Positive discrimination is, if not dead, at least on life support with an overeager nurse reaching for the off switch.

That’s according to a decent-sized survey out today that found two thirds of Australia’s bosses will not mandate that females be included in shortlists for senior management positions.

I reckon I wouldn’t be alone in turning a blind eye to that nurse, and wanting quotas put out of their misery. There are much better ways to achieve workplace diversity.

Continue reading "Time to put ‘positive discrimination’ down?" »

I am still in a state of shock. Delicious, indescribable shock. For the first time in my life, my beloved Manchester City FC are champions of England.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, the tiny window live streaming Foxtel on my iMac transported me 15,000km to Eastlands in Manchester to watch City’s biggest game since 1968, when we last clinched the league championship.

In the space of 95 agonising minutes the title was lost, won, lost again, lost almost irretrievably and then finally, somehow, incredibly won in the dying seconds with the very last kick of the season.

Continue reading "The greatest ending to a football season ever?" »

It’s official. The climate change dialogue is getting loopier. Maybe the weirdness has been been brought on by heat-stroke.

Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph reported that Tim Flannery and the Climate Commissions’s Professor Lesley Hughes warned that mental illness and all kinds of other maladies would increase with a few extra hot days. For those of us who believe the consequences of climate change could be catastrophic on a global scale, these kinds of statements are trivial to the point of public nuisance. They are like prank calls to 000.

So here’s the real news. Scientists don’t actually believe heatwaves will send us all mad. They’re just saying stuff like this because they’re desperately fumbling for new ways to grab the public’s attention. How do I know this? Because Tim Flannery himself told me (and a small room of other people) pretty much exactly that this very weekend.

Continue reading "Climate change and the crisis of communication" »

One of the many enduring myths of Australian politics is that former prime minister John Howard defiantly imposed a goods and services tax on an unwilling populace despite promising that he would “never, ever” do such a thing.

He didn’t, of course. By the narrowest of margins, the people re-elected John Howard on a promise of introducing a GST.

He had a popular mandate to introduce the tax after he won a second term. He had ruled out the tax while in Opposition ahead of his 1996 win over Paul Keating, declaring the tax was “dead, buried” and would “never, ever” be introduced. He then changed his mind during his first term of office, and went on the now defunct Sunday program with Laurie Oakes to announce his new position, for which he would seek a mandate at the 1998 election.

Continue reading "Obama leads the way on man-dates" »

Does Julia Gillard think the Australian people have the memory of a goldfish?

In the alternative Gillard reality we are apparently swimming about taking a fresh look at her Government with each lap of the bowl, oblivious to what we saw yesterday or the day before.

That is the only possible explanation for the bald-faced hypocrisy with which she is now championing a “Parliamentary Code of Conduct”.

Continue reading "Voters won’t forget the way Labor has conducted itself" »

The worship of ‘working families’ is a bipartisan affair – all sides of politics fall over themselves to appeal to this valuable voting pool.  It’s enough to make the childless feel like drones, labouring to feed the reproducing queens.

First there was Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s cash splash for parents of schoolkids. Then, in his Budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said: “My values are the product of an Australian life, a real life much like yours with Margie, raising three daughters in suburban Sydney, paying a mortgage, worrying about bills.”

Sorry, Mr Abbott, but that’s not a real life much like mine. Never mind living in suburban Sydney or having three daughters, even if I fell in love with a Margie I couldn’t marry her.

Continue reading "Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone" »

The other day I was watching ABC’s The Drum where Peter Singer was talking about the importance of giving to charitable causes to help alleviate global poverty. Good stuff from Singer, but out of nowhere comes a reference to Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell from one of the panelists.

Apparently Pell, at some point, had said that there is no genuine altruism, people only do good because it makes them feel good (well duh, I’ve heard that before). Anyway, next thing I know the inference is being made that Pell would rather have us walk around flagellating ourselves than giving to charitable causes.

There I am, watching the show, and I’m just baffled as to how went from generous giving to medieval self-mutilation at the behest of George Pell. Then it finally dawns on me, “Of course, this is the The Drum, the final credits can’t roll without at least one Catholic being bashed.” I should have known better.

Continue reading "Where have all the good TV Catholics gone?" »

During the lead-up to last week’s federal budget and the reporting that followed, the overwhelming focus was on whether Labor could deliver on the surplus promise it had pledged.

The focus Australia has on keeping its books balanced is commendable, but there is another deficit we face. One that gets worse every year, and one that could create havoc in the economic budget if not attended to.

The environmental deficit. Last year’s State of the Environment report made the same point that it has made since its initial publication in 1996 - things are OK, but getting progressively worse.

Continue reading "We aren’t happy tree friends with the environment" »

One of the hottest debates at the Madrid tennis Masters tournament is over the colour, texture and feel of the clay beneath players’ feet.

Rafael Nadal has had a bit of a blue with the blue clay, saying it’s “overly slippery”. Novak Djokovic has vowed to never play on the clay again. Sky News reports Djokovic said of organisers: “‘They can do what they like, I won’t be here next year if this clay stays.”

Serena Williams has labeled them “weenies”. But seriously. When was the last time you swam in an orange swimming pool? Played pool on a purple table? Served a volleyball on a blue beach?

It’s Tuesday. What’s on your mind?

I graduated last Friday afternoon. Big ceremony in a great big new hall. Donned robes sporting my faculty’s blood-orange sash. And I got a little excited putting on one of those square hats.

Too excited. I chucked my hat up in the air a tad over-enthusiastically and smacked the guy behind me in the head trying to catch it. Whoops.

I’m sure Yahoo! shareholders are feeling the same way as that guy. The company’s new CEO, Scott Thompson, has resigned after it was exposed that he hadn’t attained a computer science degree at Stone Hill College as he had claimed. UPDATE 5:20pm: The Wall Street Journal is also reporting Mr Thompson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer before he resigned.

Continue reading "Employers should check your CV to the nth degree" »