Latest Story
-
UncategorisedMotherhood in Australia
editor | January 30, 2008Whether you have embarked on motherhood, planning for it or just thinking about it, Open Forum would love to hear your thoughts on the real experience of motherhood in Australia. Our two new surveys "Myths & Facts of Maternity" and "Motherhood for Baby Boomers" are short and simple to complete with an opportunity to participate in an upcoming online discussion about maternity leave and current government policy. With the debate raging over what entitlements and options should be on offer to women who leave the workforce to have children, this is your chance to have your say on an issue that really matters to women and their families.
-
UncategorisedWhy a skills focus matters
proberts | January 28, 2008Skills and innovation ensure our role in a world awash with cheap labour.
It is fashionable to think that China and India, with their massive populations, are emerging as a pair of ‘ultimate competitors’ which will knock Australia for six economically.
But that is not how things are turning out, despite China’s great strengths in manufacturing and India’s in information technology services. In both cases rising labour costs and shortages of highly skilled labour show there are limits to their competitiveness that offer opportunity for Australia. High level managers and knowledge workers in Chinese manufacturing and Indian services companies cost just about as much to employ as they do in Australia. The Chinese and Indian advantages remain in lower level, repetitious work which itself has to be directed and guided by more skilled professionals.
-
UncategorisedPaid maternity leave is not a capricious feminist whim
tamaraplakalo | January 20, 2008A sociology lecturer once gave me a valuable piece of advice: “If you want a government to act on an issue, make sure you tell them how much it is going to cost them if they don’t.”
Understanding that this suggestion was probably truer today than at any other time in history, I recently set out to find some information on the cost of not providing paid maternity leave to the working women of Australia. Surprisingly – or not, I have found no information of the kind.
-
Uncategorised
Something is rotten in the state of … news-reporting
tamaraplakalo | January 17, 2008So, let’s see … in the last seven days the Australian share-market lost ground on each consecutive day with no recovery in sight … the Australian Embassy in Kabul was attacked by the Taliban in a guerrilla-style attack … one child has died from malnutrition while you were reading this sentence … someone, somwhere has made an amazing discovery … Yet, the “buzz-iest” news item in the Australian mediascape over the last week was the story of the Victorian party-boy Corey ‘I don’t take my sunglasses off indoors or outdoors’ Delaney, whose contribution to the newsworhiness-starved staple of the mainstream media has been … well, what exactly?
-
Swallows flying by: the small flock grows
Malcolm Crompton | January 14, 2008And now Ernst & Young have released their swallow, after the earlier ones seen in Privacy gains attention over the Christmas New Year break. Does a swallow or two make a Spring?, then Another swallow flew by, but who was looking?
-
The curse of the rule maker. But there’s a lesson in it.
Malcolm Crompton | January 13, 2008Stephen Wilson made an excellent point in his comment "Privacy movement deja vu" on my blog on "Another swallow flew by, but who was looking?"
-
Another swallow flew by, but who was looking ?
Malcolm Crompton | January 12, 2008Since posting "Privacy gains attention over the Christmas New Year break. Does a swallow or two make a Spring?", there has been another swallow of sorts.
But not everybody has been watching or maybe it is typical Spring weather.
-
Privacy gains attention over the Christmas New Year break. Does a swallow or two make a Spring?
Malcolm Crompton | January 3, 2008We are in an interesting period of leadership change. In Australia, we elected a new federal government at the end of 2007. The UK has a new PM & the USA will have a new president by the end of 2008.
Is the privacy debate changing too, reflecting a new mood?
-
UncategorisedSome things never change
alison gordon | December 19, 2007In an odd way it’s comforting to know that despite the “effort” to break down the social and cultural stereotypes and unflattering tags that have attached themselves to various geographic areas of Sydney, at the end of the day many of them live on with vengeance.
-
Uncategorised
A Modest Proposal
Open Forum | December 18, 2007"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." – P.J. O'Rourke
-
“Government 2.0” – is it Safe to Play for the citizen?
Malcolm Crompton | December 14, 2007How can government make it 'Safe to Play' for citizens when they are offered wiki or blog or social networking styles of interaction with government?
-
Uncategorised
The electronic grapevine and the great information noise
tamaraplakalo | December 11, 2007Social media is changing the nature of information exchange, but it is information itself that is suffering an identity crisis.
If Marshall McLuhan’s global village is to be understood as a toponym for a digitally connected world, then social media have to be seen as a cross between a village meeting point and its informal information (ie gossip) network.
