Australia Now

Australia University Academic Expense Corruption Rorting Claims

2012-01-18T03:57:00.000-08:00

Suspended academic may face police probe. POLICE may be called in to investigate a Newcastle University academic, Jesse Sheng Jin, over expense claims made against research grant money, according to Fair Work Australia documents.

Professor Jin's barrister, Tony Slevin, told the Fair Work Australia tribunal that his client, who denies any wrongdoing, faced not only possible charges of serious misconduct but also referral to police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

This is small fry and ICACs or auditor generals would be see this as the tip of the iceberg if they investigated systemic travel rorting under the guise of international marketing conducted by university and TAFE international administrative and project personnel, plus faculty.

See Australian International Education.

Australia Higher Education Anti Corruption Probe at University of New England

2012-01-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

THE awarding of contracts for campus services at the University of New England is under investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
ICAC said today it would begin public hearings on January 23 into allegations of corrupt conduct by UNE campus services manager Colin McCallum.

The university said it had investigated the allegations and referred them to ICAC.

ICAC said Mr McCallum was accused of corruptly soliciting and receiving benefits for himself and others from December 2004 to April 2011.

In return, he allegedly favoured Quad Services Pty Ltd, Sydney Night Patrol and Inquiry Pty Ltd, and Prosys Services Pty Ltd in the awarding of UNE contracts.

Mr McCallum allegedly approved payment of false invoices submitted to UNE by those companies.

ICAC said it also was investigating an allegation that in 2010 "Mr McCallum corruptly arranged for payment for the hire of UNE sports facilities for use by New England Rugby Union by providing false and misleading information to other UNE employees''.

UNE said it would "continue to fully cooperate'' with ICAC.

Asylum Seekers Refugees Islamic Extremists?

2012-01-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

No comparison between asylum-seekers and Vietnamese boatpeople.

THE present wave of asylum-seekers is not to be likened to the Vietnamese boatpeople who arrived in Australia after the fall of Saigon.

The Vietnamese and ethnic Chinese boatpeople were fleeing Vietnam for a very definite reason: the victorious communist forces, when not executing them outright, were sending them to re-education camps, confiscating their property and forcing them to do manual work in uncleared tropical jungle….

…The present wave of asylum-seekers is a completely different case….

…..A popular T-shirt worn by Muslim youth in Stockholm reads: "2030 -- then we take over". Similar predictions have been made publicly and triumphantly by various Muslim leaders, and there are growing demands for the imposition of sharia law, with punishments such as amputation of hands for theft and death by public stoning for sexual irregularities, or for converting out of Islam…… blah blah blah….

Austrade Faces Scrutiny in Bribery Scandal

2011-12-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

Austrade faces scrutiny in bribery scandal. AUSTRALIA's trade agency has been forced to introduce an anti-bribery policy and training for staff amid calls for an investigation into its role in the Reserve Bank bribery scandal.

At least five Austrade officials have been questioned by the Australian Federal Police over their dealings with RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia.

While no Austrade officials have been charged, The Age has since 2009 reported a series of cases where senior trade officials strongly supported high-risk activities by the RBA firms in corruption-prone countries.

It was revealed yesterday that one of Austrade's most senior officials, David Twine, met an arms dealer hired by Securency to open doors in India and another high-ranking official was aware of massive payments to a Vietnamese intelligence officer in a bid to win contracts.

Mr Twine left Austrade in October after his role was abolished in a restructure.

Knight Revıew Australian TAFE & Universities Dodgy Too

2011-10-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

Public Providers Dubious too: Evans. THE federal government has all but guaranteed that the streamlined student visa system for universities will be rolled out to vocational and private providers, with Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans saying its response to the Knight review wasnt meant to be sector specific.

And Senator Evans said quality problems weren’t exclusive to the private sector, pointing the finger at universities and TAFEs as well as private colleges.

Good news as state sector does not have a monopoly on quality, let alone ethical behaviour. In fact some of the most egregious behaviour, exemplified by travel rorting, promoting study to PR, cronyism, nepotism etc., was seen in the state sector universities and TAFE. Conversely some of the best education and ethical business practice is seen in private colleges who understand quality and marketing is need to survive, without state assistance.

AIEC QUEST Australian International Education Centre Europe.

The Australian Higher Education Blog Social Media Digital Marketing

2011-10-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

Social media matters (but not for the reason you think)

Memo to anybody who thinks there is ever anything new in the next big thing in presenting universities to the world – platforms change, but the laws of marketing stay the same. (Which may be enough to change everything).

A social media best practice list for universities, written by US university marketer Dan Klamm demonstrates why. (It’s at Mashable).

For guide on how to avoid social media and digital marketing while preserving travel opportunities and job click here for comment.

Australian International Market Strangled by Federal Government

2011-10-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

Student Market Strangled. Victorian PREMIER Ted Baillieu has accused the federal government of ''effectively strangling'' the international student market, and will join forces with New South Wales to push for wider changes to visa restrictions.

Only weeks after Canberra announced it would fast-track student visas and give foreign students the right to two years of post-study work - provided they graduate with a university degree - Victoria has branded the move a ''knee-jerk reaction'' that will threaten the state's $5.8 billion international education industry.

Mr Baillieu and his NSW counterpart, Barry O'Farrell, share concerns that the reforms focus too much on universities and not enough on the vocational education sector, where falling enrolments are the most severe.

The Liberal premiers are expected to use the next Council of Australian Governments meeting to challenge Prime Minister Julia Gillard to further ease visa restrictions, with Victoria arguing the changes should be based on the type of qualification students get, not just that it comes from a university.


AIEC QUEST Australian International Education Centre.


Fee paying international education in Australia has been round for decades but became more significant due to Dawkins policy of 80s under Labor to subsidise domestic places and internationalise education, and increased further under Howard government which also included immigration carrots. All quite logical with need for increased export income (with trade deficits), ageing population, decreasing tax base, skills shortages etc. yet it was the private English and vocational sectors which had growth higher than universities while TAFEs started offering degrees to international and domestic students.

However, when Labor came into power international education became victim of xenophobic politics and societal attitudes when it was conflated, negatively, with issues such as immigration, refugees, perceptions of widespread (yet in reality limited) rorting, population growth (international students and other temporaries included in data), unemployment, rising house prices, environment, social cohesiond, stressed infrastructure etc. Result was government panicking and yielding to vested interests including anti immigration and environment lobbies, trade unions etc. by suspending offshore immigration and making study to PR applications, and visa much more difficult, especially if vocational.

The Skilled Occupation List (SOL) was updated to exclude cookery, hairdressing etc. and while points system now precluded generic business degrees offering required minimum points, accounting remained on SOL which if it had not, would have been catastrophic for university income.
Since then population growth has flatlined, (related) international tourism has plummetted, English and VET numbers too, while universities are expecting significant drops in new commencements from offshore thus requiring support from government, and estimated 10,000 have lost work and/or income in the education industry (but most casualised on short term contracts thus not unionised so that's alright then).

Since then the government, DEEWR and DIAC have been lobbied by other vested interests which exemplify the incestuous nature of Australian government, public service and business i.e. universities, IDP recruitment and IELTS testing (owned by universities and SEEK), and another publicly listed company Navitas who have monopoly on significant number of university pathways who need to keep share price up and pay dividends.  Meanwhile it appears that neither ACPET nor TAFE lobbied, or were simply ineffectual i.e. "not connected" using the Oz argot.

Late 2010 private college personnel promoting offshore were informed by Navitas personnel (who had a "heads up" one month before official) that visa application requirements would be eased for higher education pathways which directly benefitted universities, Navitas, Study Group (another private company then up for sale providing university pathways via Taylor's Colleges onto University of Sydney etc.) , and to a much more limited extent TAFEs.

The losers were private providers of English and VET who coincidentally had become competition for TAFE and universities both internationally and domestically, while the Gillard government's rhetoric was that university education good and high quality, while vocational bad and low quality. Further, according to Gillard government genuine international students study for sake of study while non genuine students expect employment and PR for a skills shortage occupation, very egalitarian!

Now through the Knight Review, though admirable (e.g. international students did not design the previous system thus not to blame), has made recommendations on student visas that again clearly and primarily offer advantages to universities where it appears e.g. students from large markets such as India and China, which were previously high risk,  will have the application process eased and similar to that used for Europeans i.e. AL1.

However, if same student wants to study e.g. same AQF accredited bachelor of business degree in a good quality private college the visa system remains like existing system, i.e. difficult and expensive, ditto ELICOS and VET. Apparently English and VET visas will be looked at next year...... just to make sure university gets a head start....

Also goes to show that popularity of Australia and e.g. Melbourne was not due to great marketing skills and strategies but pull factors which the government controls.  The government has also warned universities that they will be directly responsible for compliance i.e. student welfare, overstays etc. but this then begs the question, what were they and the regulators doing before?

Rorting ACL Flugge Navitas Refugees

2011-10-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

From wheat kickbacks to human cargo. A company accused of ripping off refugees was taken over by Trevor Flugge just days after it began its controversial government contract.

Mr Flugge paid $55 million for ACL Pty Ltd, the company which became Navitas English Pty Ltd, after it won the contract to resettle refugees, a business in which it had no previous experience, in Newcastle.

It did not go well from the start. Within months, the company and Mr Flugge were named in a Senate estimates committee hearing over the way the refugees were being treated in the resettlement program, which is responsible for housing and welfare.

Federal Government Department Fraud Corruption

2011-10-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

Federal agencies lack firepower to deal with fraud. An unknown number of corruption cases lie undiscovered inside the vast Commonwealth bureaucracy. IN NOVEMBER 2009, the internal audit bureau of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations received alarming information.

It had received an email that claimed a departmental official had tried to solicit a $300,000 bribe from a college for international students that was found to have breached several departmental guidelines. If the bribe was paid, according to the email, the officer would turn a blind eye to the non-compliance.

The incident has surfaced in heavily redacted internal documents released to the Herald under freedom of information.

But even the scant information provided demonstrates the institutional weaknesses of the Commonwealth government in combating graft.....

Tip of the iceberg....... estimated Australian universities and TAFE spend near $500 million in public funds on international travel plans i.e. allowances, hotels and airfares (while acquiring frequent flyer points) of which one quarter maybe necessary.....

Australian Politics Society Attitudes to Migrants

2011-08-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

And another thing . . .

From:The Australian
August 05, 201112:00AM

IN our names, the migrant in charge of this country and its so-called security is about to enter the darkest period of human trading since the days of the kanakas, aided and abetted by a worthless media with its incessant lies and abuse of innocent human beings.

Asylum-seekers have legal status in this country and I hope to hell the first innocent person illegally deported and traded like a bale of wool goes straight to the UN.

We do not treat mass murderers the way this bunch of putrid trash are treating people who have fled wars we started just to win redneck votes.

Australia, I hate your guts. I suspect as well that tourists, students and migrants will be averse to a country that tortures innocent people in this manner and I hope the entire place collapses in a deep, dark depression brought on by a lazy, racist moron.

Marilyn Shepherd, Angaston, SA

Curtin University IELTS Test Centre to Close after Corruption Scandal

2011-07-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

CURTIN University will close its IELTS English language testing centre following a corruption scandal....In many cases, the test results were used by international students to secure permanent residency visas. As would-be skilled migrants, they had to show competent English. The price for fake IELTS results was as high as $11,000...

...The link between education and migration has been weakened by immigration policy changes.That link made English language test results especially valuable.

IELTS has a monopoly as the only officially acceptable proof of English competence for sought-after skilled migration visas but that monopoly is under challenge.

The International English Language Testing System is run worldwide by Cambridge University, the British Council and student recruiter IDP. In Australia, IDP owns the IELTS business through the company IELTS Australia.

As a former Romanian Minister opined some years ago, monopolies (and special treatment) inevitably lead to corruption. Would any Australian "self regulating" state institutions' international education activities stand up to closer scrutiny?

AIEC QUEST Australian International Education Centre Europe.

Full of sound and fury

2011-07-05T02:30:00.000-07:00

Australia cannot claim the high moral ground on corruption, writes Neil Fergus.

Australia might be poised on a precipice in terms of whether it is able to maintain its reputation as a nation that actively discourages and prosecutes corrupt behaviour. Leadership, commitment and resources are required or we run the risk of being perceived as a nation that talks the talk but too often fails to deliver.

The recent arrests in relation to Securency International, an exporter of Australian polymer note technology, might prove to be a watershed in terms of our dealings with corrupt international practices by Australian companies. You can be certain that the court proceedings will be watched closely by Australian companies and our international trading partners alike......

.....At the very worst, Australian criticisms of the approaches to corruption by some countries bear the hallmark of sanctimonious jingoism. It is time we got our house in order....

....

Australia can definitely claim to meet best international standards in relation to its anti-money laundering legislation, regulation, prevention and response, and our leading practitioners are in demand to lecture and provide governance and compliance training all over the world. Conversely, despite having some reasonably effective state bodies, such as the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales, we have been lagging in terms of our national commitment and contribution to countering international corruption, and, most notably, to preventing and deterring international corrupt practices by Australians.

If we don't take the appropriate steps to address our deficiencies, any self-righteous Australian proselytising will ring hollow.

Whistleblowers Legislation in Australia

2011-06-13T02:55:00.000-07:00

Why wait for whistleblowers? Federal and state governments in Australia appear much less successful than their United States counterparts in recovering taxpayers funds lost to suspected large-scale corporate fraud.

For instance, there are petrol companies in Australia that seem to raise and lower their prices in sync with each other, especially prior to weekends – negatively impacting government departments that fund fuel costs.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission waits for whistleblowers to come to it to provide documentary evidence of illegal collusion, but no one does.

Then there are defence contracts for rusty warships, dud helicopters, submarines and aircraft where the possibility of kickbacks to people in high places seems worth investigating – if only we had a better mechanism to encourage insider information.......

Have lived in several less developed countries where corruption is rife, yet when one looks at Australia there are many similarities....

