The Melbourne Newsroom

Australia is still a lucky country.  Our per capita income is higher than that of many affluent nations, including  Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom.  On the broader Human Development Index, which includes health and education levels alongside our material standard of living, we rank second, with a score virtually indistinguishable from that of the top-ranked Norway.  We reside in some of the world’s most livable cities.

The emergence of ‘hate crime’ as a socio-legal construct and its relationship to recent Australian incidents of violence against international students, particularly Indian students, will be the subject of the John Barry Memorial Lecture in Criminology at the University of Melbourne tonight, Wednesday 21 October at 6.30pm.

Australia has a vital role to play in the region in campaigning against the death penalty, says Fr Peter Norden AO.  "I dont think it's enough for Australians to say it's not an issue in this country.  We are based in a region where many countries execute their citizens and we are host to many overseas students studying in Australia from these countries.

"We need to engage with those students while they are studying here to be more creative in their thinking, because they're going to be the leaders in those countries when they return."

Dr Pradeep Taneja says that while communism in China is dead 'practically', the 60th anniversary of the creation of the People's Republic of China is particularly significant.  "It comes about a year after China hosted the Beijing Olympics, so there's an added significance that China has demonstrated to the rest of the world that China is an important country and one that has achieved remarkable success in its economic development and modernisation."

The following is the full text from the 2009 Law Week Oration by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans QC AO, held at the Melbourne Law School on 22 September 2009, in conjunction with the Victoria Law Foundation. 

Video of the lecture can be accessed at http://live.unimelb.edu.au/episode/law-week-oration-2009.

Women wanting to birth their children at home and midwives in private practice have gained some breathing space from Health Minister Nicola Roxon, but the issue of control over birth will still be there in two years time, says gender studies researcher at the University of Melbourne, Dr Meredith Nash.

A natural birth experience, control of the environment and management of birth, and avoidance of medical technologies have been persistent themes in current research of women's views of home birth. Whatever women’s reasons for wanting to birth at home, the right to give birth in the place of one’s choice is fundamentally a feminist issue for Australian women.

Former Australian Foreign Minister and President and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, Gareth Evans has joined the University of Melbourne as an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences in the Faculty of Arts.

Former PM John Howard to give Melbourne media lecture

Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard will give a public lecture at the University of Melbourne on the topic ‘Politics and the Media: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ next Tuesday 4 August at 6pm.
 
In a rare public appearance since leaving office, Mr Howard will examine the relationship between politics and the media in a lecture hosted by the University’s Centre for Advanced Journalism.

Former Prime Minister Mr John Howard recently delivered a public lecture at the University of Melbourne on the role of the media in covering politics. The lecture was hosted by the University’s Centre for Advanced Journalism.