Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell UPDATED edition by Louise Milligan

$34.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

Cardinal George Pell, Australia's most powerful Catholic, has been found guilty of five sexual crimes against children. Updated edition. He is the most senior Catholic figure in the world to be charged by police and convicted of child sex offences. The abuse involved choirboys at Melbourne's St Pat rick's Cathedral. George Pell was a Ballarat boy who studied at Oxford and rose through the Catholic Church ranks to become adviser to Pope Francis and Vatican treasurer. He has been expelled from the Pope's inner circle of trusted cardinals. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, supported and championed by the powerful, Pell's ascendancy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable, Pell portrayed himself as the first man in the Catholic Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, persisted. Louise Milligan pieces together decades of disturbing activities highlighting Pell's actions and cover-ups. The book is a testament to the most intimate stories of complainants. Many people entrusted their secrets to be told here for the first time. Multi-award winning Cardinalreveals uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil. ...Show more

Australia Day by Stan Grant

$34.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

Australia is poised at a critical moment of its history - but the time to act is now. Since publishing Talking to My Country in early 2016, Stan Grant has been crossing the country, talking to huge crowds everywhere about how racism is at the heart of our history and the Australian dream. But Stan knows this is not where the story ends. Everywhere he goes, he is asked the same questions: What can we do? How can we change the story? In The Urgency of Now, Stan weaves a story of history, memoir, politics, struggle, survival and hope. Expressing a cautious optimism, he wants to show us that there is something we can all do, that there is a path forward, a way towards true reconciliation. For Stan, the creation of the Australian nation and the repression of the indigenous people is integrally woven together. He has long been fascinated by the history of Jimmy Governor - also a part-Aboriginal Wiradjuri man - a man who was pushed to intolerable limits. Found guilty of murder, he was sentenced to hang, but the execution date was delayed by almost two months due to planned festivities to celebrate Australian Federation. Jimmy Governor was finally hanged at Darlinghurst gaol on 18 January 1901, just days after the official birth of the Australian nation. But Stan believes that with the recent establishment of the Referendum Council on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the coming referendum, there is a huge opportunity facing Australia - an opportunity to fix past wrongs and set an optimistic path for the future and true reconciliation. It's the right thing to do. But we have to do it NOW. ...Show more

Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell by Louise Milligan

$34.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican's indispensable 'Treasurer'. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, 'Big George's' ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up. George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted. The nation's most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children. Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants. She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal's knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time. Conspiracy or cover-up? Cardinal uncovers uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil. ...Show more

Hazelwood by Tom Doig

$34.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

Early in the afternoon of 9 February 2014, during the worst drought and heatwave south-eastern Australia had experienced in over a century, two separate bushfires raged towards the massive Hazelwood open-pit brown-coal mine, near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley. The fires overwhelmed local fire-fighting e fforts and sent a skyful of embers sailing onto millions of square metres of exposed, highly flammable brown coal. Twelve hours later, the mine was burning. The Hazelwood mine fire burned out of control for 45 days. As the air filled with toxic smoke and ash, residents of the Latrobe Valley became ill, afraid - and angry. Up against an unresponsive corporation and an indifferent government, the community banded together, turning tragedy into a political fight. In Hazelwood, Tom Doig reveals the decades of decisions that led to the fire, and gives an intimate account of the first moments of the blaze and the dark months that followed. This is a gripping and immediate report of one of the worst environmental and public health disasters in Australian history. ...Show more

New Philosopher #24: Balance

$14.95 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

Womankind Magazine #20: Western Yogi's in India

$14.95 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

#MeToo: Stories From the Australian Movement by Miriam Sved, Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott and Natalie Kon-yu

$32.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

#MeToo is not just about famous people ... If #MeToo is going to ultimately make the big difference we all want to see, it's got to mean something for [any] woman who gets harassed. - Julia Gillard This is the first collection that aims to make sense of the #MeToo movement in Australia. A collection th at follows Julia Gillard's imperative to listen to the stories of every women who faces sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment. Contributors cross boundaries of colour and class, ability and disability, region and industry. Like the movement itself, this is an anthology about unearthing and listening to the things that happen away from the public eye, in one-on-one moments, and that we can only know about when women speak up. But it is also an attempt to grapple with how this movement has evolved, about toxic masculinity, cyberhate, rape culture, a gendered economy. It is a collection that tries to create a forum for what happens next. Where we can go from here. Above all, this is an anthology that resists victimhood. ...Show more

Growing up African in Australia PB by Maxine Beneba Clarke ed.

