Remembrance Day 2013

08/11/2013 by
Poppy AWM

ON Remembrance Day, November 11, in 1993, then prime minister Paul Keating spoke movingly about the just-interred Unknown Soldier, whose remains brought from France that week lay at the centre - See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/the-making-of-a-memorial/story-e6frg6zo-1226046804190#sthash.5H2SAAc3.dpuf On Remembrance Day, 11 November, in 1993, then prime minister Paul Keating spoke movingly about the just-interred Unknown Soldier, whose remains brought from France that week lay at the centre of that year’s commemoration ceremony. On Remembrance Day 2013, a brass plaque will be dedicated in the Hall of Remembrance with the words from the speech: He is all of them. And … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Life & stuff, Uncategorized Tagged With:

UNSW seeks to reset the asylum seeker (aka “illegals”) debate

31/10/2013 by
Kaldors

UNSW News    |     31 October 2013 Australia’s first centre specialising in international refugee law has been launched at the University of New South Wales  (UNSW), with the aim of raising the quality of public policy and debate about asylum seekers and refugees. Based at UNSW Law, the centre has been established through the generosity of  Renata Kaldor AO and Andrew Kaldor AM,  motivated by their own deep concern about Australia’s treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. The Centre is supported by a high-profile advisory board comprised of leading refugee experts, business people and opinion leaders of all political persuasions, including former NSW Premier Nick Greiner and barrister … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Society, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

“Bastard”* Dawkins and his revolution

30/10/2013 by
Dawkins

The recollections of a petty official The Dawkins reforms of higher education in the late 1980s thoroughly transformed higher education, turning  "colleges into universities, free education into HECS, elite education into mass education, local focuses into international outlooks, vice-chancellors into corporate leaders, teachers into teachers and researchers".   A lot of people hated it and damned the reforms as "instrumentalism" (something nasty, one assumes).  Trevor Cook worked for John Dawkins in his personal office from October 1987 for about 3 years as variously a political adviser, an adviser on training policy, media relations and finally as chief of staff . In this article … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Budget, General, Government, Higher education policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Low literacy and numeracy skills hurt Australians and the economy

18/10/2013 by
Economist literacy

ACER News   |  9 October 2013 The existence of large numbers of Australians with low literacy and numeracy skills has a negative impact on individuals, the economy and productivity, according the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Results from the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) have been released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Developed with the support of ACER, the study assessed people aged 15-74 years in 25 countries in terms of proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in a technology-rich environment. David Tout, Senior Research Fellow at ACER and a member of the Numeracy Expert Group for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: acer, General Tagged With: ,

The lost mojo

17/10/2013 by

18 October 2013 A combination of technical factors, involving Windows 8 "add ons" and a bungled conversion to Blue Host disrupted our publishing over the past week or so.  The Main Edition was just about ready to go last Friday but got lost somewhere.  We are currently back to Windows 7 and WordPress.  The good news, perhaps, is that Microsoft have released Windows 8.1 and some of the stability problems might be addressed.   And we'll leave the  Blue Host project (a revamped site with sliders and stuff)  alone until the summer recess.  We haven't tried to catch up with this edition  but will post a few "missing" pieces for the record, such as Christopher Pyne's first major speech as … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General

Innovating from the edges in South Australia

19/09/2013 by

  South Australia  has an interesting, sometimes paradoxical relationship with change.  One the one hand very conservative, at the same time South Australian attracts national interest for innovative, progressive initiatives.  The Thinkers in Residence Program (recently defunded) hosted Martin Seligman and Carla Rinaldi to challenge the state to reimagine and recreate their education system. South Australia is now attracting attention with a grassroots movement that seeks to innovate from the edges of the education system. CoCreate Education was founded by a group of educators and entrepreneurs on the premise that education is ripe for disruptive innovation.  They claim that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Life & stuff, Notices, Society Tagged With: ,

The new ministry

16/09/2013 by
ABC_barack_obama_this_week_2_jt_130914_33x16_992

16 September 2013 As widely expected, Christopher Pyne, the Liberals' education spokesperson in opposition, is to be appointed education minister in the incoming Coalition government and presumably will take carriage for higher education as well as schools education.  Sussan Ley is to be appointed the assistant minister for education and  Scott Ryan is to be appointed parliamentary secretary to Pyne . Former shadow spokesperson for universities and research, Senator Brett Mason, is to be appointed as a parliamentary secretary in foreign affairs. Asked about the allocation of duties within the education portfolio, the prime minister-designate  Tony Abbott said: Higher education and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coalition policies, General, Government, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Monday Conference

24/08/2013 by
Monday Conference

Monday Conference was hosted and produced for the ABC by Robert Moore through 290 editions in 1971-78.  Monday Conference was described as an 'occasion for controlled conflict' in which Moore 'played the role of mediator, endeavouring to be fair to the participants but anxious to [draw out] ideas for the benefit of the audience'.  The programme retained its format of a question-and-answer session before a studio audience, with guest speakers offering different opinions on topics of current and controversial interest.  Moore quickly grasped the issues, and directed the discussion in a low-keyed and good-natured way. Despite the programme's formulaic repetitiveness, and the rather bland … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Life & stuff Tagged With: ,

A workable $5.5bn scheme? Leave it out, Tony

19/08/2013 by

AFR    |   19 August 2013 Laura Tingle says the Coalition’s paid parental leave scheme is policy so bad, so appalling – on both policy and political grounds – that in any reasonable contest, it should give Labor a fighting chance to get back in the election race. Unfortunately for decent public policy, and for us as taxpayers, we cannot be confident, on the basis of Labor’s political form in the campaign so far, that it will be able to consign this piece of irresponsible, populist junk to the dustbin of history. Let us test Tony Abbott’s $5.5 billion a year scheme against his own rhetoric, against his own political critique of Labor for the past three years, and against his own … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coalition policies, General, Uncategorized Tagged With:

Reflecting on a presidential image

16/08/2013 by
Christine's turn to be presidential

Canberra Times    |    9 August 2013 This is a fine bit of writing on the “optics” of the election campaign by Hamish Boland-Rudder of the Canberra Times.  It’s been republished in other Fairfax Media newspapers and picked up by the ABC’s Gruen Nation.  President Jed Bartlett slides softly into a plush Air Force One seat beside his wife, Abbey, who asks him, "What are you thinking about?" "Tomorrow," he says, staring pensively out the plane window with the light slowly moving across his face. For anyone familiar with political drama of the highest order, this is instantly recognisable as the last scene of fictional US television show The West Wing. But even for those not in the know, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Zeitgeist Tagged With: ,
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