that we are likely to match or exceed that level of global warming (at least 2-4.5 degree increase) over the next hundred years and there is at least a nine out of ten chance that the warming is caused by human activities. So why are we not responding with the urgency the situation requires?

 

We Celebrate the Founding of AIPS in 1932
Dorothy Davis, Philip Ruddock, Sir Gerard Brennan, Julia Gillard


The Dilemma for the Opposition in South Africa
Daniel Silke


Review Essay: The Destruction of Childhood – It’s Criminal
Tony Smith


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