http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/paul-colgan/ PAUL’S first journalism was an audio documentary on a trip from Riyadh to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. The audio was punctuated by travelling companions yelling at him to shut up and have fun, which he should have done, because he was 10. His first paid assignments were music reviews for The Drogheda Independent, his local newspaper in Ireland. After training there as reporter and sub-editor and freelancing for Irish music mag Hot Press, Paul joined the Dublin bureau of The Sunday Times as a news reporter in 1999, where he enjoyed a few short weeks of smoking at his desk before it was banned, and over the following years covered transport, health, and legal affairs for the paper. Paul arrived in Sydney in 2003 and joined news.com.au, working as a reporter and later chief of staff before being appointed Deputy Editor, leading coverage of major stories and developing journalism innovations. He was appointed Managing Editor of The Punch in January 2009. en Copyright 2010 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:30:08 +0000 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:30:08 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kristina-keneally-kevin-rudd-nsw-politics/ Kevin Rudd’s much-criticised failure to look NSW Premier Kristina Keneally in the eye ahead of health reform talks last week was a supremely weird moment. Keneally is in the equally bizarre position of leading a party voters say they are going to crush in the polls but also decisively support her as preferred premier ahead of Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell. Rudd’s gaze-averting and fist-banging had all the hallmarks of a snub but taken with the Premier’s attempts to brand herself as Kristina Keneally and nothing to do with Labor, you have to wonder whether the incident may in fact have suited her strategy of putting distance between herself and the party. With polls on the two-party preferred measure indicating voters are waiting with baseball bats for the NSW Labor Party in next year’s state election it’s perhaps understandable that they would want the focus to be on personalities rather than the party machines. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kristina-keneally-kevin-rudd-nsw-politics/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kristina-keneally-kevin-rudd-nsw-politics/#item2621 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:46:45 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/clown-suits-for-dole-bludgers-could-it-work-here/ Thanks to the way Tony Abbott announced his maternity leave plan, thought bubbles seem to be in vogue this week so here’s one for a breezy Friday brainstorm. Mandatory clown suits for social welfare recipients. What do you think? The key benefit, as argued by the person who thought of it first, is that people on welfare will be making the country happier as everyone likes looking at clowns. (Stay with me.) colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/clown-suits-for-dole-bludgers-could-it-work-here/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/clown-suits-for-dole-bludgers-could-it-work-here/#item2596 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:42 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ticklegate-only-in-america/ From the country that gave us cigars in the White House pantry and the governor who went for a walk only to wind up in Buenos Aires doing the horizontal tango comes the latest proof that nobody does a jaw-dropping political scandal like Americans. What began as a rumble about naked lobbying in the gym showers by Barack Obama’s chief of staff has turned into the cringe-inducing political wilting of US congressman Eric Massa, amid allegations of grown men in tickle fights, allegations of same-sex harassment and the spectre – raised by Massa himself – that there might be some unfortunate text messages on congressional staff phones. After claiming just days ago he was pressured into resigning from Congress by Democrats, Massa, who is married with children, went on a highly-anticipated TV interview only to backtrack on his key allegations and then admit to all-in, all-guy tickle fights with staff. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ticklegate-only-in-america/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ticklegate-only-in-america/#item2589 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:48:09 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/breaking-news-something-is-happening/ Is this the greatest ever send-up of 24-hour news? Warning: contains strong language and hilarity. From The Onion. Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Lightweight http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/breaking-news-something-is-happening/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/breaking-news-something-is-happening/#item2581 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:19:31 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/michael-clarke-lara-bingle-photo-controversy/ Who needs Posh ‘n’ Becks? Australian cricket vice-captain Michael Clarke and his model girlfriend Lara Bingle have confirmed themselves as the nation’s celebrity circus couple. Clarke is known for being unhappy with the ongoing publicity that surrounds their relationship but its effect has reached a nadir with him quitting the team camp on the eve of a one-day match against New Zealand because his girlfriend was upset. This is no Hollywood couple’s restaurant flare-up. Clarke’s sudden and stunning decision to return to Sydney to be with Bingle raises questions on his future role in the team and ability to focus on his cricket. Clarke has been a consistently excellent performer and is the favourite to succeed Ricky Ponting as captain. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/michael-clarke-lara-bingle-photo-controversy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/michael-clarke-lara-bingle-photo-controversy/#item2574 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:58:18 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudd-asks-for-the-3am-phone-call-about-a-hospital-problem/ Maybe he’s telling the truth but given his experience in the Queensland bureaucracy, it’s simply impossible to believe Kevin Rudd when he says he “didn’t properly estimate the complexity” of health reform. A few minutes talking to anyone involved in healthcare delivery is enough to know the sector is hopelessly complex, a spaghetti-bowl of accountability. Everybody’s hands are tied, it’s a black hole for money, it is impossible to please the stakeholders from state governments through doctors’ and nurses’ associations to the voting public, and the line of managers required to sign off on simple things stretches almost as far as the line of patients waiting for treatment at a hospital door. What Rudd outlined yesterday is in some ways about changing which bank account gets debited for healthcare services. But most people don’t really care about structural reform – they just want to know Aunt Ethel doesn’t have to shuffle around on the bad hip for too long. And when she does, they want someone to blame. Now Rudd is saying you can blame him. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudd-asks-for-the-3am-phone-call-about-a-hospital-problem/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/rudd-asks-for-the-3am-phone-call-about-a-hospital-problem/#item2535 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:00:22 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tony-abbott-vladimir-putin-photos/ Is this a pattern? Here are a series of similiar photos of Tony Abbott and Vladimir Putin. They like going bare-chested… ... they both enjoy the outdoors ... colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tony-abbott-vladimir-putin-photos/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tony-abbott-vladimir-putin-photos/#item2531 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:09:25 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/are-people-hard-wired-for-income-redistribution/ The experiments went like this. Scientists took pairs of people and gave one of them a big wad of money. Then they wired them up and watched what happened as more cash was handed out. “People who started out rich had a stronger reaction to other people getting money than to themselves getting money,” Colin Camerer, one of the study’s coauthors, told the Freakonomics blog. “In other words, their brains liked it when others got money more than they liked it when they themselves got money.” The science part: the circuitry of the brain’s reward centres is sensitive to inequality. The basic finding is that regardless of how much money you have, humans respond better to poor people getting money than rich people. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/are-people-hard-wired-for-income-redistribution/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/are-people-hard-wired-for-income-redistribution/#item2520 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:23:18 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/science-maths-national-curriculum/ The scene is a Thursday evening in a suburban Australian home in 2018. Dad is on the biodegradable couch watching some vintage Mad Men, remastered in interactive 3D, on a fifth-generation iPad. His 10-year-old daughter throws a digital notebook in his lap. “Daddy, can you help?” she says. “I’ve done the statistical tables but I’m not sure how to justify the relationship between the variables.” Forget emperor Nasi Goreng building the Great Wall to keep the rabbits out. The draft national curriculum released yesterday will test future parents almost as much as it does kids. Much of its maths and science content is currently the preserve of think-tanks and universities, stuff wholly alien to modern parents and even recent graduates of Australian schools. For all the arguing about how the curriculum handles history this is primarily a document about the future. Is about building new skills Australia will need in its workforce over coming generations. colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/science-maths-national-curriculum/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/science-maths-national-curriculum/#item2519 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:54:52 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/five-questions-for-facebook-after-tribute-pages-defaced/ Update 7am: Despite the company’s statement yesterday, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy say Facebook needs to explain itself. The Punch is still awaiting a response to its questions put to Facebook’s press office. Update 4.45pm Wednesday: Today there are at least two groups live on Facebook - one of which has over 3400 members - calling for the death of the man accused of Trinity Bates’s murder. If this happened in a newspaper or on a major news website the editor would be at risk of going to jail. Update Wednesday 2.45pm : Facebook has published a statement about obscene content on the tribute pages to Elliott Fletcher and Trinity Bates on its website. It is printed in full below. We’re yet to hear from them. Facebook’s statement: colganp@thepunch.com.au (Paul Colgan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/five-questions-for-facebook-after-tribute-pages-defaced/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/five-questions-for-facebook-after-tribute-pages-defaced/#item2469 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:33:53 +0000 Paul Colgan | Author bios | The Punch