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Anne Summers

Anne Summers is a Fairfax Media columnist.

The process to draw up the Australia Day and Queen's Birthday honours lists is cumbersome, onerous and biased.

The British nail it, but we're left with 34,533 Johns

Many Australians like to think of the British as stuffy, toffy and class-bound by their centuries of royal and aristocratic hierarchy and privilege. This view was reinforced by the parliamentarians' expenses scandal a few years back, when we chortled over the British MP claiming for the maintenance of his moat.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is far from succeeding her husband.

Clinton's path to the top bucks the trend

If Hillary Clinton wins on November 8 she will have forged a remarkable and unprecedented political trail: the first woman in more than 200 years of American democracy to win the Presidency, and the first former First Lady to become Commander-in-chief.

Campaigning for change: Rosie Batty has been at the forefront of educating the community about family violence.

Bashing of 'domestic violence industry' beyond the pale

I think most of us would agree that mocking someone for their suffering and attendant misery is a cruel and abhorrent thing to do. Un-Australian even, given we like to think we are the kind of country that extends a hand to those who are down on their luck or who have suffered misfortune of any kind.