by John | May 14, 2012 | Australian commentary
Julia Gillard doesn’t get away with much these days. Last week she managed to alienate Sydney’s entire North Shore when she questioned its residents’ qualifications as ‘‘real people’’. She weathered relentless Coalition attacks over her handling of MP Craig Thomson...
by John | May 14, 2012 | Australian commentary
Barack Obama’s support for marriage equality highlights the fact that Australia is now the only developed, English-speaking democracy where the leaders of both major parties oppose the issue. Same-sex marriage has the support of David Cameron and Ed Miliband in the...
by John | May 14, 2012 | Overseas commentary
IN 1989, I was a junior staffer at The New Republic, which was then, in the pre-internet age, the single weekly magazine of political opinion in Washington. The subject of what were then called “domestic partnerships” for gay couples came up. New York City...
by John | May 14, 2012 | Australian news, News, World news
ARGENTINA’S President Cristina Kirchner will write to Prime Minister Julia Gillard to encourage her to support same-sex marriage, after an Australian pair became the first foreign same-sex couple to marry in the South American country. Prominent same-sex...
by John | May 13, 2012 | Australian commentary
Yesterday on my 3AW program I said I thought President Obama was brave for announcing in an election year that he supported gay marriage. That prompted an angry email from an American listener who argued that it wasn’t ‘gutsy’. That Obama had merely ‘flip-flopped’ for...