http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/communications/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +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/a-vaguely-intelligent-look-at-the-current-state-of-the-nbn/ OK. Let’s do that thing again where you make me look smart. I thought I told you last time I am not a magician. Seriously, I need you to make me sound like I understand the NBN. A guy in my job probably should, but I’m a little sketchy on the finer points. Actually, I’m pretty sketchy about the whole thing, really. OK, but if I do this, you have to return my chainsaw this weekend. And my chainsaw must not be broken. And if it is broken, you have to buy me a new chainsaw. And whether it’s broken or not, you have to buy new chainsaw oil. Deal. So what’s been going on this week with this NBN hearing or whatever it is? It was a Public Hearing of the Joint Committee on the NBN. It’s Parliament’s way of keeping an eye on the project by gathering together a heap of Senators and MPs, who grill the players in the NBN saga. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-vaguely-intelligent-look-at-the-current-state-of-the-nbn/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-vaguely-intelligent-look-at-the-current-state-of-the-nbn/#item8271 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Friday-dilemma-Why-dont-academics-answer-the-phone/ It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Friday-dilemma-Why-dont-academics-answer-the-phone/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Friday-dilemma-Why-dont-academics-answer-the-phone/#item6296 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-confession-i-kissed-the-boss/ I kissed my boss yesterday. It felt weird. I regretted it immediately. But I’d already clicked “Send”. There was no way back. At least it was only one kiss. I’ve received work emails from people of all ages, gender, and sexual persuasion with up to three kisses. Not to mention one xoxoxo. At first I thought it was confined to women under the age of 25 working in public relations. Then I realised it was seeping into all workplace correspondence. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-confession-i-kissed-the-boss/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-confession-i-kissed-the-boss/#item6215 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-will-arrive-just-as-we-dont-need-it-anymore/ One of the justifications that the government uses for the roll-out of the $43 billion National Broadband Network is the desire by Australian householders to have access to better and faster landline services. However, a survey of the available data suggests that Australians are turning increasingly to mobile communications devices, and abandoning fixed lines. Mobile phone services have grown rapidly over the last 10 years. At the same time fixed-line telephone services have stagnated. This growth in the take up of the mobile phone has coincided with a rise in the number of household consumers who do not access to a fixed-line telephone service. The choice of not having a fixed-line telephone service seems to be driven by age and living arrangements. Younger adults living in group households are most likely to go without this service and older adults in family households are most likely to retain the land line. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-will-arrive-just-as-we-dont-need-it-anymore/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-will-arrive-just-as-we-dont-need-it-anymore/#item6041 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lifting-the-lid-on-lobbyists/ It is time Parliaments joined Governments to ensure all professional lobbyists are registered. All lobbyists should be required to adhere to a code of conduct. And interest groups and think tanks should be required to disclose who their members and donors are. Recent developments in the debate about plain packaging of tobacco and carbon pricing have in turn kicked off a debate about the role of lobbyists, interest groups and think tanks. In particular, who influences the influencers? Political parties have for many years been required to disclose significant donors. The current debate is about the threshold at which donations should be disclosed. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lifting-the-lid-on-lobbyists/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lifting-the-lid-on-lobbyists/#item6033 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-the-man-who-hacked-the-governments-emails/ As you can probably guess it was me who hacked into the email accounts of ten senior federal ministers. I hacked into Julia Gillard’s because I wanted to know what it was like to run a country, I hacked into Kevin Rudd’s because I wanted to know what it was like to run the world, and I hacked into Stephen Smith’s because…well, I just really wanted to get some sleep. But what I found was deeply shocking and in yet another extraordinary exclusive I can now reveal their explosive contents for the first time… penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-the-man-who-hacked-the-governments-emails/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-the-man-who-hacked-the-governments-emails/#item5511 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-address-the-concern-shoot-the-critic/ It’s a strategy that President Obama’s spin team employed when he was neck-deep in political hot water over an incredibly unpopular health care policy – demonise the critics. Instead of addressing valid criticisms, damn the people making them. Witness the way the groundswell “Tea Party” movement was wrongly characterised by most of the mainstream media in the US and here as well.  There’s a derisory edge, almost a snigger, whenever the media discuss this significant political movement.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-address-the-concern-shoot-the-critic/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-address-the-concern-shoot-the-critic/#item5327 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/ As of next month Air New Zealand passengers will be allowed to use mobiles while on board, enabling Kiwi jet-setters to advise their loved ones that their flight is on schedule and they’ll be home by sucks. What really sucks about this move is that it will destroy the sole remaining bastion of public peace, the sanctuary of the aircraft, which in this hyper-connected modern world is the only escape from texts, tweets, emails, and the sheer horror of the loud and long-winded conversations of strangers. I’ve never been to New Zealand but from what I can gather it consists of two islands, each of them about 500km long, with a large airport in the middle somewhere so that its citizens can emigrate to Australia to find work. Based on this rough estimate the longest domestic flight in NZ would take about 40 minutes and the extremely popular one-way flight to Bondi only marginally longer. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/#item5126 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/No-bullshit-Bligh-sets-a-new-standard-for-politicians/ Anyone who works in corporate communications or PR will be familiar with the famous Tylenol case in the 1980s, when Johnson and Johnson immediately withdrew all its products and reinvented its packaging after a deranged extortionist killed seven people by lacing the painkiller with cyanide. In years to come, Anna Bligh’s management of the Queensland flood and cyclone crisis will stand as a comparable case study in how political leaders should best handle a natural disaster. In the past two weeks, and particularly this week, Bligh has created a new template for political communication. It’s been based around honesty, decisiveness and plain speech. It’s been based around saying what government can do, and what it cannot do. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/No-bullshit-Bligh-sets-a-new-standard-for-politicians/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/No-bullshit-Bligh-sets-a-new-standard-for-politicians/#item5050 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-still-hasnt-brought-the-promised-sunshine/ So much for opening the curtains and letting the sunshine in. The last few weeks of the Federal Parliamentary year have highlighted the farcical lengths the Gillard Government will go to avoid the sunshine of parliamentary scrutiny.  Demanding unprecedented seven year secrecy clauses from MPs.  Blocking legislation to allow the Productivity Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Then finally, dragged kicking and screaming, releasing just a flimsy 36 page summary of the NBN 400-page business plan. It begs the simple question: why be so secretive? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-still-hasnt-brought-the-promised-sunshine/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-nbn-still-hasnt-brought-the-promised-sunshine/#item4590 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 It’s infuriating. Here at The Punch, we regularly call all sorts of academics for their opinions on various things. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get through. Seriously, their phones just ring and ring and ring. And if you leave a message, good luck hearing back from them before next week. By which time the issue du jour will be well and truly fish and chip wrapping. Why is this the case? Surely academics have fewer meetings than the rest of us. Surely they are at their desks more, right by that clunky old landline. They have mobiles too, right? With that newfangled voicemail stuff, and all.