Nothing much will change when Australian media, politics and business are happy to maintain the class status quo, and with soome wrapping themselves in the flag, tolerating incompetence etc..

This is exemplified by Dept. of Immigration being able to set up a "dob an illegal immigrant" hot line (against those who cannot legally defend themselves), while Assange of Wikileaks fame has been described in Australia as a "dobber" (for daring to show Australian political leaders in a negative light).

No dobbing on mates used to be an egalitarian notion, but has now been purloined by those with power, at best with "conflicts of interest" in government and business, claiming to have Australians' best interests at heart.

Have observed since 1980s how public sector has taken on business adminstration, ROI etc. models that also seem to condone public servants moonlighting (e.g. international education personnel TAFE and universities), or moving into business based upon their knowledge and market intelligence while working for the state.

IELTS Ripping 0ff Australia

2011-05-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

IELTS Ripping 0ff Australia. IELTS has come under fire for corruption with test results being "fixed" for a price. WA criminal Justice Commission has found that IELTS Staff had excepted bribes to change the results to increase the scores allocated to various students. Not only are SEEK ripping off Australians by overcharging for the cost of the exam, the administration of the system is also seriously flawed.

Melbourne City Council "Holding them to account" Blog.

Australia Day, Identity,Cliches, Myths

2011-01-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

Enough of myths and mates, we need some reality ..... it is time to reappraise Australia Day. There is more than a lick of bellicose jingoism, masquerading as patriotism, in how we celebrate.

We all too quickly retreat to unthinking but reassuring mantras of mateship and are comfortable with simplistic images as talismans of identity.....

...Australia Day highlights just how conformist we are as a nation. Is Australia an urbane country? A nation reflecting on the pluralistic and sophisticated qualities post-war migrants have brought to the cities and towns? A nation that on one hand welcomes newcomers, pays lip service to celebrating difference, but amid bobbing corks on Akubras, subtly asks for them to toe the national line?

.....Barry Jones, in his still relevant Sleepers, Wake!, published in 1982, implored Australia to show a bit of bottle and willingness to change: "Will Australia have the intelligence, energy or guts to impose democratic and pluralist forms on the new technology, or will its ambiguities all be resolved in favour of the rich, the powerful and the status quo? Our timorous social history, the feeble grasp of complex matters exhibited by too many of our leaders, the low level of intellectual vitality, a lack of national self-confidence, obedience and fatalism, the mediocrity of the business and academic establishment do not give us much ground for optimism."

RBA Reserve Bank Securency Corruption Probe

2010-11-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

RBA to sell Securency amid probe. THE Reserve Bank of Australia has moved to abandon the corruption and bribery scandal engulfing its subsidiary Securency by offloading the plastic banknote maker.

The announcement that the RBA will sell the company comes days after The Age revealed it had failed to stop Securency from wiring millions in suspected bribe payments to a mysterious offshore company in the months after police began investigating it for bribery.

The RBA's announcement yesterday afternoon coincided with Labor and the Coalition joining forces in the Senate to defeat a call by Greens leader Bob Brown for a parliamentary inquiry into the RBA's supervision of Securency.

So that is alright then? Of course there is no corruption nor conflict of interest in Australian QUANGOs.....

Mike Rann's other 'pet' Puglia deal questioned

2010-11-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

Mike Rann's other 'pet' Puglia deal questioned. MIKE Rann is under growing pressure to explain connections with an area of Italy to which he has committed millions of taxpayer dollars.

The opposition yesterday stepped up its attack on the South Australian Premier by raising a second "pet project" linked to the Puglia region of Italy after The Australian revealed more than $900,000 had been spent since 2007-08 on a trade fair that no SA companies attended.

According to parliament's Register of Members' Interests, Mr Rann's wife, Sasha Carruozzo, owns property in Puglia, has relatives in Italy and travels as a guest of the Pugliese regional government.

Of course Australia is not a feudal society with nepotism, cronyism, conflict of interest nor corruption..... Like millions spent by universities and TAFE where money spent internationally on prospective offshore projects revolve round family links, destination preferences, secrecy etc.

Austrade backed foreign agents

2010-10-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

Austrade backed foreign agents. FEDERAL government agency Austrade has for more than a decade backed Australian companies, including Reserve Bank subsidiary Securency, hiring relatives of high-ranking foreign officials in a potential breach of anti-bribery laws.

Confidential Austrade documents obtained by The Age show that Austrade knew that the agent employed by at least three Australian companies to win Vietnam government contracts was a close relative of senior government ministers and officials in Hanoi. Austrade was simultaneously helping the companies win deals in Vietnam. The Austrade documents from 1998 say the agent had ''family relations in various key [government] ministries''.

They also reveal he had a ''well-connected'' father and a ''father-in-law [who] is minister of interior''.

Under Australian anti-bribery laws, it is illegal for Australian companies to provide benefits to foreign officials, their representatives or relatives in order to obtain improperly a business advantage.

Despite documenting the agent's relations with Vietnamese officials, Austrade helped polymer banknote firm Securency recruit him in 2002. The fixer is Anh Ngoc Luong, who Securency is alleged to have bribed to win the multimillion-dollar Vietnam government contracts.

See all things all normal at Austrade.

Victorian Government Australia Reporting Media and Scrutiny

2010-10-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

The Brumby Dump: what the media missed. On September 16, the Brumby state government tabled more than 200 annual reports of departments and statutory authorities in just one day. It’s a technique designed to ensure that no media organisation can possibly get through the lot.

So the Swinburne University of Technology journalism course decided to do something about it. We set our students to the task of holding the government to account, and scrutinising what all those reports said about life in Victoria in the lead-up to the state election.

There’s a lesson from Swinburne University’s exercise. Loads of great stories get missed by the mainstream media and our students unearthed many stories that have been missed by others. We’re not talking about yarns that the newspapers would hesitate to report. These are compelling and important issues that any media outlet would want to cover. Some are big stories, some deserve further investigation. All of them shed light on how Victoria is faring in the 11th year of Labor Government.

There are stories about contamination, crime, conflict and incompetence, about under-resourced welfare agencies and regional hospitals in unsustainable financial positions. There are examples of policy bungles, strained relations and under-performance. There are revelations about the finances of some of our biggest institutions and we see emerging trends across entire sectors that deserve greater exposure and discussion.....

Defence Department Contracts and Public Tender

2010-09-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

The sky's the limit. WHEN his private airline collapsed last year with $93 million in debts, entrepreneur and army reservist David Charlton found refuge within the Defence Department's Joint Movements Group, the unit responsible for deploying Australian troops overseas.

His return to Defence coincided with the time the department was tendering for the lucrative contract to fly 6000 troops to Kuwait City, before their deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2005, the last time Charlton worked in the group, the contract was also up for grabs. Not surprisingly, Charlton is a man aviation companies seeking the Defence contracts have wanted to know.

An investigation by The Age has uncovered emails linking Charlton and another Joint Movements Group figure, former army warrant officer John Davies, to the directors of Strategic Aviation - the company which that year.

Noooo Australia is not a feudal corrupt country relying upon cronyism and "who you know".... Like the international education sector, how many present and former university and TAFE personnel have used their public sector employment to further their own (plus friends and relatives) commercial interests? A lot, whether recruitment or preparation monopolies via a public company e.g. Navitas, IDP etc., or promoting one's own homestay service through to being awarded a non tendered contract, or allowed "revolving door" treatment i.e. employment in private sector during good times, and public during bad?

Forgive me for "spinning"

2010-08-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Spin makes the bland new world go round as Gillard and Abbott offer up similar policies. ONE of the public laments about the recent election is that there was no real difference between the major parties or their leaders.

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott offered broadly similar policies. They spoke in the same robotic measured manner and tone. They even looked the same in a middle-aged-couple sort of way.

A dead-heat result suggests that the electorate now regards both major parties as having converged into a single, indistinguishable political mass held together not by the natural force of gravity, but by something even more powerful: spin.

What we are seeing, and what we will see more of in the future, is the "blandification" of those seeking high office. Spin is a lubricant that gets politicians where they want to go.

It shouldn't surprise that the ultimate sell job, the holding of an election, is governed by a machine that controls or spins behaviours (inputs) to achieve outcomes. After all, according to census results, there are now two jobs for people who manage the news (13,000 public relations consultants) for every person who actually produces the news (6000 print journalists).

The paradox is that while the community recognises and abhors spin, that very same community also responds to spin.

Politicians are in the business of selling their ideas (and their personalities). If carefully scripted behaviour, in the form of dress, mannerisms and wordage, maximises connection with the electorate through the media, then so be it. Political strategists should alter their product only when it is clear that the market is buying something else.

Can you imagine an old-style colourful politician such as Paul Keating operating in today's political world? His every put-down would be scrutinised, evaluated and ultimately condemned across the 24-hour news cycle that now governs the political cycle.

The rise of pay-TV has been instrumental in this process: there's simply more air time to fill now than there was 20 years ago and this has lifted the intensity of debate.

If news of the day is on a continuous loop, or if there are multiple news updates as there is on free-to-air TV, then any strong political comment (let alone colourful behaviour) will always be fodder for discussion. Politicians do their utmost to have this process work on their behalf through carefully timed announcements that are designed to deliver positive spin.

But should a politician let slip a single unguarded comment, then the system is just as capable of working in the opposite direction. The political lesson is simple: either change behaviour to avoid being mauled by negative spin, or lose electoral relevance.

Politicians are like creatures of nature, seeking to survive a process of Darwinian evolution. Colourful and exotic creatures are wiped out early; big lumbering dinosaurs are cut down by negative opinion formed by continuous media scrutiny. Those who prosper are sleek and streamlined creatures that can morph into and procreate (ideas, at least) in any environment.

Part of the evolutionary agility required of a modern politician is an ability to put on a hard hat and connect with builders, to kiss babies and connect with mothers, to don riding boots and mix it with the rural set, and to talk with purpose on any subject at any time without leaving a point of contention for negative media scrutiny. And then to do it all again the next day.

This has been the road map for politicians for the past decade. The new development in this election has been the role played by citizen journalists. The blogosphere and Twitter are now powerful tools in the formation of opinion. They combine with the 24-hour news cycle and traditional media to inform and shape mass-market thinking.

A single political gaffe is now fatal because the mistake is played and replayed; experts are called in to discuss nuances; talkback is whipped into a frenzy; then the largely anonymous Twitter and blog formats swoop and gleefully flail the wounded.

With so much at stake, is it any wonder that politicians' behaviour and sound bites are stage-managed?

The 2010 election was the most managed election in Australian history. But it won't be as staged-managed as the next election or the election after that.

Greater access to broadcast technology (including Twitter and blogs) combined with anonymity emboldens many to take and disseminate extreme views. Can there be anything more self-satisfying to an anonymous blogger or twitterer than to have their tweet or opinion admonishing the behaviour of a big-name politician cited on television?

The herd abhors errant behaviour; any comment, inappropriate inflection, real or perceived slight, or downright mistake, is seized upon with indignant righteousness within the blogosphere.

And it is all done under the guise of holding politicians to account. But are we holding politicians to a higher standard than we apply to ourselves? And is there any latitude in this process to allow for human error?

Those in business who think this often anonymous scrutiny from the masses only applies to politicians should think again.

Throughout this decade, anyone in high office will be increasingly scrutinised by a proliferation of media and social media, and the opinion that swirls around both. The blandification that ensures the survival of politicians will also be adopted by the business world.

Melbourne's Urban Renewal Projects and Leafy Green Nimbyism

2010-08-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

The battle for elbow room. As the population grows and fights escalate over urban renewal projects Melbourne residents must face reality and change the way they live.

IN MELBOURNE'S leafy suburbs dense is a dirty word.

Within a 20-kilometre radius of the city centre, our gentrified streets are caught in the thick of an issue that is going to change dramatically the way we live in the next 20 years.

The statistics have been widely talked about - global urban populations are going to double in the next 40 years and Melbourne is no exception.

Despite Dick Smith's best efforts to save us from ourselves on the ABC's Dick Smith's Population Puzzle last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics projects our city will grow to 7.5 million people by 2051.

While many of us may agree with the millionaire when he says the planet, with its finite resources, can't cope with exponential expansion, we are still faced with the reality that we need to house many more people somewhere.

In Melbourne that growth has, up to now, been on the fringes. Because of a limitless supply of land on the city's edge the pressure is, theoretically, off our middle and inner suburbs.

Or is it? Governments of all descriptions acknowledge it's not economically and socially sustainable to continue expanding indefinitely on the city's fringes.

AusAID guilty of conflict in allotting grants

2010-08-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

AusAID guilty of conflict in allotting grants. Taxpayer funds are used to pressure MPs to raise the aid agency's budget.

Picture this. A government department hands out cash to community activist groups, who in turn use the money to run a campaign to pressure political parties to devote more money to the department. At minimum, it seems to be a conflict of interest. Foolish, more like it. A betrayal of public trust even. But that's exactly what Australia's overseas aid agency, AusAID, has done.

Last October, AusAID made grants totalling $1.5 million to various local groups "to raise awareness about global poverty" - a noble sentiment, no doubt, in a world where the gap between rich and poor is an awful blight....

....Australians are extraordinarily generous with private donations to charities in the wake of natural disasters and to the long-term development projects. But it is not for AusAID to try to exploit this goodwill in an effort to lift its budget. The final responsibility for this questionable strategy must rest with Labor for putting this pilot program of grants in place.

Foreign aid is not a crucial election issue, but it should get far more attention. If the major parties follow through on their commitments, the aid budget will be among the top five areas of government spending.

The Coalition has promised to appoint a minister for international development to oversee the aid program. This is a sensible proposal that will help improve accountability and give added weight to the carriage of projects abroad. Labor should match it.

In the meantime, this is not a desirable way to spend part of the aid budget.

Australian property not overpriced

2010-05-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

'Affordability crisis' a housing industry fiction. WHEN the Housing Industry Association published the May edition of its quarterly work of fiction, the Housing Affordability Index, media outlets printed the data without hesitation.

