Making friends across the Pacific at the ICDP women’s business dialogue

Trish Mackie-Smith, the co-creator of property app Inndocs, discusses her experience at the recent “Women in Business & Digital Delivery” dialogue in Brisbane, organised by the International Centre for Democratic Partnerships.

Penalties and a super-regulator might be the way forward for banks

Whatever the recommendations of the banking royal commission to be made public on Monday, customers of our recalcitrant financial institutions are in for a rough ride.

Negative age stereotypes deter older employees

A study led by University of Queensland School of Psychology researcher Dr Courtney von Hippel found that older employees who feel labelled at work are more likely to have a negative attitude about their job and may be prematurely exiting the workforce.

Why you paid more for your plane ticket than your neighbour

Price discrimination is legal in Australia where sellers will typically pick an opening price based on the likelihood that someone will pay it. If you check a website multiple times for a flight on a specific date, the seller might assume this is the only date you’re interested in and increase the price on offer.

Corporates should have to play by the rules too

Corporate indifference and disregard for the rule of law in Australia requires a firmer hand to remedy it and tougher penalties for transgressors.

Big tobacco’s big campaign against plain packaging

Australia was the first country in the world to mandate plain tobacco packaging and, despite ongoing litigation, the tobacco industry’s fears that saving lives will cost them money are being realised as other nations follow suit.

Alcohol firms try advertising booze as a health drink

Australian alcohol companies are now promoting their products as ‘pure’, ‘fresh’, ‘natural’ and ‘sugar-free’ to encourage more health conscious Australians to purchase them, new research led by Curtin University has found.

Five ways to curb international corporate power

Of the world’s 100 largest economies, 69 are transnational businesses. How can we control—and ultimately transform them into a positive force for social good?

Independent directors can restore banking’s credibility

The board membership of financial companies is coming under increased scrutiny in the wake of the banking royal commission – and rightly so as they are ultimately accountable for the shocking revelations in the news.

Australia must restore work rules to ensure secure jobs and fair pay

Union leader Sally McManus makes an impassioned plea for the restoration of worker rights under assault from powerful business interests.

The political power of global corporations

We know the global corporations’ names, we know where they are headquartered, and we know where they invest and operate. But we don’t usually think of them in political terms. How do global corporations drive or modify the agendas of states?

Brave new thinking in a brave new world II

Malcolm Crompton continues his look at the future of data processing policies and how businesses can win the trust of their customers through improved services.

In my last post , I alluded to Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Next paper and spoke about the need to rebalance the focus in privacy protection focus between user control of data collection and what firms are actually doing with that information so that there is an increased focus on the latter without ever denying the importance of the former.