I mentioned in this post about appearing before a Senate Committee hearing as patr of their inquiry into the welfare of international students. That Committee tabled its report in the Senate in the final sitting days of the year. Almost all the attention at the time was on the legislation dealing with climate change, and the related leadership tension in the Liberal Party, so the report got fairly limited ...
I had the slightly curious but none the less worthwhile experience a couple of weeks ago of providing evidence to a public hearing a Senate Committee inquiry, sitting on the opposite side of the table from where I’d been so many times since 1997. The inquiry is into issues surrounding international students. While a lot of the media coverage has focused on violence towards some students in some southern ...
There was an interesting piece on the value of blogging in the Education section of The Australian by Steven Schwartz, the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, who started his own blog last year. His straightforward assessment of the interactive benefits of genuine blogging is just as applicable for politics, business, academics or many other fields as it is for a university leader. He also provides a very clear rejoinder to the mainstream ...
I was interested to read that Queensland Liberal Senator Sue Boyce has called for special schools to be abolished and children with disabilities integrated into mainstream schools
Another candidates’ forum and yet again no Liberal Party representative attended. This forum was on Higher Education issues at the University of Queensland, in the heart of the electorate of Ryan. Despite being won briefly by Labor as a result of a by-election protest vote at the start of 2001, this seat is Liberal heartland. It currently has a margin of a little over ten per cent. There has ...
Last weekend’s Courier-Mail reported “a plan to teach animal ethics in schools which aims to reduce the number of shocking cruelty cases being reported across the state.” It is being promoted by Dr Gail Tulloch from Griffith University. "The ethical argument is that it's important to extend the circle of compassion out, not just to your immediate family but to your community and your country and then humanity and then to animals." Some ...
I was stunned to read that the Queensland University of Technology has suspended two Brisbane based academics, Gary MacLennan and John Hookham, without pay for six months for criticising their colleagues in a newspaper article. In a comment rich with irony, QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake justifies the ban by saying "Academic freedom is a great privilege and it should not be used to denigrate or ridicule people." Yet the ...
Amongst all my activities, I try to meet reasonably regularly with a range of community organisations to help keep me in better touch with some of the issues at community level. Even if there is no immediate issue I can assist them with, it is always useful for me to get a better understanding of their activities and concerns, and to get more aware of the specific ...
Some News Limited papers have reported that “the Federal Government's hand-picked panel of history experts” will recommend a new three-year, 200-hour course in history which would be compulsory in all schools for students in years 8 to 10. The article states that “the Federal Government has signalled it could withdraw $13 billion in education funding unless the states agree to its demands”. I’d be utterly astonished if a major ...
I travelled to Canberra earlier than usual today so I could attend a ceremony to mark the 5th anniversary of the sinking of the SIEV X, and the unveiling of the design for a memorial on the banks of Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin. There were well over one thousand people there, including Afghanistan's Ambassador to Australia, former Governor–General Sir William Deane, the Chief Minister of the ACT Jon Stanhope, ...
Some of the comments on my recent post about substance abuse in remote indigenous communities touched on the issues of empowerment and education. I noticed two stories in the recent edition of the National Indigenous Times one detailing a $181 million underspend by the federal government of moneyear-marked for the schooling of Aboriginal children, and the other
I have written my thoughts about VSU a number of times before on my old blog – click here and here for examples - so I won't repeat them. It seemed almost certain at the start of the day that it wouldn't pass through the Senate this year – at least not without significant amendment, yet by 5pm the most extreme version of VSU imaginable had been ...
After having to endure the government's use of very sharp guillotines in the Senate to prevent scrutiny of hugely significant legislative changes in the areas of welfare, industrial relations and civil liberties, I sat through the absurdity of government Senator's filibustering* on non-controversial legislation while they waited to discover whether or not the government can reach agreement on the University student services legislation (usually known as the VSU ...
On Wednesday this week I visited Toowoomba, mainly to meet with the Student Guild and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the main campus of University of Southern Queensland. The main immediate issue I was exploring was what impact the government’s ideologically extreme version of VSU legislation would have on services to students. I’ve written on VSU a few times before so I won’t repeat myself, but suffice to say ...
On Thursday I visited another University campus, meeting the Student Association representative for the Cairns campus of James Cook Uni. They were very unhappy about the potential impact of the planned Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU) legislation, unlike their Townsville counterparts. Ideology aside, it would make for some interesting meeting dynamics when reps from the two campuses get together! Cairns is a much smaller campus than Townsville, with about a ...
I visited the Townsville campus of James Cook University on Tuesday, meeting with the Vice-Chancellor and also with office bearers of the Student Union. The continual dramatic evolution of the university sector is undoubtedly going to continue. One issue which I wasn't aware of that is causing some budgetary concerns has been an unexpected decline in the growth of overseas student numbers. It's not clear if that will ...
I spent today in Mackay, North Queensland, mostly at the local campus of Central Queensland University. I was specifically interested in hearing about the possible local impact of the Government's planned legislation to abolish compulsory fees for student unions and associations, although other issues usually arise. When I arrived in the morning, I briefly thought I was in Darwin, as the local paper, the Daily Mercury, had a crocodile ...
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Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don’t normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this occasion. You can have a listen to it by clicking on this link.
(0)Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today. But I would also say that it isn’t any secret that I haven’t agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders debate even if it had been made by Steve Fielding:
“What we’re seeing now between the two leaders is an absolute farce and people everywhere are rolling their eyes at Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard not having the maturity to get together to agree to the series of debates which would have enlightened the electorate,“It is a joke and a sad reflection on the optic and image driven nature of political media coverage in Australia. A couple of weeks ago, there was a three way debate at the National Press Club on important ICT issues such as internet filtering, broadband and wider communications policy. More... (6)
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing – and that’s before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal. This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal is that there is the possibility it may be stopped, or seriously curtailed, by the Obama administration, which would be a signal of a positive shift on this issue.
(2)Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I’ve done, plus an online one
More... (1)As I noted in my previous post, this week’s Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support – the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens results. I’ve written a piece expanding on this, and how the party might approach the challenges ahead, at The Drum/Unleashed on the ABC’s site – which you can read by clicking on this link.
(0)Contention over Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each “side” is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve. I’ve just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC’s website. It’s fairly long, so they published it in two parts – the first part is at this link and the second part is at this one. I should emphasise that the article reflects my personal views, and is not a formal view of the Greens, nor of ANTaR Queensland, who I am also involved with.
(18)Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban sounds, with Brisbane’s The Optimen also launching their second album “The Out of Money Experience” as part of the same event. Even though there is a steady stream of musical offerings in Brisbane, a double album launch of this magnitude doesn’t come along every day of the week, so I’ll dedicate a half hour or so to exploring not just the words and sounds of Choose Mics, but getting a broader overview from them of the hip hop related scenes locally and nationally.
More... (2)Disclaimer: The inclusion of a blog or website in this list should not be taken as an endorsement of its contents by me.
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