This instant recycling of propaganda is what passes for journalism these days. The political outpourings of developer lobby groups are presented to the public as fact. There is no scrutiny, no checking, no asking of pertinent questions.

Any half-switched-on journalist would look at the figures that make up this bogus index and see that they're nonsense.

Travel Rorting Victorian Politician

2010-05-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

Bob Smith: not one to look a gift shop in the mouth. BOB Smith loves being president. Loves the power and the prestige. Loves playing statesman. The problem is, Mr Smith is not president of the United States or Australia, but of Victoria's Legislative Council.

In that role his main task is keeping order in the parliamentary upper house, a job more akin to childcare than world leadership, and one that arguably shouldn't call for lots of international stage strutting.

Not according to jovial ex-naval officer and union official Mr Smith. So strong is his commitment to external affairs that in his 3½ years since taking up the presiding officer's chair he has clocked up at least 10 overseas trips - and a string of interstate journeys - taking in Britain, the US twice, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Not that anyone knows much about any of this. Mr Smith doesn't have to ask permission or even tell anyone about his trips - not even those who pick up the bills, Victorian taxpayers.

While ministers must get overseas travel signed off by Premier John Brumby, neither Mr Smith nor his equivalent in the lower house, the Speaker (currently Jenny Lindell), require approval from anyone.

But if formal accountability is next to non-existent for this particular presidential position, the political reality is that there is a limit. And Mr Smith may well have just stepped over it.

Last month Mr Smith, 61, took Legislative Council clerk Wayne Tunnecliffe and an executive assistant on an eight-day study tour through the United States, visiting Los Angeles, Washington and Boston. The reason? To look at souvenir shops and visitor management in American government buildings.

Travel Rorting

2010-05-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

Pollies miss the point on air travel. NEW rules stopping politicians, staffers and public servants using work-related frequent flyer points for private travel will save the federal government $160 million over the next four years.

Under a new arrangement with local and overseas airlines, the points will be converted into discounts that will come off the government's overall travel budget.

At present, politicians, their staff and public servants are not allowed to use their points for private travel, but are encouraged to use them for work trips.

It is widely believed many do use them for private travel, while others save them up until they retire or move to private sector jobs and use the points then.

Announcing the move yesterday, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said it appeared some people were encouraged to travel to accumulate points.

There will be an increasing push to avoid travel by using more video conferencing facilities.

About time, but what about rorting by QUANGOs e.g. universities, TAFEs etc. who have form i.e. avoing ICT online versus the preferred "international travel plans"? It is not unlike the behaviour of junkies i.e. the high and extra status accorded to those who travel,especially internationally on the flimsiest of pretexts.

More related stories here from the state sector.

Black Saturday Fire Management

2010-04-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

Black Saturday chiefs make a virtue of inactivity. THERE'S a kind of virtue that is purely passive in its expression, and that nourishes itself on the avoidance of division, conflict and unpleasantness. It's the sort of virtue we associate with the ceremonial heads of exotic religions, or the august heads of international bodies, or the ghost-like governors and governors-general of our post-monarchical world. Chiefly, it involves the cultivation of an atmosphere of serene calm, the elegant performance of certain ritual functions and the incantation of reassuring and appropriate words, calibrated for the maximum degree of cultural sensitivity and the minimum necessary degree of actual sense.

The problem with this kind of virtue is that, to the degree that the virtuous manage to transcend the daily cares of life, so the mundane daily cares of their subordinates and dependents grow accordingly. This, as Luther cannily observed half a millennium ago, is why the holiness of monks is bound to appear so unworldly and even parasitical, because others have to labour in the fields to provide the wherewithal to sustain their serene contemplation.

Worse still, some of them have peddled self-righteous excuses for the inexcusable. Governments are not usually thought to be good at creating new industries, or distributing money, holus-bolus, in a hurry, and so the sorry end of the federal stimulus programs may perhaps cause us no great surprise. But emergency management is supposed to be a core business of government and a function that public policy should handle well.

Australian Corruption Increasing Transparency International

2010-04-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

Australia is sliding down the international corruption ladder. IF, AS an Australian citizen, you perform an act of bribery offshore, you can be fined $1 million, jailed for 10 years and your company can be fined $10 million, which all sounds very proper except that nobody has ever been prosecuted .... But you won't find Australian regulators doing anything here. The Rio scandal was uncovered by officials in China. The BHP case was started by America's powerful Securities and Exchange Commission.

A decade ago Australia was the top-ranked ''clean'' country in the world by Transparency International. Today it has fallen to eighth place. Australia's worsening record in offshore corruption relates largely to the Australian Wheat Board scandal in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which involved government kickbacks. But the ranking is likely to deteriorate further with the Rio case and - potentially - BHP'S ''Cambodia'' case, news of which broke only in recent days and relates to alleged bribery at a former bauxite operation.

News Corruption NSW and Victoria

2010-04-24T21:17:00.000-07:00

The corruption inquiry into Tonette Kelly has heard claims of lies, fraud, tax evasion and forgery, writes Matthew Moore. The pencil-thin lawyer in her early 40s, who for years met and advised a string of ministers and chief executives, was accused of being a liar, a forger, a tax evader and a fraud who had been ripping off her employer since the Olympics. She insists she has done nothing wrong, but admitted to working crazy hours - 6am to 7pm regularly, sometimes all night.

The issue though is not whether the legal branch was dysfunctional, it is how and why NSW Maritime's management and the government has tolerated this branch and gone to such lengths to protect Kelly, pursuing instead those who have complained about her.

Is this unusual? Probabaly not helped when a state government becomes entrenched, public service arrogant and QUANGOs are a law unto themselves, not just Maritime Authority e.g. universities, TAFE, councils etc.

What happens in Victoria, who knows as no ICAC is apparently needed?

Something rotten in the state of Victoria? Monash University professor of criminology Colleen Lewis says the situation in Victoria is more severe than that which preceded the acclaimed Fitzgerald and Wood royal commissions in Queensland and New South Wales.

''Those two uncovered systemic corruption,'' says Lewis. ''I would be asking [a royal commission] to go back to 1995 and to come forward. There's no use just focusing on the police as such. We need to look at criminal justice issues within that period of time....

...Only a royal commission, proponents argue, can probe extensively, testing the limits of corruption in the state. Key to that process is the public airing and testing of allegations, just as the principle of open justice - public access to, and scrutiny of the courts - is central to the legal system. That has not been the case in Victoria for several years.

Toxic Politics, Immigration, Population and Racism

2010-04-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

Toxic politics appeals to the unhinged. TODAY'S 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing ..... has prompted renewed concerns about growing anti-government sentiment. Is the political environment becoming so toxic we could see another Timothy McVeigh emerge? All of the above have put the nation ill at ease. Add to the mixture of organic anger and grassroots momentum the heckling language of Beck, Limbaugh and Co., and one fears that volatility could become explosive. What's next? Militias?

Not as extreme in Australia but similar vitriol has been copied from America in the Australian media, with the target being overseas students and immigrants (non white).

Opposition says forcing immigrants into certain parts of Australia is undemocratic. THE federal opposition has rejected any move to force new immigrants to live in selected parts of Australia, saying it could only be done in a dictatorship. New Population Minister Tony Burke told The Australian last week the government would consider using the immigration system to force people to live in certain areas.

Stable Population Party says massive cuts needed to Australia's immigration intake. GRASSROOTS concern about Australia's burgeoning population is being ignored by the "hopelessly conflicted" major parties and needs a fresh voice in Canberra, says political hopeful William Bourke. Mr Bourke, a Sydney small businessman and founder of the newly established Stable Population Party of Australia, plans to field candidates in all states at the next federal poll, running on a platform of restricting the nation's population to 23 million. Nevertheless, he says massive cuts are needed to Australia's current immigration intake, including from the skilled migration program, family reunions, the high volume of New Zealanders allowed in, and overseas students.

Closed visa loophole gives bosses chance to exploit young. Student wage squeeze. Article in Herald Sun but not available online, refers to demographer Dr.Bob Birrell of Monash University's Centre for Populatin & Urban Research, and journal "People & Place", feigning concern for Australian workers through demanding government make it even more difficult for overseas students and the education sector.

The first article, although American and observing more extreme phenomena, is now seen in Australia also, especially with the new MTR radio station where extreme or racist or bigoted views which are "shouted" by angry or middle class white men are now in the mainstream, especially race, identity and immigration (indirectly through debate about population, environment, property prices etc.)....... misinformed by demographers such as Bob Birrell, taken advantage of by politicians, talk back radio hosts and related bigots in marginal electorates.

Migration, Population and Bob Birrell Why Negative?

2010-04-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

Centre for Population & Urban Research CPUR headed by Dr. Bob Birrell, Monash University.

Asking Dr.Bob Birrell of the CPUR, as media and governments do, to research and report on immigration would be like Andrew Demetriou of the AFL to do the same on soccer....

Accentuating difference amongst old and new Australians, what would Sir John Monash think?

"Poynting et al. (2004: 210-211) observe that through their reporting, some media outlets often create ‘fears of cultural rift’ and ‘the politics of fear’ (see also Kabir 2006 a: Online; Kabir 2006 b: 313-328) through depictions of mainstream Australians and Australians of Lebanese (and other background), its use of images and links with headlines, and its patterns of discourse.

Surprisingly both an opinion piece, ‘It’s not a race war, it’s a clash of cultures’ by Keith Windschuttle (16/12/2005: 14), and a report ‘Lebanese pushing kids to marry “in”’ by Tracy Ong published next day (The Weekend Australian, 17-18/12/2005: 6) referred to the study of Dr Bob Birrell conducted in 2000 in which Birrell found the already high level of in-marriage for the children of Lebanese migrants rose in the 1990s. But it is interesting to note that in December 2005 when police found two Anglo-Australian Cronulla men possessed seven home-made bombs (see ‘Molotov cocktails land men in jail’, 17-18/12/2005: 6), there was no commentary in the press about their culture, religion or family structure."

After becoming aware of academic "research" and reported "facts" in the media cited by politicians on both sides of politics and various experts and commentators in Australian society and media, it would be of interest to analyse the work of Centre for Population & Urban Research (CPUR). Dr.Bob Birrell and the CPUR is quoted and cited often, is described by Bob Carr as "Australia's best demographer" when arguing against migration to Sydney, also by Tim Flannery to support his argument that a sustainable environment requires zero population growth i.e. reduced or zero migration, and Sydney radio talk back program(s) claiming NESB migration is creating social tensions leading to riots and other social problems, due to ethnicity.

"Part of the paranoia which grew during the 1990s centred around the proposition that governments would not listen to the people and that elites were shifting debate. The most elaborate version of this had already been developed by Katharine Betts in her study Immigration and Ideology. Betts emerged as a close ally of Bob Birrell who has consistently opposed mass immigration for twenty years. Together they launched the quarterly journal People and Place in 1993, which effectively carried on the very debate which was supposed to be "suppressed" by the "politically correct" (Jupp, "Tacking into the Wind: Immigration and Multicultural Policy in the 1990s", Australian Public Intellectual Network, 2010)

If one reviewed various articles from the journal of the CPUR, i.e. "People & Place" one is struck by the focus upon demographic and NESB issues centred round ethnicity, migration, access and perceived "traditional (anglo) Australian culture". Following are selected abstracts from "People & Place" which could be seen as factoids used to show bias against NESB migrants and Australians, and vice versa for this article, but another common theme from CPUR is lack of solutions to perceived issues?

V. 4 No. 1 THE PARTICIPATION OF NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING-BACKGROUND PERSONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Ian Dobson, Bob Birrell and Virginia Rapson

Current equity plans for Australian higher education are based on research which claims that non-English-speaking-background (NESB) people are under-represented in the universities. The problem is held to be particularly acute for recent arrivals and equity plans are currently in place to rectify this situation. The background research, however, is inaccurate. Young NESB people have higher participation rates than English-speaking-background people. In some cases, such as the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese speakers, the level of participation is striking.

Has anyone thought the positive, i.e. it is because those of NESB value education and will do everything possible to achieve? Conversely "Anglo Australians" are not so motivated, receive less than optimum advice and encouragement in their formative years, while choosing "easier" subjects? Tennis player Pat Cash when asked why there were now very few internationally competitive Australian players versus more significant numbers of Central Eastern Europeans, stated that the latter "would crawl across cut glass" to achieve while Australians would not.

V4 No. 2 RECENTLY ARRIVED MIGRANTS AND SOCIAL WELFARE Bob Birrell and Samantha Evans

This article explores the impact of the Coalition Government's proposals to limit recently-arrived migrants' access to social welfare benefits. It concludes that while the short-term consequences for these migrants will be severe, the proposals do not address the more significant long term welfare costs of family migration.

Implies, that "Australians" who were formerly migrants have not been punished enough in first generation and we should start focussing upon future generations of migrant family reunions as well? Fits the stereotype that immigrants of NESB only migrate for benefits, return home and/or get their families out to follow suit.

V4 No. 3 THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE TESTING ON THE REGISTRATION OF IMMIGRANT DOCTORS Lesleyanne Hawthorne and Julie Toth

Before non-English-speaking background doctors holding overseas qualifications can begin the medical and clinical examinations required to practise in Australia they must first pass an English language test. This has proved to be a severe hurdle for some language groups, in many cases delaying their progress and, in others, preventing significant numbers from proceeding to the medical and clinical examinations.

Effective cross cultural communication is not simply a language issue, it is generally a two way negotiation where participants need to be sympathetic and aware of related communication issues within a cultural context. This is exemplified by body language, use of slang/argot, Australian accent can be incomprehensible (even to other native speakers of English), tests such as IELTS were designed for formal study entrants, both VET and university, not workplace communication culture and proficiency. Further many health/medical personnel of NESB are not provided with training, orientation nor ongoing support for the Australian workplace, which is then compounded by Australian colleagues without other language and cross cultural skills e.g. empathy regarding pitfalls and misunderstandings that can occur in workplace communication.

V.4 No.4 IMMIGRANTS AND THE PROFESSIONS Bob Birrell and Lesleyanne Hawthorne

Migrants have made a major contribution to Australia's professionally-qualified workforce. Those arriving pre-1980s and early 1980s have largely been able to convert their qualifications into professional level employment. However, later arriving migrants have been far less successful..

Is this a coincidence that the authors are focussing upon arrivals since the early 1980s, i.e. higher numbers of Asians? Have they offered any solutions? How welcoming have predominantly "skip" or Anglo workplace and employers been?

V.4 No. 4 NATIONAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL VALUES F.L. Jones

This paper identifies different groupings of Australians according to their views about what really matters for being 'truly Australian'. It also characterises these groupings in terms of their attitudes on other issues and their socio-demographic background.

Why should such a question even be considered, is it not highly suggestive in a supposedly sophisticated and multicultural society that Australia represents? When similar questions have been raised in other countries, and enacted, it has led to cultural exclusivity and by its nature excludes those who are different, e.g. Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa etc..

V.4 No.4 PATRIOTISM, IMMIGRATION AND THE 1996 AUSTRALIAN ELECTION Katharine Betts

In March 1996 there was a gap between political candidates and voters on the question of immigration and (with the exception of Coalition candidates) on the question of pride in Australia's history. On both questions Coalition candidates' opinions were closer to those of the voters. Concern about immigration is unlikely to have cost Labor the election by itself, but this concern is linked to feelings of national pride. Both attitudes are strongly associated with a vote for the Coalition and may well have swung the tide against the Keating Government.

With Australia's history of racial prejudice toward Aboriginals and Asian migrants manifested since Federation by official "white Australia" policy informing all society and political parties, plus the media, it is hardly surprising. This was compounded further by Pauline Hanson then John Howard's (re)claiming of the racial vote with concurrent "dog whistling" (as opposed to his public anti Asian views of the 80s). Not only did it give licence to racists who would prefer a return to "white Australia" policy but fair minded Australians unconsciously espoused incredibly patronising attitudes, if not implicit prejudice, towards immigrants and NESB Australians.

V6 No.2 POPULATION POLICY: MAJOR PARTY POSITIONS Katharine Betts

The author outlines recent developments in the politics of population policy in Australia. Many Australian conservationists and scientists are concerned about the demographic future of their country. Their focus is on the numbers and they are thinking for the long term. The politicians, and perhaps many of the voters, may think the numbers are a secondary issue. They may be confused by them and have little understanding of what they are or what they mean. Voters and politicians are more likely to feel that they understand the question of the Australian identity, and to respond to political messages about whether this identity should or should not be considered as source of pride. Environmentalists will have their work cut out to persuade the people and their leaders to maintain a clear focus on the next half century and the overall trajectory of the country's future.

Firstly population growth figures have been skewed by scare stories leading to surges of temporary entrants due to mooted migration changes in the media (and those who applied some years earlier during economic boom), and is an issue of greater Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, not Australia. Rather than focusing upon the abstract or external factors get out of cars, more public & intercity transport, smaller houses, more apartments, real energy and service costs. No matter what environmental policy Australia moots or implements the majority of Australians are not prepared to compromise in any way, yet many have solutions not considered by state governments.

The real issue is Australian obsession of urbanisation compared with the USA and Europe. Why are we not paring back capital city resources that attract further population and maintaining state governments beholden to local city based power? Implementation of real regional development policy could include weakening of state borders (and related anomalies), taking power from state governments e.g. health funding direct to regions, education to federal (with a national high school certificate of education), merging state & federal government departments and moving to regional cities, giving regions power to offer incentives for direct international investment (internet and local communities already preclude the need for state capital based advisory and other related bodies)

Why is there no attention paid to real issues and problems in Australia concerning our population and urban centres:

Under use or ignorance of our multicultural NESB resources in workplaces and regions i.e. community links, languages etc. for marketing, provision and support of Australian international trade, services etc.?

Lack of positive non Anglo Celtic European stereotypes in the media and advertising e.g. ABC's Australian Story features predominantly skips and token Aboriginals?

What is Australia doing to deal with ageing population, retiring baby boomers, decreasing tax base and related problems in future such funding health care, aged care and pensions?

Widespread use of temporary employment contracts leading to job insecurity, lack of innovation etc. while predominantly ageing baby boomer permanents amble into retirement...at the expense of generation X, Y and NESBs?

Airline security re. "War on Terror" since 9/11 as highlighted by whistle blower Kessling? While resources are used to give more authority to Customs etc. to inspect majority of Australians and international visa holders after disembarking aircraft upon arrival, bikies can brawl, and much air cargo departing on aircraft avoids inspection? Surely nothing to do with agenda at worst of breeding fear and obedience, or at best window dressing?

Damage to the Australian brand and character in the eyes of the international community, regional trading partners, tourists and international students?

Lack of any serious policy and discussion of regional development?

Boat People, Australian Politicians and Society

2010-04-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

Following is an excellent article from Peter van Onselen

Who's afraid of 4500 boatpeople? BOTH of the main political parties are keen to display their toughness on border protection, so much so that they seem to have lost sight of the plight of the people who are trying to make their way here in rickety boats.

Why are we so concerned about the 4500 or so boatpeople who have attempted to seek asylum in Australia since the ALP was elected about 2 1/2 years ago?

And let's not forget that right now Australia houses about 50,000 visa overstayers, mostly from the US, Britain and China.

But the political debate is centred on boatpeople, partly because it plays into people's (inaccurate) fears about hordes of arrivals from underdeveloped countries who threaten our way of life, and partly because opinion polls continue to show that most Australians oppose illegal immigration.

Australians shouldn't be afraid of boatpeople trying to come to our country. Our geographical position means that their numbers will always be small compared with refugee migration in other parts of the world.

It's time our politicians started to lead public opinion on this issue instead of following it.

Bravo, apart from this demonising of refugees, foreigners, students, migrants, etc. it also makes Australians look like followers not leaders.....

Australian Property Prices Bubble?

2010-03-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sun must also set on cheap finance. It looks odd for the central bank governor to tell viewers of the Seven Network's Sunrise that their renewed property enthusiasm could end in tears on the one hand, but to underwrite abnormally cheap money on the other. But Australia's renewed property mania means that housing prices are "getting quite high".....The mass exuberance is being reinforced by mass media spruiking, including the pending prime-time return of The Block.

Australian Internet Filter

2010-03-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Fears web filter will cast net too wide. THE federal government's mandatory internet filtering policy is under fire from academics worried that it will lead to censorship of news and current affairs.

Three leading academics, including UNSW Journalism and Media Research director Catharine Lumby, warned that the classification mechanism behind the filter was so broad that it could result in the work of professional and citizen journalists being placed on the filter's blacklist.

Victorian Brumby Government Secrets and FOI

2010-03-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Victoria too secretive for the public good. Article from The Australian complaining about obstructiveness on freedom of information requests.

I concur that Victorian governance has become too secretive and obstructive, not to forget arrogant, which at best leads to the stifling of creativity and innovation, at worst corruption.

Working in international education and marketing offshore in Central Eastern European developing countries, I have observed first hand the issues of feudalism, conflict of interest and corruption which has not been unexpected. The shock for an Australian from Victoria is to experience the same occurring in a supposedly first world democracy, i.e. arrogance, secretiveness, conflict of interest, lack of innovation and rorting that I have observed in the state education, tourism, trade and regional develoment sectors, plus government (not limited to Victoria).

Unfortunately confirms the developing society or third world view that to get ahead in this world one requires "know who" versus "know what " and "know how" of first world societies, but the latter is not so apparent in the colonies such as Victoria.

City Destination Marketing

2010-03-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

Mark of success all in the mind. THERE was a time when measuring a city's success was easy. If it generated wealth, if it contained a critical mass of population, if it was a seat of power, either political or corporate, or both, it was a success

Australian political and civic leaders (especially mayors) love nothing more than citing corporate head offices as evidence of their city's prestige. By this measure, the mayor of Bentonville, Arkansas, must be brimming with pride, since this town of 34,000 residents contains the headquarters of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. But measuring a city's success by counting the number of head offices, or simply, "businesses" in smaller cities, is old-world thinking.

Kennett with his advertising background, also nicked Adelaide's Grand Prix in the mid-1990s. Again the purpose was to enable Melbourne to build its profile, to generate visitors, to capture a fan base and, above all, to command mind space.

It is the battle for top-of-mindedness. It is the battle for top-of-mindedness. A city cannot compete for visitor dollars, let alone for investment dollars, unless visitors and investors have knowledge of, and some measure of affection for, the subject city.

A capital city devoid of signature events and festivals is likely. A capital city devoid of signature events and festivals is likely to be viewed by global workers as evidence of the sort of one-dimensional place you really don't want to be based in. Cultural depth is very much part of a modern city's persona and is essential to its wider business appeal.

ICAC and TAFE Corruption and Rorting

2010-03-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

A CORRUPTION inquiry has heard a TAFE teacher who administered a state government public housing project allegedly used college funds to build a greyhound kennel worth more than $30,000.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations Head Carpentry teacher Garrie Cooper, from Miller TAFE, west of Sydney, asked sub-contractors to submit invoices to TAFE for work done on a private project.

Is that all? See link below,and comments:

http://aiecquest.blogspot.com/2009/03/australian-international-education.html

TAFEs and universities blow off much larger amounts of public money on unnecessary offshore travel under the guise of international marketing.....

House Prices and Property Bubble

2010-02-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

House price surge heralds big crash. OUTER Melbourne's surging house prices are at risk of a correction, mirroring the boom-and-bust scenario that hit Sydney's outlying suburbs between 2003 and 2005. In Melbourne's southeast, house prices in Cranbourne South rose 44.6 per cent to a median of $441,000 in the year to November, while in Narre Warren North, prices increased 23.8 per cent to $635,000.

Steven Keen's predictions of housing bubble burst not so way off?

Indian Media and Students in Victoria

2010-02-22T16:33:00.000-08:00

You pay to prove we're not racist. State Government spends $250,000 for Indian journalists to be flown to Australia. Taxpayers are paying $250,000 for Indian journalists to be flown to Australia to help fight a public relations battle over attacks on Indian students. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through its international media visits budget, is paying flight and five-star accommodation bills of $10,000 for each of 25 Indian reporters from the subcontinent to take tours of Australia, focusing on Melbourne.

Begs the question, what have the $100 million of taxpayer money spent annually on overseas travel, hotels and allowances by universities, TAFE, DFAT, Austrade, Australian Education International, DEEWR, State Departments of Education and Tourism bodies etc. been used for if not promoting the same to India and Asia (while not using the internet optimally for economic and effective communication and marketing)?

Dick Smith, Environment and Population

2010-02-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

Dick Smith says Australia should cut population by slashing immigration.

Very disappointed to see these views coming from Dick Smith who I thought was the flag bearer for Australian creativity, innovation and tolerance, with some basic analytical abilities, maybe spending too much time with Bob Carr, Bob Birrell et al?

First, population growth figures included temporary residents who have spent minimum 12/16 months in Australia i.e. overseas students, working holiday visa travellers (WHV), temporary workers who entered Australia as a result of an extraordinary economic boom and peak of applications lodged much earlier, who created a massive spike in recent arrival thus population growth which has been extrapolated to 2050.

What was not announced very publicly in past 12 months (especially the property industry and related media) have been effects of suspending offshore skilled migration processing till end of 2011, Indian students new applications falling by up to 80%, temporary work visas halved, limited employment opportunities decreasing attractiveness for WHVs, high Australian dollar and tougher student visa eligibility requirements (and consequent falls of visa grants of 25% before implementation....).

Growth could well be static by the end of 2010/11 financial year, not to mention economic growth?

Second, too much credibility has been given to population figures which have been actively spruiked in the media (or medium?) not just by the real estate sector, but also Dr.Bob BIrrell and the Centre for Population and Urban Research (CPUR) at Monash University. Birrell has form as being at best, anti immigration, or worse..... The CPUR's agenda has been clearly to seek out and publicise in the media negatives relating to migrants, refugees, non English speaking background foreigners and Australians, while attributing population growth and environmental concerns to the same groups.

Population growth has beend described as an Australian issue, but more a problem for four state capitals and surrounds, largely due to our anachronistic federation of states (like "white Australia") where power, resources and opportunities, thus population, conglomerate round these cities, while regions suffer?

Environmental concerns in Australia are largely of our making with our lack of regional development, water management, urban planning, agricultural methods, and transport issues, tied up with our inability to compromise our tendency for larger housing, cars, food portions, less activity, obesity etc.

What are the solutions for ageing population, retiring baby boomers, skills shortages, health, pensions and other issues mentioned above? CPUR, politicans, media and others have one common strand, an inability to formulate solutions, while focussing upon perceived and populist problems or symptons, but not the causes.

Suburban Property and Living

2010-02-19T17:05:00.000-08:00

Make space our growth yardstick. Unit blocks can pack them in, but most people want room for a game of cricket and a barbie. There is a consensus forming in Queensland's business and property circles that the state government's much vaunted plan to manage growth of the south east corner over the next 20 years just isn't working.... Living in a realworld which recognises thatAustralians like tolive in detached housing with a yard instead of a confined high rise might be good start.

This is not a right, and Australians who demand that the rest of the world must compromise on various issues must for example, also compromise on sustainable environment, urban planning and housing themselves, including property developers, builders, established suburban residents and related NIMBies. By the same logic we could demand a high AUD for cheap overseas holiday every year, discounted petrol, employment where we choose what we do, doubling of pensions and lower age eligibility, free university etc. It is one thing to compete for resources but it is another to dismiss out of hand a solution to our own wants and desires ignoring the needs of wider society and the enviroment. Australia's urban blight of ever expanding suburbs and over stretched suburban services could well be blamed upon property industry preferences promoted through the media and weak willed state governments scared of offending existng and aspiring detached larger(er) house owners, while reaping stamp and related duties?

Australian Regulation and Government

2010-02-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

Rise and rise of the regulators. We are moving from the rule of law to s state riled by powerful administrators. In 2009, more than 50,000 pages of new laws were enacted at the federal, state and territory levels. These werein addition to the 100,000s of pages of existing laws.

The consequences are serious. The first is that Australia will cease to be a world leader in being governed in accordance with the rule of law, and instead become rule ruled by law (there being a fundamental difference). Secondly, the rule of law will be progressively replaced by the rule of the regulator, the antithesis of the rule of law.

From outside, Australia is viewed as having too much government, too much regulation and is quite authoritarian (leading to obedience?), or even more harsh, it has become an "administrative dictatorship" where dissent is not tolerated.

I have lived in several authoritarian states, or half democracies cum quasi dictatorships, where citizens are overwhelmed by regulation who are not empowered, while one needs to use informal or corrupt methods to function.

Further, some believe that dictatorships are effective e.g. Mussolini made the trains run on time, yet in reality the obvious feature is a plethora of laws and regulations, where there is no clear accountability nor responsibility.

This has been apparent in Australia, and Victoria in particular, as a result of the Bushfires Commission over fire management on that fateful day, replies from responsible public servants were like "just following procedures (orders)" and related public sector leadership (i.e. lack of), and buck passing going on, whilst Indian students have been subjected to violence, where leaders seem more worried about promoting Australia's self image of tolerance versus proactive measures, with deafening silence from the education sector.

Many would suggest that Australia has always been corrupt, tolerant of cartels and rife with cronyism which have been accentuated by expanding and ageing public sector leadership scared of offending "stakeholders"?

After 20 odd years in the developing world then seeing same issues in Australia I have come to believe that people and communities, including business, must solve issues, while law and government are the last resort.

Property Shortage?

2010-02-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

DOUBT has been cast on the widely held belief that a shortage of housing in Australia is driving up property prices, with a leading researcher arguing there are nearly two million too many homes. Researchers Brendan Darcy and Louis Christopher say high prices cannot be blamed on a lack of housing stock because the figures used to illustrate the shortage -- if indeed there is one -- were being misinterpreted.

Australia Corruption Reserve Bank RBA

2010-02-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

THE world's leading authority on corruption has criticised Australia's record on pursuing foreign bribery cases as Nigeria moves to investigate kickback allegations against a Reserve Bank of Australia company.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development told The Age Australia had not launched a single prosecution for foreign bribery offences in the decade since it joined dozens of nations in ratifying an anti-bribery convention.

Markets, Events, PR and Internet

2010-02-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

Luvvies Outside the Tent. Lynne Kosky's departure shines a light on the arts 'low priority with governments. One must delineate the value of one off localised PR versus sustainable events noticed locally and internationally. There are those events such as the AFI awards, like other trade events, more about self celebration and narcissism in the public eye, versus those genuine performance arts that engage the community and attract attention over time (think Australian independent music). In the age of internet communications and marketing there is not so much need for politicans, public servants etc to run round like pop stars at physical events (onshore and the even more popular offshore) when one understands that communities get things done, not governments, with internet promotion being king.

Australian Immigration Policy News

2010-02-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Why prospective immigrants are "collateral damage".
Afraid those prospective migrants whose plans have been suspended or stopped have become victims of what is known as "collateral damage", and demanding answers from politicians is barking up the wrong tree, their interest is not what is right or fair, but power, non citizens do not vote.

Politicians, DIAC and DEEWR actions regarding recent migration processing, skills assessment, Job Ready test etc. are symptons of change in past fifteen years, i.e. politicisation of refugees, multicultural and related migration policies that used to be bipartisan. However. these issues became partisan, i.e. "wedge issue" used by the Howard government for both personal and political reasons (copying tactics used by the right wing christian conservatives in the USA, BNP etc.).

All governments are terrified of losing the next election by offending (perceived over 50s "white" or "anglo" Australian) voters who have been influenced by "wedge issues" or "dog whistling" used by politicians and informed by the media (plus employment concerns caused by global financial crisis).

Unfortunately, as opposed to the U.K. (and even for example Turkey), Australia does not have a "media" anymore but a "medium" i.e. SMH/Age centre left (Fairfax part owned by Murdoch), and The Australian centre right (wholly owned by Murdoch), with ABC in between, all rather incestuous and interrelated cronyism.

Has anyone been aware of any real political scandal or corruption ever breaking in the Australian media? I rest my case.......

Issue is lack of investigative journalism (Mares and few others excepted) and analysis in the Australian medium which relies more upon press releases, PR puff and spin which are accepted at face value. Add the 24/7 news cycle and Australians seeming demand for quick yes no, black white views or answers on all issues of the day, leads to "collateral damage" for those unable to vote, or defend themselves.

The Australian's Higher Education supplement in January had a report about the issue that many of prospective immigrants maybe facing, i.e. DIAC moving the goal posts on migration affecting existing (PhD.) candidates, "PhDs victims of migration laws". The writer correctly referred the issue to Dr Birrell, whose research helped inspire the tighter rules for skilled migration, said the plight of the Blazek twins did seem to be "collateral damage". Dr. Bob Birrell of the Centre for Population & Urban Research CPUR, at Monash University informs the media and politicians as an "academic expert",

The CPUR, and its journal "People & Place" actively seeks out research and fields of study which make immigrants, refugees etc. appear be at best a burden upon Australia, especially those of Non English Speaking Background NESB (read non white i.e. Asian). No surprise to many, as Dr.Bob Birrell was reknowned, at best, as anti immigration, like asking rugby league or Aussie rules to research and consult objectively on the round football code.....

What was his reply to evidence of unseen consequences of his advice to government for prospective immigrants? "Collateral damage"......in his and others' culture wars......

For a more balanced view of Australian demographics and migration Bernard Salt who writes in The Australian like today, "Inconvenient truth on ageing" How to manage an ageing population .... Increase the worker base through ramped-up skilled migration.

ETS, Environment, Van Onselen, Population Growth, Migration, Multicultarlism, People and Place

2010-01-27T16:09:00.000-08:00

Referring to recent to recent reports in The Australian by Peter Van Ostelen, "Emissions target cannot be met" and "leader won't face the music".

Need for an ETS, according to these pages based on manipulated or skewed IPCC climate data and research methods, maybe a moot point anyway, possibly the writer could more usefully focus like he has on another article "X and Y will pay for ageing population".

But firstly, the "academic study" in 'People & Place" from the Centre of Population & Urban Research (CPUR) I assume has lots of words and references ........ could also be accused of selective choice of research fields, and using skewed data for political or ideological ends? Maybe Mr Van Onselen's (young) age precludes priorknowledge of Dr.Bob Birrell, Betts et al and their "form" on migration related issues?

"Population growth and Australia's 2020 greenhouse gas emission commitments"

The Australian Government has stated an unconditional commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on year 2000 levels by 2020. However, in the absence of new abatement measures, Treasury-led modelling indicates that Australia's emissions will grow from 553 million tonnes in 2000 to 774 million tonnes in 2020. This article disaggregates the Treasury modelling in order to estimate the contribution of population expansion to this growth. It shows that 83 per cent of the forecast increase in greenhouse emissions to 2020 will be attributable to population growth. The article concludes that it is very unlikely that Australia will achieve the five per cent reduction target by 2020 in the absence of attention to the population growth factor.

The abstract uses the key word "attributable" (directly or indirectly?), i.e. likely to have been caused by migration, how likely? How likely for example could lack of compromise of Australia society, government and industry be seen as contributing to increased carbon emissions? Or, could we attribute concern about population and envronment to our lack of innovation, creativity and tolerance? Or even worse, we have a media and political elite in their own minds) who act like firebug memebrs of the fire brigade?

If the media paid as much attention to analysis of population data as they have climate data, they may not be spruiking high growth figures so much. Australia's population data measured at an absolute historical peak early 2009 due to a booming economy attracting international attention i.e. visitors and new residents, includes temporary residents (minimum 12/16 months) e.g. overseas students and 457 temporary working visa holders, in both cases numbers are decreasing at a rate of knots (the former from larger market India, 50%+ due to scare stories in media about perceived study to PR rorts leading to wider visa restrictions, and racial violence, plus visa restrictions impacts biggest markets i.e. China, while temporary working visas are down 50%), meanwhile offshore skilled independent migration processing has ceased till end of next year.

So, population growth could well be much lower by 2011, implying rates of growth vary from year to year depending upon the economic and political climate, but the property industry will not be happy. .....

Further, the CPUR appears to be selective in choosing fields of research, and actively seeking out differenceand negatives about non English speaking background (NESB) foreigners and Australians, cultural clashes, employment opportunites for Australians versus foreigners, refugees, migrants, religion (meaning Islam), population, environment etc. with "People & Place" the new "Toorak Times" with its infamous "white Australia" agenda?

"For years opponents of multiculturalism and the immigration program had been calling for a "national debate" or even a referendum. That these and related issues had regularly been aired in the media at roughly six monthly intervals does not seem to have been noticed. Part of the paranoia which grew during the 1990s centred around the proposition that governments would not listen to the people and that elites were shifting debate. The most elaborate version of this had already been developed by Katharine Betts in her study Immigration and Ideology 13. Betts emerged as a close ally of Bob Birrell who has consistently opposed mass immigration for twenty years. Together they launched the quarterly journal People and Place in 1993, which effectively carried on the very debate which was supposed to be "suppressed" by the "politically correct". With the election of the coalition government in March 1996 and the overt attack on "political correctness" by John Howard, many got the message that the orthodoxy had changed. The tide flowed rapidly against immigration and multiculturalism. At the extreme, Pauline Hanson and those who supported her reopened once more the issue of Asian immigration which has haunted Australia for more than a century and a half now" (James Jupp, Tacking into the Wind: Immigration and Multicultural Policy in the 1990s)

One could argue that such approaches to issues of the day from the CPUR are an insult not only to their university landlord's namsake, Sir John Monash (son of economic refugees, NESB and Jewish) , but to Australia's self image of tolerance, optimism, adaptability, innovation and ability to find compromise and find solutions. After all we are a first world country, not a developing country with an inferiority complex?

Australia Day, Icons, Migration, Refugees, Tolerance, Flag, Southern Cross

2010-01-23T20:51:00.001-08:00

Hardline attitude aids migration: Abbott. Tony Abbott has moved to portray his tough border protection stance as pro-immigration, arguing that it helps to maintain public support if people think immigration is controlled by the government rather than by people smugglers.

More mealy mouthedness, like Rudd, both are terrified of offending racists and legacy of the 90s demonising refugees as political football or wedge issue. Like Cosgrove's speech last week, if they used their authority and led on such issues they may find the perceived audience would listen and obey, rather than follow bigots misinformed by media and related think tanks.

Right time for zero tolerance. Authorities need to cut through the waffle talked about incidents of race-related violence....

The kind of leadership we need on this issue came this week from Peter Cosgrove, who is the very antithesis of a black-armband handwringer on this or any other issue. But with straight talk and plain language Cosgrove said it is undeniable that there is a small and ugly section of the Australian population that is demonstrably racist, and that in some instances, it's been Indians who have been victims of this racism. .....

In NSW, the Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has been forced to increase officer numbers for Australia Day after the sickening spectacle last year, where alcohol-fuelled yahoos draped in our national ensign were monstering passers-by for refusing to kiss the flag or join the Aussie Aussie Aussie chorus, a song so lyrically bereft that it's amazing anyone is prepared to sing it publicly.

Aussie I love it, but leave me out of the flag waving. Mark Seymour asks why some Australians are so keen to show off how much they love the place. ...... "Australia. Love it or leave it" ........ I think Australia is pretty good, but not that good.

Warwick Thornton says he's deeply concerned that the Southern Cross is becoming a symbol of racism for some Australians. The filmmaker, who has been chosen as the Northern Territory's nomination for Australian of the Year, wants people to spend Australia Day reflecting on the symbolic significance of the national icon. "Aboriginal people have used the Southern Cross for the last 40,000 years as a beacon guiding them to travel through country for survival, and I'm starting to see that star system symbol being used as a very racist nationalistic emblem - and that is seriously worrying me," Thornton said. "We don't want to turn the Southern Cross into a swastika - that's bloody important.

Nationalists everywhere, includinig media,advertising industry and governments, have hijacked Australian icons. Past 15 - 20 years this has included flag, Gallipoli, ANZACS, bush myths, or inverting them e.g. scare stories about Republic, refugees, immigrants, stress upon English versus NESBs and multiculturalism etc.

Racsim in Australia Peter Cosgrove

2010-01-19T15:11:00.000-08:00

Is there a strand of racism or pockets of racism in Australia? Undoubtedly. Only about four years ago, there was significant public disorder in Cronulla - violent, alcohol-fuelled and shocking. It seemed to be an outcome of rising tension between locals and their supporters purporting to represent the amorphous majority, and an ethnic minority.

Because it was so unusual and unexpected, it reverberated around the world - it was unexpected because Australia's reputation was that of an egalitarian and multi-ethnic society; tolerant, cheerful and relaxed. December 2005 gave us pause for thought. Yet in the aftermath authorities got busy with the vital work of bridge-building between the wider community and the group seen to be on the outer.

Bravo,for comments go through article link, pity more skip Australians in politics and media cannot speak up about this shameful issue?

Right cause but the wrong effect. Ageing and immigration according to Peter van Onselen

2010-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

Right cause but the wrong effect. Ageing and immigration have been top order political issues in this country for sometime..

Refreshing to see someone under the age of 50 suggesting solutions where especially immigration has been used as a wedge issue in the Australian media, to date (not just late 90s).

However, many Australians "on the street" would argue that federalism and states are the cause of many contemporary issues including investment, employment, other resources and population conglomerating round four state capitals, while regions lack independent development opportunities. States are a colonial anachronism from steam engine times pre internet communications, which have had 100 odd years to show their worth e.g. disjointed transport, lack of urban planning, duplication in health provision, state duties, expanding bureaucracy, education and training unrecognised across borders, just to get started.

Population figures (including temprorary residents drawn to major cities) have been skewed by the "immigration" and "identity" debates in the media, i.e. qualitative feedback shows that recent surges have been attributable to future uncertainty, and have been extrapolated at highest historical rates ever (to 2050) to alarm Australians, while fueling urban property markets.
There has been too much emphasis upon division through highlighting perceived issues about population, non anglo Australians, refugees, international students, environmental stress, water resources, urban infrastructure, house prices, university access, skills shortages etc.

Would it be possible to look at solutions such as merging state government departments and "quangos" into federal, moving resources to regions, allow regions to attract domestic and international invesment directly via community links and virtual business development, improve national train transport, encourage high schoolers to use our world class education pathways to study actual skills in demand via TAFE, on the job training and off campus university, facilitate national qualification and skills mobility, temper our supposed need for ever larger houses, just to get started?

If the "basket case" known as the EU can, surely Australia can too?

Racism and Discrimination in Australian Universities

2010-01-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

University accused of discriminating against Asian women during redundancy cull.

THE University of Western Sydney is investigating allegations that three women were discriminated against racially when their jobs were culled. Marian Paap, Cheryl D'Cruz and Shayami Karunaweera were the only long-term employees who failed to gain permanent positions after a restructure of the school of management, college of business, at the university.

Seventeen administration officers lost their jobs in the restructure. Only six of them, including the three Asian-born women, applied for eight new positions at the school. The others took redundancy or found positions elsewhere.

Ms Paap said they had failed to gain a position because they had dark skin and were born outside Australia - two of them in Sri Lanka and the other in India.

She said the university had told them they had poor communication and English skills, but that these shortcomings had not been raised at performance reviews during their careers at the university, which ranged from six to 18 years' service.

''This is an emotionally draining and very stressful,'' Ms Paap said. ''In my life a lot of things have happened, but I never thought I would see this day.

''None of us has ever had a bad performance review. We are applying for basically the same position or new roles where we have the required skills. It appeared to be pre-planned.''
A spokeswoman for the university said the claims made by the women were being investigated, although no formal complaint had been received.

She said the restructure of the school of management and new staffing requirements was the subject of a separate complaint that had already been lodged with Fair Work Australia.

''While the university hasn't yet received specific details for the complaint from the National Tertiary Education Union, the university refutes claims that poor English and communication skills precluded any of the applicants from the positions,'' the spokeswoman said.

''[The university] does follow very strict guidelines which ensure every applicant selected for short listing and interview receives a fair and unbiased panel interview, and appointments are made based on merit.''

The National Tertiary Education Union described the dismissals as outrageous. The union's state secretary, Genevieve Kelly, said she ''firmly believed this is a case of racial discrimination''. 'This is no coincidence that three women of similar racial background have been dismissed.''

Australia's favourite demographer thinks that NESB background personnel cannot operate effectively in the workplace?

Graduate Skills Shortage according to Bob Birrell?

2010-01-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Graduate skills shortage looming.. The national economy is likely to suffer from years of underfunding. Queensland Gold Coast....

Simple reply, get used to it. This article creates more questions than solutions, more university graduates in general, while the Clarius Group & KPMG Econotech Labour Skills Index is more specific including health, medical, engineering, IT, science, teaching, trades, cookery and hairdressing as occupations in demand.

Will university graduate targets in Australia lead to more courses without employment outcomes, and related surpluses (while hard science graduates in engineering and sciences are in short supply)?

Further, some universities state that full fee paying international candidates subsidise local students to offset shortfalls in federal funding? Dr.Bob BIrrell seemingly invests much of his government subsidised research into downplaying the importance of, or criticising international education related to Non English Speaking Background NESB students?

Research in the USA suggests that international students and migration are a sympton of quality issues in secondary education, i.e. domestic students are not acquiring in numbers the requisite skills in maths and science needed for university study in engineering, health, medical etc.?

Australia already has world class off campus access and AQFpathways for both university and TAFE study. Are better resources needed at high school to inform students of real world career opportunities, and even break the linkage between high school graduation (scores) and university entry?

Many jobs, including knowledge industries, do not require university graduates but people with good high school education and ability to learn in the "real world" workplace, and study university part time, as an informed need, not a right. This could then allow scarce resources to be targetted upon health, medical, engineering, IT, maths and science?

One could say the most pressing issue is how does Australia deal with an ageing population and decreasing tax base, whilst increasing the effectiveness of healthcare, aged care, pensions and education provision plus infrastructure which demand more funding?

Surely we do not want a generational Ponzi scheme leading more younger generation into taking on debt to benefit the older generations' income streams (investments, superannuation etc.) much like consumer and property debt?

Hopefully this will not lead to a generational war over tax revenue and benefits i.e. baby boomer and older demographics versus generation X and Y (exemplified by ageing university personnel wishing to guarantee their retirement super and benefits with higher inflows of students and fees, much like the mortgage and property industry....)?

Why the Australian education industry can learn from 9/11

2010-01-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

"Spooks caught with their pants down.The intelligence community has failed to learn the lessons of 2001..(re.Nigerian terrorist Abdulmuttalab)"

This could also be an analogy for the Australian international education industry especially regarding the Indian market (and previously China) or UoW Dubai:

"In its final report, the 9/11 Commission described the fundamental weakness of Western intelligence in confronting transnational terrorist networks as a failure of imagination - the ability to piece together the available information to form clear judgements about how and when terrorists might seek to cause the next mass carnage."

Ditto education industry, neither sourcing nor analysing prospective consumer or student behaviour about existing and future intentions. What is more surprising is that there is a highly effective communication, feedback and analysis technique available at no cost to those responsible, it's called asking questions.

"Agencies were told to avoid "groupthink", to share rather than hoard information, to be more proactive in turning collection into co-operation. Review after review warned of the dangers that flow when the restrictive "need-to-know" principle is privileged above the requirement to act quickly."

There is little if any cooperation with stakeholders let alone between institutions, state or other entities and their personnel on market inteliigence, where it does exist, leading to market shocks.

"Caution is more valued than creativity. Prudential scepticism is a professional badge of honour. Analysts are rewarded more for a well - crafted sentence than their ability to connect dots and to work seamlessly with the police.....the intelligence game is still an aristocracy, then the police are the untouchables. Having them work together can be an exercise in cultural clash."

In education the richest source of market intelligence are students, alumni, student services & admissions officers and agents, but using these marketing resources effectively is precluded by hierarchies within institutions and related entities e.g. AEI DEEWR, IDP, Austrade etc.. Most public servants do not choose to work in the public sector to challenge accepted practice, be accountable and directly responsible but do so for secure employment, related benefits, perceived status and hopefully stable environment with low stress.

"As the jigsaw puzzle of each terrorist plot is revealed, we are reminded that information on individuals planning or preparing the next act of mass murder is often openly available."

As Rick Allert Head of Tourism Australia commented recently if the Australian education industry used the internet and social networking sources for market intelligence they would not have been blindsided by the shock of violence and related welfare issues against Indian students appearing in the media, who had been online for sometime raising concerns....

"(Abdulmuttalab was increasingly belligerent, angry and susceptible to the radical Islamist narrative. And we know that much of his communication with terrorist plotters in Yemen was conducted openly through the internet. It is highly likely that much of this information was passed around the world, readily available to intelligence agencies in Washington, London and Canberra.

For the education industry there are many forums and related sites in various languages about study in Australia, migration etc...... unfortunately many involved marketing or making management decisons do not have the required language skills...... some do not even use email!

"The key recommendation of the 9/11 commission's report, that the policy of "need to know" should be replaced by a requirement to share information, remains lannguishing on the to do list of intelligence managers everywhere. The unity of effort that the commission called for is still a distant goal at best.

For the intelligence agencies, the most valuable asset they have is the ability of analysts to piece together information into a coherent set of assessments about the likelihood or probability of emerging threats.

If that information is weak, incomplete or otherwise tainted by bureaucratic bottelnecks, our ability to counter this gloabl terrorist threat will be diminished."

Ditto education industry who will miss oncoming shocks like slow car crashes related to education markets and student experiences are actually occurring.....

China bank warns of rising asset bubbles

2010-01-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

China bank warns of rising asset bubbles. China's central bank has warned that increasing flows of speculative capital into the country could lead to dangerous "assets bubbles" that could drive rising national property prices even higher....The warning is the latest from China central bank and banking regulators, which appear frustrated with the government's insistence on "relativity loose" (sic) monetary policy that has been blamed on pushing up asset values....... The Chinese concerns follow similar warnings from the Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens, who has said asset bubbles in property bubbles were a rsik of emerging in Australia.

Quite, be careful.....

Let states boost tax to fund future

2010-01-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

Australia must fundamentally recast its federation - in particular, taxation responsibilities - to manage the burgeoning 35 million population expected by 2050. Only by giving states and territories more power to raise revenue to service the future megacities of Sydney and Melbourne, whose populations are anticipated to hit seven million by mid - century, can the nation maintain its high standards of living, warns population expert Glen Withers.

Can they be serious? Like giving the keys to the safe to Ronnie Biggs! States are a colonial anachronism which are responsible for duplication of roles that can be carried out more effectively locally and federally, plus sources of cronyism, incompetence and lack of planning. Resources and power need to be taken away from the states to stop the ongoing conglomeration of power, patronage, opportunities and population centred round our state capitals. Only then will serious urban planning and regional development take place to benefits all Australians.

Whatever happened to secular democracy?

2010-01-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

SUDDENLY, religion is making inroads again into Australian politics and our secular society. Not only have we now got a devout believer as Prime Minister but the Opposition Leader is even more devout.

Very slippery slope, not unlike the perceived non issue i.e. need to formulate an Australian identity, which may create inclusiveness, but will also exclude many Australians, much like what happened in Europe between the world wars..... Who wants to front members at their local RSL club and proclaim that Sir John Monash who led troops in Gallipoli and Western Front was not a real Australian because he was Jewish, and not Christian?

Australia World Cup Bid & Events

2010-01-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

Buying ourlove with money is just not sporting.

Mega events may be lots of fun but let's not pretend they're good for the economy. NOTHING excites state politicians more than having their government host major sporting events. Over the past decade, the Victorian Government has increased its self-imposed ''cap'' on subsidising major events from $35 million a year to more than $80 million. Why bother calling it a ''cap'' at all?

The value of any WFC for Australia is the exposure that comes from the Socceroos competing, which is then sustained by individual players, like amabassadors, being recognised as Australian in front of massive tv audiences in domestic and league competitions the world over.

More effective destination marketing e.g. for tourism, would be giving several hundred international tourists and travellers travel packages and video cameras to visit Australia, record their experience (including the negative), then posting online under a sustainable marketing strategy using internet via a variety SEO techniques, not unlike what Tourism QLD attempted with the "Best Job in the World" campaign.

Australian Carrier in Arms Trade?

2009-12-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Flight plan took N Korean arms plane to Tehran (The Australian and the Wall Street Journal).

A plane loaded with weapons from North Korea that was recently impounded in Bangkok was bound for Iran, according to documents obtained by arms trafficking experts.

That we know, curious that article disappeared from online archive as the final paragraph appears regarding a previous seizure of arms in UAE:

The cargo, which was labelled "oil boring machines" but actually contained detonators and ammunition, was being carried on an Australian-flagged carrier and exported by an Italian shipper from Shanghai.

Of course this never happened?

Australia's Dysfunctional States

2009-12-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

From the Australian Financial Review:

Dysfunctional Governments Deliver This. The federal system stands condemned after more than a century of social, economic and environmental neglect..... The latest schedules for inter city trains in Europe - released in a co-ordinated, annual European wide changeover of train timetables - offer a travellers' delight of high-speed rail journey possibilities..... trains and their possibilities are a striking case of how Australian governments fall short on ambition and vision when it comes to thinking and acting as one nation -and how the federal system is still fundamentally dysfunctional after more than a century of operation.

And it goes on mentioning COAG trying to improve things but these glaring colonial anomolies that remain under the auspices of federation and state rights i.e. state governments and public servants. These include health, transport, education, urban planning, environment etc. and driver licences, state high school certificates, qualification recognition, train gauges, police forces etc. and the big one, the obstruction and self interest of state governments while the Murray Darling Basin was raped and pillaged, and still trying to solve....

There is consensus on the street from most Australians of both sides of politics and all ages what the solution is, take resources away from state governments e.g. merge departments with federal counterparts and also relocate to regional cities. Simple solution to duplication of services, waste of resources, urban population pressures,property prices aand regional development?

MPs International Travel Rorts

2009-12-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Learning curves cost $5million. Federal MPs spent the sum globe-trotting in six months of this year, visiting 31 countries to "investigate" everything from the global financial crisis to Mekong River hill tribes and upmarket Milan boutiques. Their reports, tabled in Parliament, are a combination of trite observations about world affairs and policy tips.

Nothing compared to international education sector administrators and faculty from TAFE and university, minimum $100 million annually.....not to forget carbon emissions from same people who demand ETS from governments etc.?

AWB, Fortescue, ASIC

2009-12-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

AWB board performance, attitude blasted. AWB has been delivered a sharp rap across the knuckles from shareholders, who yesterday voted down the company's remuneration report at an annual meeting marked by criticism of its operations throughout the year. At a fiery AGM, several wheat growers attacked the board over its performance, accusing the company of loosing touch with the farming community and acting only in the interests of institutional shareholders. Shareholders criticised the company's failed operation in Brazil, which lost nearly $200 million, and accused it of secretly lobbying the Government to get rid of the single-desk system. Some shareholders also called for a new chairman.

Yet growers still demand a single desk to guarantee prices, while trusting that the AWB can make the right calls on which markets to be in and when?

ASIC needs a new approach. IT'S about time ASIC took the hint. Yesterday, judge John Gilmour of the Federal Court threw out the Australian Securities & Investment Commission's case against mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest, awarding him costs. This is a big rebuff for the regulator, especially as it follows recent defeats in its long-running action against One.Tel founder Jodee Rich and prosecution of former Australian Wheat Board boss Andrew Lindberg.

Of course the AWB case being thrown out had nothing to do with some very nervous former politicians?

Australian Personal Debt

2009-12-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Debts at record levels BORROWERS have set a new record: for the first time we owe more in household debt than the entire Australian economy earns in a yearReserve Bank figures show mortgage, credit card and personal loan debts now stand at $1.2 trillion, up 71 per cent from just five years ago and equating to $56,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Crisis in Victoria skipped thanks to housing. AS Brian Welch puts it, Victoria sailed through the financial crisis with ease, thanks in part to it posting among the fastest growth in home construction in Australia. ...With Melbourne's population expected to reach seven million in 2050 and predictions it may overtake Sydney by 2028, the steady stream of new arrivals to Victoria has been a key driver of economic growth and employment. The international education sector, allowed to expand until recently with scant regulation, has had highly publicised problems, but has also been a $4.5 billion a year source of export earnings.

Coastal living becomes a buyers' market and prices crash. COASTAL holiday homes have fallen in price by up to 30 per cent in some parts of Australia since the start of the global financial crisis, defying the trend of a stronger housing recovery in state capitals. The greatest discounts are in Port Douglas (down by as much as 30 per cent), while prices in places such as Townsville, Nelson Bay, and many other traditional holiday spots are also less than they were during the boom.

IT was the decade in which property became big business. At its start, the country's office towers, shopping centres and other commercial buildings were worth around $100 billion -- by the decade's end the value was more than $360bn. In 1999, Australia's houses and units were valued at about $1800bn, closing 10 years on at $4400bn. Had the snapshot been taken two years ago -- before the global financial crisis -- commercial property would have been worth far more, but the country's residential market barely paused and, defying trends around the world, prices kept edging upwards.

Cheap debt, pump priming, obsession with property equals bubble... no worries mate!

Victorian MInisters & State Corruption

2009-12-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

More than a quarter of Victoria's state cabinet ministers took overseas trips in the past three months — at a cost to taxpayers of more than $200,000. Government documents show six of the 20 members of cabinet went on overseas missions in the three months to the start of December, with Premier John Brumby's three-week, round-the-world trip in late September and early October easily the most expensive.

Politicans are quite amateur when it comes to international travel rorting, compared to TAFE and University....

Offensive' bonuses to stay. SENIOR executives of the authority that manages Victoria's public sector superannuation will keep their big pay bonuses, despite a Government inquiry finding they should never have received them. The board of the Victorian Funds Management Corporation will also escape punishment, despite awarding million-dollar wage and bonus packages in breach of Government guidelines.

They didn't mean to so that's alright then?

Labor now Racist?

2009-12-17T17:38:00.000-08:00

Now it's Labor stirring racism against refugees. Kevin Rudd knows where he stands when it comes to the lives of Tamils fleeing a genocidal government or keeping the votes of every last racist that he can.

Unmoved by a child's appeal to save the lives of the 255 who had fled for their lives, or by the accounts of the camps in Sri Lanka where 300,000 Tamils are incarcerated, where as many as 1,400 die every week, his only response was to reassure every racist that he's tough on "illegal" arrivals.

We could talk about the racists who have crawled from the sewers - Bob Birrell at Monash University, Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun, Philip Ruddock who presided over human rights abuses in Australia's concentration camps for refugees - with their usual chorus of lies about asylum seekers, demanding they queue in an orderly line for the privilege of finding refuge from rape, torture, murder and deliberate starvation.

Good to see Labor is back to its roots.... :(

AWB Corruption

2009-12-17T17:32:00.000-08:00

THREE years after commissioner Terence Cole, QC, released his final, multi-volume report into AWB's payment of kickbacks to Iraq, the Australian justice system still has not dealt with a single (alleged) transgressor involved in the murky affair. Reputations have been trashed, conspiracy theorists still abound, and there's been plenty of scrutiny but little action. Only one Australian authority is still investigating the kickbacks: the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. And that is strange in itself.

Of course this have nothing to do with protecting several former politicans i.e. PM and Foreign Minister?

Federalism, States & Corruption

2009-12-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

A CENTURY of Australian federalism and state government from the deeper crisis afflicting state government. Good governance is hard to define, but we know it when we don't see it. Queensland, Tony Fitzgerald warns, has slunk back into cronyism. Tasmania's government is NSW without the ethnic flavours. And Victoria's claims of good government clash with a reality of public transport chaos, a groaning hospital system, and (in the bushfire state) emergency services unable to save lives.

Another reasobn why Australia needs to pare down the states..... a colonial anachronism we can no longer afford...

Aussie Carbon footprint 1817 tonnes, and counting

2009-12-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

THE Australian delegation to the Copenhagen climate change conference could number 114, official documents reveal. That number dwarfs the 71-strong British delegation.

This is an outrageous allegation!!!! Australian TAFEs and universities are much worse! :) See http://aiecquest.blogspot.com/2009/03/australian-international-education.html

They are also mostly pro environment?

Real Estate Supply, Demand, Prices, First Homebuyers & Investors

2009-12-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

Real Estate news from The Sunday Age Domain 13 December 2009

Supply "There's every indication that population growth will continue the way it has and that will make the market strong. The shortage of supply is not going to be addressed in the next 12 months" REIV

The way population growth has been is more about spikes in temporary residents especially overseas students (trying to anticipate negative migration changes), but several residency pathways have or are going to close..... e.g. in addition to offshore skilled independent processing being suspended till 2011, High Risk country new study candidates will drop, indications already China down 10%, India....down 80% ........and appears government will close onshore independent migration application pathway for students in turn puts pressure on wages and inflation, increased interest rates?

Demand "...if volumes don't increase we'll be seeing a similar amount of buyers in 2010 market". Buyer's agent

There are almost double the number of properties available for sale compared to last year according to REI data?

Prices "...Migration mutliplied by an insufficient number of houses multiplied by the availability of credit. (but) Price rises won't be as steep ...." Barry Plant Real Estate

Again what migration? Westpac has already flagged issue of credit availability and increased cost?

First Home Buyers "What happens to negative gearing? What happens to to tax? Those are some pretty heavy duty issues for potential investors" Rismark International

If numbers of new and existing temporaray residents is declining, interest rates increasing.... who is going to rent?

Investors "..about 20% of first home buyers piled into the market without doing their due diligence. They tended to get as big a mortgage as they could, and that means their mortgage compared to their income is going to be a very significant proportion. Affordability is definitely going to continue to be stretched." Fujitsu Consulting

Interest rates increasing?

Bob Carr on Immigration

2009-12-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

Carr and Bracks interview on ABC Lateline recently about immigration and environment, comments from Carr:

"The fact is there's been serious study that shows increased immigration worsens and doesn't relieve skills shortages. You import a tradesman, a qualified tradesmen, coming here to make a contribution. He brings with him his dependents. And the studies confirm that ramping up immigration actually exacerbates skills shortages rather than relieves them. The same point has been made about the simple idea that increased immigration solves the problems associated with the ageing of the population. Bob Birrell, who's Australia's best academic expert in population policy, points out that over the long term it has the most marginal impact on age distribution and you have to run very high immigration to even have that marginal impact. High immigration produces a surge in activity associated with housing, building new shopping malls, but it produce costs, new costs for a lot of the rest of the economy."

Carr's comments are misleading, intellectually lazy, uncompromising and negative while Bracks couldspeak of opportunities and solutions.

Maybe Bob Carr should join a new conservative party... describing Dr.Bob Birrell as Australia's best academic expert in population policy (!!!!!?????) has Bob Carr had a brain bypass?...... the same Birrell who has been criticised for flawed methodology in down playing economic benefits of overseas students predominantly from Asia. One would like to raise the following questions regarding Dr. Bob Birrell:

Why does he involve himeslf in arguments regarding environment, university quality, language skills in work force of NESBs, fruit picking work schemes for Pacific Islanders, study to PR system for international students (started by Howard government which he was advising) etc.?

He is known in some circles as the "notorious demographer"

The common element is constant criticism of non Anglo Celtics or Europeans, i.e. generally Asians... at best similar to the chatter and reporting in the Australian media. Some Australians are blaming or targetting the symptons not the causes, but unable or unwilling to develop solutions to ageing population, skill shortages, decreasing tax base, regional development, funding shortfalls in education sector etc.

Or, does everyone, (or maybe just ageing baby boomers and lucky generation), want to return to the embarrassing days of the "white Australia" policy?

Australia House Affordability Urban Planning

2009-12-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

More houses will not solve the affordability crisis

Is unaffordable housing really due to supply constraints? It is if you believe the loud chorus emploring us to — Build more homes! Release more land! Cut red tape! The issue of housing affordability just isn't that simple. A "build it and they will come" attitude is naive.

From a Sydney perspective, the most frustrating part of the affordability debate is that the NSW Government has, in The Sydney Metropolitan Strategy, a master plan for the growth of a city including the provision of more affordable housing options through regional development. Lamentably though, this plan sits heartbreakingly dormant.

Should be more informative articles like this to let people know that proerty is being spruiked too much under a variety of guises including lack of land, population growth, migration, etc. implies that prices will only go up....

Victoria Independent Corruption Body

2009-11-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

A real review would broaden the fight against corruption. An independent body to monitor integrity would be good for Victoria.

FOR the past five years, successive Labor Governments have stubbornly refused to entertain the idea that Victoria would benefit from an anti-corruption agency and a more comprehensive suite of integrity institutions.

In response to repeated calls for a broad ranging anti-corruption commission by many Victorians (and by former Labor premiers in other states), the Government has refused to budge. Instead, the Premier and his ministers have reiterated the same unconvincing message: that the current systems are right and have proven to be better than those elsewhere in Australia.

QLD Bureaucrats pay 'a slap in face' to teachers

2009-11-23T01:59:00.000-08:00

THE Queensland Government has defended paying $440,000 and more in salaries to Queensland Education bureaucrats at the same time it had a bitter pay dispute with teachers.

The department's annual report shows one employee receiving a pay packet of between $440,000 and $459,999 and another earning between $460,000 and $479,000.

Yes of course, this nothing to do with the baby boomer bubble nearing retirement who are becoming more venal, although public servants with permanent tenure and other priviliges?

The new Soviet elite?

It has ruined my life: freed pilot to sue

2009-11-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

A PILOT who spent almost 1000 days in jail for a crime he did not commit is planning to sue the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for compensation. And now Mr Martens is demanding a change in the law that left him unable to defend himself against the false accusations.

Don't ever let anyone think that Australia has become over regulated, over governed and authoritarian, where public bodies are not held accountable nor scrutinised enough by the media and government. Public servants who follow processes, tick boxes, behave with arrogance and arbitrariness, but do not seem to have any insight into their roles, nor care, provided they cannot be held responsible?

Australian Property Prices Robertson vs Keen

2009-11-20T03:20:00.000-08:00

Recent article in The Australian:

UNIVERSITY of Western Sydney academic Steve Keen made a name for himself with forecasts of economic doom, predicting a 40 per cent decline in Australian house prices. Keen put his money where his mouth is, selling his unit in Surry Hills in Sydney in October last year for $526,000.

However, as always, no comments allowed? Scared that people may agree with Keen and not believe the myth and bull***t surrounding Oz property prices?

I still back Steven Keen, why?

In the Australian media (medium?) opinion, (patchy) analysis, self interest and PR have focussed upon and talked up unknowns and uncertainties, while failing to include various knowns and certainties that affect house prices in the cities (from the same industry who were blindsided by the GFC?).

I am not privy to any objective property market analysis, but following are salient points and facts about the Australian property market that are not referred to in the media.

Some Knowns and Certainties that are Unknown by the Public

Property ownship for now is an Anglo obsession, not so with many communities in increasingly multicultural Australia, who are used to higher density apartment style living, mobile for employment etc., versus larger suburban homes with large mortgages.

Population growth, nowhere in the Australian media has it been divulged that ABS population stats from arrival and departure data includes temporary residents (who have spent minimum 12months/16months in Australia), and are based on an absolute peak with maximum rate of growth ever, extrapolated to 2050.

Accordingly the data includes working holiday visa (WHV) travellers, temporary employer sponsored 457 visa workers and international students studying at university and in vocational system (VET), of whom the majority will return home. Conversely, appears that many Australian citizens and permanent residents who are resident elsewhere maybe included in the population data, depending upon what information the give on their arrival and departure cards?

New permanent residents arrived early 2009 to add onto the population growth rate, but actually as a result of migration applications lodged during the past several years of economic boom, and new restrictions will lower the rate significantly.

International students who applied after warnings via word of mouth in 2008, and early 2009, that study and migration system restrictions were being mooted due to the economic deterioration, community attitudes and perceptions of widespread rorting. Result has been a massive spike in new enrolmentsand arrivales early 2009 i.e. up to 100% increases, especially from largest markets India and China, on understanding that more possilbilities to remain from onshore, versus offshore.

The Population Reference Group (PRG) uses same ABS data to show in the 2050 population estimate projection this year has increased a massive 25% to 35 million from the previous figure of 28 million. The PRG also stresses that there are variations in the definition of immigrant, and also shows that population growth rates fluctuate greatly, they are not steady rates of growth over short, medium and long term.

The Australian education market may have peaked. Related, international student arrivals will drop from India (indications that interest and enrolments from India have dropped by up to 75%) etc. due to negative media reports, more stringent visa application conditions (e.g. funds evidence for living costs up 50%) and restrictions on students applying for skilled migration. This effects not only prospective new starters applying for visas, but existing candidates extending their studies and visas onshore. Accordingly this could equate to a decreaseof 20K annually, just from India, 50K all nationalities?

Skilled independent migration applications processing for non Critical Skills List (CSL) occupations was suspended on 23 September, and will not resume till end of 2011, 50K annually?

