List of media issues analyses published 2022

Should the Australian Government use former NBA player Shaq O'Neal to promote the Indigenous Voice to Parliament?

On August 27, 2022, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Linda Burney, held a press conference also attended by former NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal. Before O'Neal\s arrival, the Prime Minister explained that O'Neal had offered his services to help promote the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. After O'Neal's brief appearance, the Prime Minister explained the importance of raising awareness of the Voice among the Australian electorate before a referendum could be held. O'Neal's involvement in the issue has met with a varied response. Some commentators, especially critics of the Voice proposal, have condemned the United States celebrity's planned promotions as trivialising and insulting. Others have seen it as a valuable way of increasing public connection with the issue.


Should gay celebrities be outed?

On June 10, 2022, actor Rebel Wilson announced on Instagram that she was in a gay relationship with fashion designer Ramona Agruma. The announcement prompted congratulations from many on Instagram and other social media sites.
However, the nature of public comment changed when, on June 11, The Sydney Morning Herald published a piece by its social columnist Andrew Hornery in which he complained that Wilson had 'gazumped' a column he had been working on in which he intended to make Wilson's new relationship public. He stated that he had contacted Wilson giving her two days in which to respond. Instead of contacting him, Wilson announced the relationship herself.
Hornery's piece provoked widespread criticism on social media and in other newspapers. The columnist and his paper were condemned for threatening to 'out' Wilson. That is, they were accused of threatening they would make Wilson's gay relationship known without her consent and possibly against her wishes.



Should the United States reform its gun laws?

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old student from the local high school fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers and wounded seventeen other people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Earlier that day, he had shot his grandmother in the forehead, severely wounding her.
The intruder entered Robb Elementary School, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, through an open side entrance door. He locked himself inside a classroom, in which he killed 21 people, and remained there for about one hour before being killed by a United States Border Patrol tactical team.
This is the third-deadliest American school shooting and has provoked widespread calls for stricter gun control, including from United States president, Joe Biden.


Is daylight saving good for Australia?

At 2.00am on Sunday, April 3, 2022, daylight savings ended across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. Twice every year, when daylight saving either begins or ends across all south-eastern states, debate is renewed over whether it should be retained.
On March 15, 2022, the debate was given an extra impetus by the United States Senate deciding to institute daylight saving for the whole year, starting in 2023. (The decision still must be passed by the United States House of Representatives before it can be presented to the president to sign.)
So far, the debate in Australia has not centred around extending daylight saving across the whole year. The question currently is either whether daylight saving is desirable, or, more specifically, whether Queensland should adopt it. On several occasions in the past, the same question has been raised in Western Australia.


Should Russia's President Putin be charged with war crimes?

On February 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. On February 28, 2022, Karim Ahmad Khan, a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, announced that he would begin an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. On March 15, 2022, in apparent response to a reporter's question, United States president, Joe Biden, stated that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, was a war criminal. On March 15, 2022, the United States Senate passed a resolution unanimously declaring Russia's leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal. There has since been extensive debate around whether President Putin has committed war crimes and whether, if that is the case, he will ever be charged and brought before the International Criminal Court to be tried for this offence.


Should Novak Djokovic have been allowed to play in the Australian Open?

On January 14, 2022, Alex Hawke, Australia's Minister for Immigration revoked Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic's visa to enter Australia, preventing him from defending his title in the 2022 Australian Open.
Djokovic applied for a judicial review of the decision, but three Federal Court of Australia judges unanimously dismissed his application.
Djokovic's unvaccinated status and the probability that his presence would encourage antivaxxers within Australia and cause 'civil disorder' were considered by the judges to justify his being deported.
Djokovic said he was 'extremely disappointed' with the decision but accepted the ruling and flew out of Australia on January 17. The debate around the decision to deport Djokovic continues raising questions regarding vaccination exemptions and other special treatment for elite athletes and the fair application of the Minister for Immigration's power to revoke visas.


Should animal organs and tissues be used for human transplants?

On January 11, 2022, it was reported that a patient in the United States was doing well three days after becoming the first recipient of a genetically modified pig's heart.
Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center said the transplant showed a heart from a genetically modified animal could function in a human body without immediate rejection. Prior attempts at such transplants - or xenotransplantation - have failed, largely because patients' bodies have rapidly rejected the animal organs.
On October 20, 2021, surgeons in the United States attached a pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient kept on life support so they could observe the kidney's function for two days. The kidney continued to filter waste and produce urine and did not trigger rejection. These developments have renewed worldwide debate around the practical and ethical issues raised by transplanting animal organs into human beings


Should Australia become a cashless society?

In November, 2021, the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that large numbers of Australians were hoarding cash, in part as a response to the uncertainties of the global pandemic and in part because it has been predicted that Australia is likely to have become a largely cashless society by 2031. Some predictions have set the date of that development as early as 2024.
There is, in fact, an accelerating trend toward the use of cashless transactions in most if not all areas of Australian life. This trend is being welcomed by many Australians. At the same time this hoarding behaviour suggests there are many who still value physical cash and who do not trust the prospect of a completely or largely cashless society.