$29.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

People of African descent have been in Australia for at least 200 years, yet their stories are largely missing from Australian writing. Australians of the African diaspora have arrived here in many different ways- directly from the continent; via the Caribbean, the Americas and the United Kingdom; makin g the journey to Australia over one generation, or several. What is it like to grow up African in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, showcases diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile cultural and sporting identities sit alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, with experiences spanning regions, cities and generations. All of the pieces call for understanding, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect. Growing Up African aims to defy, question or shed light on the many stereotypes that currently exist about the vibrant extended African community in Australia. Contributors include Faustina Agolley, Santilla Chingaipe, Carly Findlay, Khalid Warsame, Nyadol Nyuon, Tariro Mavondo, Magan Magan and many, many more. ...Show more

Winning for Women: A Personal Story by Iola Mathews

$29.95 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs | Series: Biography Ser.

What was it like to be involved in the heady days of 'second wave' feminism in Australia, when the role of women at home and at work changed decisively? Iola Mathews was one of the founders of the Women's Electoral Lobby, a journalist at The Age, and later a leading ACTU advocate for women workers durin g the 'Accord' with the Hawke-Keating Government. She was one of the first generation of women trying to 'have it all' with a career and children. In this honest and revealing memoir, she takes us inside the day-to-day groundwork required to bring about reforms in areas like affirmative action, equal pay, superannuation, childcare, parental leave and work-family issues. This is an important record of a pivotal time for women in Australia's history. Iola brings wisdom and experience to it, reflecting on where we are today, with suggestions for further reform. It's a vital source for policy makers and all those interested in women, work and families. ...Show more

Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia's Newspaper Empires by Sally Young

$39.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

'A tour de force.' -- Professor Rodney Tiffen Beforenewspapers were ravaged by the digital age, they were a powerful force,especially in Australia -- a country of newspaper giants and kingmakers. Thismagisterial book revealswho owned Australia's newspapers and how they used them to wield politicalpower. A corporateand political history of Australian newspapers spanning 140 years, it explainshow Australia's media system came to be dominated by a handful of empires andpowerful family dynasties. Many are household names, even now: Murdoch,Fairfax, Symes, Packer. Written with verve and insight and showing unparalleledcommand of a vast range of sources, Sally Young shows how newspaper ownersinfluenced policy-making, lobbied and bullied politicians, and shaped internalparty politics. Thebook begins in 1803 with Australia's first newspaper owner -- a convict whobecame a wealthy bank owner -- giving the industry a blend of notoriety, powerand wealth from the start.Throughout the twentieth century, Australians were unaware that they werereading newspapers owned by secret bankrupts and failed land boomers, powerfulmining magnates, Underbelly-style gangsters, bankers, and corporate titans. Itends with the downfall of Menzies in 1941 and his conviction that a handful ofpress barons brought him down. The intervening years are packed with politicaldrama, business machinations and a struggle for readers, all while the newspaper barons are peddling power and influence. ...Show more

On Violence by Natasha Stott Despoja

$14.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

Every two minutes, police are called to a family violence matter. Every week, a woman is killed by a current or former partner. This is Australia's national emergency. Violence against women is preventable. It is not an inevitable part of the human condition. It's time to create a new normal. It is ti me to stop the slaughter in our suburbs. ...Show more

Has the Luck Run Out? The End of Old Australia by David Fagan

$32.99 AUD

Category: Issues/Current Affairs

Why have we lost trust in Australia? What's going wrong? What's going right? And what we can do to regain confidence in Australia's future? Why are Australians anxious and pessimistic? Who or what has caused our loss of trust in Australia? Why has a feeling of powerlessness crept in for so many? Has the luck really run out for the lucky country? And what can we do to get it back? Every generation believes its forebears have messed up the planet. That's how we evolve. But the mood in Australia at the moment, for all ages, seems one of gloom. People are angry. Distrustful. And not just because we are losing Prime Ministers faster than we are losing wickets! Sport, business, education, banking, farming, religion, trade unions, charities and hospitals have all lost their way through a series of scandals that we must learn from. And disillusion with our leaders is at its peak. Policy has been replaced by politicking. Commentator, author and former newspaper editor David Fagan asks the questions we all want answered as he traces the not-so-gentle decline of important Australian institutions. Through analysis and interviews with experts he explores what has defined Australia in the past and how we want to be defined in the future. Peeling back the rot that has contaminated almost everything Australians believe in, he asks: are we still the economically, socially and culturally strong country that most aspire to? Should we be alarmed? Or has the laconic Australian drifted from believing 'she'll be right' to being a 'bloody knocker'? Has the Luck Run Out? shines a spotlight on the mistakes we have made, our national disillusion and looks to what can be done to re-set the mood of the times. And, more importantly, what we have to do to set things right. ...Show more