Ageing population where less X and Y to replace baby boomers retiring, who in turn downsize and or move into retirement homes. (Salt KPMG)

Highest debt to household income ratios in the world (those lower down list have already had significant decreases) (The Economist)

Have significant amounts of debt been deleveraged out of houehold and personal balance sheets since GFC? Will there be a need in the short medium term to encourage lowering of debt levels?

Tougher credit conditions on mortgages, e.g. higher deposits required as a proportion of the loan value ?

Previous Howard and present government have done everything possible to prop up market artificially to benefit (mostly older generation and retiringg baby boomers) existing owners and investors, plus construction industry (due to significance of employment).

Unknowns and Uncertainaties that are not mentioned

Assuming China etc. will continue to buy resources from Oz in short term when major commodity prices contracts, e.g. iron ore, have been pushed downwards, and China's export markets are still in, or barely out of recession. In medium long term there could be new entrants to the mining and resources industries due to undeveloped resource deposits existing elsewhere.

Australia has suffered historically from high current account deficits, which on average have worsened since 1970s (ironically related to forieng borrowings by Oz banks to finance mortgages...), and RBA uses higher interest rates as a blunt instrument to dampen demand which in turn impacts upon borrowing costs for real estate and business.

Continuing property investment negative gearing tax breaks and control of or limiting supply by the real estate industry may be artifically holding prices up?

Environmental sustainabiliy concerns may require taxes per sqm on residential properties, i.e. encouraging smaller residential units at a lower unit and energy usage cost, with access to services, impacting upon value of existing and new suburban properties. Conversely, many taxpayers may not be prepared to pay for suburban sprawl e.g. utilities, roads and other infrastructure.

Negative media stories about property if they do appear, are sometimes spiked within 24 hours, i.e. are taken offline, or moved away from viisble front pages? Recent example was e.g. empty apartment complexes, properties etc. in SMH early November.

Those offering analyis and opinions in the media have vested interest in property e.g. advertising income, analysis services for the industry, and possibly significant personal equity (and debt) in property etc. ?

There have been more suggestions that Australia, the most urbanised country in the world, must implement regional development policies to attract investment, services and (skilled) population to the regions. This could include paring down of state government powers and the related propensity for employment and resources to gravitate round the capital cities, e.g. moving government departments to regional cities?

Honest cop back on the beat after beating police bureaucracy

2009-11-16T01:51:00.001-08:00

A OFFICER who exposed cronyism and corruption in the police force has returned to duty after 18 months of being forced to see psychiatrists despite being fit.

Sergeant Robbie Munn said he was greeted by "a lot of smiles, handshakes and pats on the back" by other officers at the Maroochydore police station after battling against police bureaucracy.

Public sector throughout Australia could do with review?

Tanner dismisses population hype

2009-11-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has scoffed at the suggestion that Australia is overpopulated, saying other countries would laugh if Australians mounted that argument as an excuse for clamping down on immigration. His position is at odds with environmentalists and even some of his Labor colleagues who are arguing for tighter population control.

Finally, someone with authority standing up to bullshit and bigots. Australians and new Australian can and should compromise, and take recent hysterical population growth figures with a grain of salt.....

Population Reference Bureau comes up with a projection of over 34 million by 2050, but statistics are based upon historically high rates of economic growth, immigration, temporary workers, international students, working holiday visa tourists etc. If one extrapolates at these record rates ever higher figures will be reached (not clear if offshore Australians are included?), but I predict that in 2010, Australian population may even drop.....

Conversely anti immigrationists are basically saying that Australians are unable to compromise, nor clever nor innovative enough to cope with the future?

Education Industry Queries Austrade Role

2009-11-11T09:16:00.001-08:00

Industry queries Austrade role. THE international education sector is expected to renew its call for an independent body to advise on strategy after being surprised and disappointed by the government making Austrade responsible for promoting the industry. The industry is worried the move risks sending a message that international education is valued largely as an export earner.

I would query not just the role of Austrade but also IDP? IDP was started by universities as agency to market and recruit, required injection of funds, awarded IELTS test monopoly, and is now part owned by publicly listed company Seek.

Austrade are very good at self promotion and one off events, which when in cahoots with Australian education industry, translates into mostly universities and TAFE paying Austrade for short term market entry services (meetings, intelligence, event organisation, agent meets etc.) that require travel offshore..... but no longer term analysable sustainable strategies

One would question, with all the world class expertise in Australian education sector why they cannot come up with a good marketing strategy?

Have dealt with Australian education for over 15 years and have never been aware of international market strategy including most effective, wide reaching, measurable and economic channels i.e. student word of mouth, internet and offshore agents.

What do they come up with continually? "Approved international travel plans" to solid state events...

Why not internet (24/7, all candidates go online for information)? Personally have dealt with 200+ Australian international education onshore officers and not aware if any have required marketing skill set, let alone virtual marketing skills, why?

As a senior Australian university person said, "If we used the internet which I am sure is effective, we would not need to travel, ha ha"

As opposed to travel plans that must cost in vicinity of $AUD100 million annually, demand virtual marketing strategy for Australian International Education sector, or run a competition for marketing and IT interns?

If IDP, Austrade, universities, state governemnts etc. have so much expertise and have so successful in internatinal education marketing, why did they not see the slow car crash happening with Indian students etc.? Because they don't want to talk with their clients.....

Property Market Spruiking... another Bubble?

2009-11-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

Property Spruikers Claim Australia Suffers from a ‘Chronic Housing Shortage’ Last Friday we sent a request to Money Morning readers. We asked if they had any authentic research to support the claim made by property spruikers that Australia suffers from a 'chronic housing shortage.' We assumed there must be such research in existence. After all, it is the main basis the property bulls make to support the idea of continually rising property prices.

Could not agree more .... as significant as property spruiking is, what else are Australians not being told by our media, whoops "medium", with their advertisers, PR agencies, lobby groups etc.

Another example recently were the bogus population figures bandied round in media based upon highest historical rate and population peak ever, then extrapolated for 40 years at same highest ever rate.... 35 million by 2050 .... the Population Reference Group using same ABS stats came up with 28 million?

Assume the property spruikers were involved again in pushing rapid population growth to media.... implying if you do not get into the market now..... you will miss out.... and old "white Australia" protagonists could argue that migration should cease.....

Nor is it explained that Working Holiday Visa makers, 457 temporary workers and international students are included (difficult to tell if 1,000,000 Australian permanent residents and citizens living abroad were included?).

Something else media and property spruikers do not tell you, the aforementioned visitors are dropping in numbers (in some major markets off a cliff), and processing of independent skilled migration has ceased for up to two years, as announced 23 September .... but media and property spruikers obviously did not see that one....

At a guess, that would be a drop of 100,000?

ESOS Education Servcies for Overseas Students Amendments, Agents & Internet

2009-11-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

From Language Travel Magazine

"The Esos amendment bill will also introduce new processes to ensure greater transparency and accountability of international education providers, including their use of education agents. How this will be managed was unclear at the time of going to press. One suggestion was that agent partners used by each institution should be publicly listed – a suggestion slammed by Sue Blundell of English Australia. “This is an unrealistic proposal that will not contribute to addressing issues of current concern and may very well have implications in relation to trade practices and commercial confidentiality,” she said, as reported in Campus Review."

The Campus Review:

‘Knee-jerk’ regulations could scuttle international enrolments. With passage of the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill now a formality, stakeholders warn that Australia risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater in a knee-jerk reaction to recent bad press over its international education industry. The Bill - which requires providers to reregister and to publish lists of their agents, among other changes - passed the House of Representatives last Monday. A few days earlier a Senate standing legislation committee recommended passage of the Bill, ahead of the Senate's next sitting this week. The Opposition succeeded in amending the...

Interesting viewpoint from a marketing perspective. In essence, EA is saying that providers would not be interested in increasing the awareness, enquiries, applications from diverse and multiple international markets in their institutuion? By listing agents and their (other language) websites this is what will happen organically.

A good example is Tourism Australia's http://www.australia.com which lists certified Aussie Specialists, thus getting very diverse traffic and interest, from throughout the world, not just where they promote physically.

See Australian Tourism Data Warehouse online marketing ekit.

Surely this has nothing to do with Luddites worrying about redundancy? If virtual channels are not used for marketing they will then surely become redundant?

ESOS Amendments, Agents & Internet

2009-11-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

Austrade named in bank bribe scandal

2009-11-01T02:01:00.000-08:00

AUSTRALIA's trade agency, Austrade, has emerged as a key player in the multimillion-dollar bribery scandal involving the Reserve Bank and Vietnam.

Austrade officials helped to arrange a series of meetings between the Reserve's banknote company, Securency, and Vietnam's Company for Technology and Development (CFTD) a decade ago.

Frontbench ears burning with Big Brother on line

2009-11-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

A PLAN to monitor phones in the ministerial monolith that is Sydney's Governor Macquarie Tower is not going down well with Nathan Rees's front bench.

Ministers are right to be offended, outraged even, that new technology that can easily reveal who is phoning who is to be installed in their offices.

Ombudsman addresses conflict of interest

2009-11-01T01:40:00.000-07:00

The Victorian Ombudsman has urged councillors to face up to issues and stop lying during local government investigations.

In his keynote speech to the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) in Melbourne, the Ombudsman, George Brouwer, said that investigations he had undertaken during his tenure, including into Brimbank Council, had been stalled either by councillors refusing to confront issues or refusing to tell the truth.

Newcastle university refuses to disclose executive bonuses

2009-10-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

THE University of Newcastle has refused to reveal details of how much it is paying senior executives in bonuses and is ignoring a recommendation from the NSW Ombudsman who says there are no grounds for withholding the information.

In his latest report, the Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, reveals the university refused to release the information sought under a freedom of information request even though it had legal advice it had few grounds to do so.

What a surprise, universities being secretive? As a VC complained in UK some years and quoted by the THES. "I have all these tenured faculty etc. with the benefit of public sector tenure who also want the advantages of freelance entrepreneurs, and financial benefits....

Trust me, mate, she is ideal: Burke

2009-10-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

CHOKING back tears, Brian Burke acolyte and former West Australian minister Norm Marlborough said the corruption investigation into his dealings with the former premier had shattered his life.
Taking the stand at his trial in Perth's District Court yesterday, Mr Marlborough admitted he could not "just say no" to the former premier "He's a mate. I've spoken to him about hundreds of things I didn't want to upset him, I didn't want to hurt him," he said.

The power and loyalty of "mateship", or just an excuse in feudal Australia for cronyism and corruption?

Former AWB boss faces more action

2009-10-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has indicated that it may initiate more court proceedings against former AWB chief executive, Andrew Lindberg, over the payment by the wheat exporter of almost $300 million of secret kickbacks to Iraq.

As the corporate regulator this morning opened a case against Mr Lindberg in the Victorian Supreme Court, alleging that he breached his duties to AWB because he knew about the illicit payments and failed to halt them, the court heard that ASIC had emailed his lawyers on Friday and revealed it may begin a new court case.

Anybody else in Australia claiming no knowledge of kickbacks i.e. condoning the breaking of UN sanctions i.e. corrupt?

Monash university to cut international travel budgets!

2009-09-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

MONASH University staff have been told to rein in spending on international travel, consultancy fees and photocopying student materials in a bid to save $52 million next year. It is believed faculties have been ordered to shave about $30 million from their budgets.

Good luck to Monash trying to cut international travel (rorts), most international office personnel treat marketing budgets as their own personal international package tourism budget on public funds....many complain that if they did not travel, they would have to deal with students/clients all the time onshore looking after their welfare, study experience etc., shock horror!

In other words, too many personnel work in sector not because they have an interest in students and their experience, but travel opportunities paid for by the public purse...

Reserve Bank Resignations and Sackings

2009-09-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

A scandal involving the Reserve Bank of Australia and its global banknote printing activities has claimed its first casualties, with the departures of two key executives. Peter Chapman, Africa manager at the RBA's polymer bank-note firm Securency, has resigned, while the firm's South African middleman - white-collar criminal Donald McArthur - has been sacked.

More evidence of why statutory authorities, or any business, allowed a monopoly will become corrupt. Half pregnant, both state and commercial, with personnel getting best of both worlds i.e. benefits and security of public sector tenure, and the freedom of freelance contractors.... just ask university VCs who have deal with faculty and admin staff all trying to get into the international education business, personally....

Corruption in Victoria

2009-09-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

The Ombudsman has highlighted worrying aspects of the way we are governed. GEORGE Brouwer has been a busy fellow lately. In the past financial year, Victoria's Ombudsman handled 10,477 complaints - 20 per cent more gripes about the State Government and its agencies than the year before.

Confirms how the Australian bureaucracy is complicit in closed government, including Victoria. Australia does have a reputation for being over regulated, over governed, authoritarian, and quite corrupt.

Australia Population Growth, Lies and Statistics

2009-09-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

Australia’s population fairytale. Today Australia's population is 21,995,000. Because it is increasing by more than a thousand people a day, we will reach the 22 million threshold on Friday. Maybe even Thursday night.

Shame Australia shame, shows an absolute lack of analysis from journalists and politicians who have been duped into thinking that Australia is being over run with immigrants and will reach 35 million in 40 years. ABS has appeared not to have said this except that recent growth rates in population rose rapidly, to match economic boom (how do you define population, include or exclude temporary, exclude permanents living internationally?)

This is basically another dog whistling race attack....the more believable figures come from Population Reference Bureau in Washington:

Population Mid-2007 21,000,000
Projected Population, 2025 24,700,000
Projected Population, 2050 28,100,000

One could have more respect for dog whistlers if they could actually inform Australians about the issues we face e.g. how do we support ageing baby boomer demographic? How do we get young Australians into skills shortage training and education pathways like maths, science, health, medical, etc. ? How do we improve regional development and stop cities holding resource that attract more people? How do we get Australians to lower their carbon footprint, stop building bigger homes, and driving more cars?

All this debate does is assist racists, and Australians who refuse to compromise. meaning it does not help the environment, it will be continue to be ignored in Oz.

University Limits International Travel Rorting

2009-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Warning to AWB Australian Wheat Board & