Latest Story
-
Is enough being done to help disadvantaged groups help beat smoking?
Scott Walsberger | October 16, 2012During Anti-Poverty Week much of the focus is on national development goals to reduce poverty in Australia. Scott Walsberger says smoking rates remain high amongst disadvantaged groups and not enough is being done to help them quit.
-
The tragedy of world farm clearances
Julian Cribb | October 15, 2012When farmers around the world are forced off their land for political, economic or social reasons it has a wider impact than just a loss of food production. Julian Cribb believes it is one of the greatest injustices in the history of civilisation.
-
UncategorisedGovernment funding for Workplace Leadership
editor | October 15, 2012
Minister for Employment, Bill Shorten has announced $12 million in funding for the formation of the Centre for Workplace Leadership. The Centre is the direct outcome of years of work by the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE), which was established in 2005 following the historic signing of the Melbourne Protocol at the GAP conference on knowledge capital, Parliament House Victoria.
SKE chairman, Steve Vamos says funding for the Centre is "a very significant milestone".
"Our objective has been to see this agenda get focus, Government support and a "place or lighthouse" to bring stakeholders together to change the conversation about the workplace of the future. This will now happen."
-
UncategorisedMore Australians living in poverty
editor | October 15, 2012
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) released has a report showing poverty in Australia remains a problem with an estimated 2,265,000 people living below the poverty line.The report provides the most comprehensive picture of poverty in the nation since 2006 and shows that people who are unemployed, children (especially in lone parent families), and people whose main source of income is social security payments, are the groups most at risk of poverty.
"This report reveals that despite years of unprecedented growth and wealth creation, we have made little ground in combatting the scourge of poverty with 1 in 8 people overall and 1 in 6 children living below the poverty line," said ACOSS CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie.
-
Can Australia afford to export water intensive goods?
Salima Rhemtulla | October 12, 2012Chances are you are wearing cotton today – it represents almost half the fibre used to make clothes and other textiles worldwide. But it is a crop that has a big impact on the planet's resources. Salima Rhemtulla looks at how much Australian water leaves the country with each cotton export.
-
What do you do with a desalination plant when it rains?
Neil Palmer | October 11, 2012Despite a few seasons of above average rainfall in most parts of Australia, we still live in the driest nation on the planet. Neil Palmer says that delaying the operation of desalination plants is short-sighted.
SA Water’s Chief Executive, John Ringham, announced on October 4 that Adelaide’s new desalination plant “…may not need to be operated in the upcoming regulatory period after the completion of its 24 month warranty.”
This has been widely interpreted to mean that the $1.83 billion project will be mothballed from 2015 onwards. This is a result of widespread rain which replenished metropolitan reservoirs and heavy snowfall in the Snowy Mountains which secured ample flow into the River Murray in the immediate future.
-
Opportunities for regenerative management of our rural landscapes
Simon Gould | October 10, 2012When land is cleared the soil and local ecology suffer, and thanks to decades of unhealthy land management practices it is a situation faced by primary producers around Australia. Simon Gould says there is a way to regenerate the land.
-
Who is bullying whom in the Jones saga?
Marilyn Campbell | October 8, 2012Alan Jones is no stranger to controversy, but he does seem to have trouble reading the current mood of many Australians. Marilyn Campbell says his attempts to portray an online backlash as cyberbullying are highly emotive.
According to Stephanie Gardiner in the national newspapers on Monday 8th, Alan Jones described an online campaign against him as “cyberbullying”.
Jones is reported as saying his advertisers have been cyberbullied by people in an online campaign calling for advertisers to stop supporting his show. He is reported as saying people “don’t have the right or should not, have the right to attempt cyberbullying of people who listen to this program or advertise on it”. Further, he calls this behaviour, “bullying or harassment or intimidation or threatening conduct”. Even going as far as saying it is “cyber-terrorism”.
-
Collaboration is the key to innovation
Liam Kershaw-Ryan | October 8, 2012Technology is delivering products that could only be dreamt about years before. Liam Kershaw-Ryan says Australia should be striving for an economy that encourages and supports a culture of continuing innovation.
The global economy has been in turmoil since 2008. We are experiencing the longest recovery in the history of the global marketplace. In this context, to ensure Australia maintains its strong economic position, innovation needs to be at the forefront of the government’s policy agenda. Innovation encompasses many sectors of the economy, including science, technology, mining and manufacturing. It also provides practical solutions to pressing problems in a society.
-
How does Australia rank on cultural agility?
Sue Ellson | October 4, 2012What do Australian organisations need to do to create a pipeline of talented, culturally agile professionals? How can we attract and retain the best talent in the world through cultural agility principles? Sue Ellson looks at where Australian ranks internationally on the issue of global mobility.Australians live in an island country and we are well known for our ability to travel for work, both domestically and internationally (more than 50 per cent of the Australian population has a passport).
We are envied the world over for our mostly harmonious, multicultural cities. They are still works in progress (although a great response recently by various community leaders to prevent disharmony) and we still need to develop greater access and equity for our indigenous Australians.
-
Productivity improvements with restored freedom
David.Murray | October 4, 2012David Murray is today warning that Australia could face debt levels like those in Europe unless productivity is lifted and debt is addressed. Last month he spoke at the GAP Economic Forum about the need for strong leadership.
In 2007, I participated with an international group of chief executives brought together by the Harvard Business School to mark its centenary. The result of the interviews by the three professors involved was their book Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business.
-
Social procurement making a leap forward
Mark Daniels | October 3, 2012The concept of buying goods and services and social value – social procurement – is benefiting disadvantaged Australians around the country. Mark Daniels says the Gold Coast City Council is leading the way.
Government and others have used their contracting to achieve specific social outcomes for many years, be it requiring contractors to employ a certain number of trainees or apprentices or requiring local delivery components within contracts. More recently social procurement has been used as a vehicle for responding to some of the more intractable social issues such as job creation for the highly disadvantaged, indigenous employment and targeted initiatives around job creation for public housing tenants.
