Latest Story
-
Is it me, is it my parents, or is Society to blame?
MikeM | February 2, 2009A longstanding debate: how much does genetic inheritance shape us and how much does environment?
-
Government “bailout” funds
jgillett | February 2, 2009Why can't the government, instead of electing to bailout companies, buy in as a silent shareholder?
-
Renewable energy as stimulus
Matthew Tukaki | February 2, 2009Investing in renewable energy as a stimulus package: aligning the need for emission reduction with employment and industry growth.
Investing in renewable energy as a stimulus package: aligning the need for emission reduction with employment and industry growth
-
A carbon economy
John Hewson | February 1, 2009It is all too easily forgotten that the discipline of economics is as much an "art" as it is a "science", and we are hoping to develop a "society", and not just an "economy".
In my professorial days I used to tease my students, in an attempt to encourage them to think for themselves, to think beyond the text books, by asking them what particular conclusion they wanted to reach on some economic policy issue, and them claiming that I could build an economic/mathematical model to "prove" it!
I was particularly keen to ensure that their thinking was not constrained by any particular theoretical or model framework and to get them to understand the limitations of any particular models that they were working with.
-
A National Pre-School Program
Yu Dan Shi | January 28, 2009The needs of a two year old are very different to those of a four year old. A national pre-school program would provide much more than just childcare.
-
Canada Last: Insult to 3rd World Kids
Sara Landriault | January 28, 2009UNICEF should be looking out for the human rights of kids in the developing world , not inflaming an international "Mommy War".
-
Is this in the exam?
a.b.v.f. | January 27, 2009Will Australia become a nation of followers, with no leaders?
-
Australia Day by any other name
sally.rose | January 27, 2009It is still possible to "celebrate what's great" without denying what ain't.
Australian of the Year Mick Dodson is absolutely right that we "need to have a conversation" about what it means for us as a society that we celebrate Australia Day on January 26th, a "day of mourning" for Indigenous Australia. However, it's doubtful changing our National Day to a different date would help that conversation develop or provide any healing.
Changing the date would be revisionist and revisionist history is a bad idea. The current issue is that people want to gloss over the fact that 26 January is the anniversary of a colonial invasion, but if we move the date then a few decades from now it might be even easier for people to gloss over that important fact in our foundation story all together.
-
Seeing Beyond the Words in Language
Warren Reed | January 26, 2009No matter how widely and deeply the English language empire spreads, foreign language study will always be essential to Australia’s destiny, as much for that disposition as for the ability to communicate.
The Australian‘s Higher Education Supplement ran an article on January 21 by Luke Slattery ("Let’s get more competitive"), which looked at warnings by Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor of Melbourne University, that the market for education never stands still.
‘To the extent that he sees a continued role for tuition in English, the world’s lingua franca,’ Slattery wrote, ‘Davis is optimistic about Australia’s role in the export education industry. But he is wary about competitive pressure.’
No quibbles with that. But ponder Slattery’s own view that followed.
-
Maternity “Leave”
Beverley Smith | January 22, 2009In Canada, as in Australia, the maternity "leave" debate is stifled by a reluctance to value unpaid work.
The phrase "maternity leave" has both positive and negative connotations for the women’s rights movement.
On the one hand, recognizing that women sometimes take time away from paid labor for childbirth and are to be valued anyway is progress. That some women get subidized to stay home with their newborns is progress. It’s a huge leap forward from traditional economic "values".
But on the other hand, the term ‘leave’ is problematic. The meaning of "leave" is a holiday, as in ‘sailor’s leave’. It implies that being home with a baby is not useful. It implies that the right to take care of a baby is a privilege which must be earned through participation in the paid workforce. This is an odd criterion!
-
What will history make of George W Bush’s presidency
MikeM | January 21, 2009"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones" (Shakespeare)
With the departure of George W Bush from the world stage, many, including the man himself, are thinking about how history will eventually see him.
-
Fund the Child: Canadian Activism
Sara Landriault | January 20, 2009From dirty diapers to CBS and back home to more dirty diapers: the fight for equal childcare rights continues.
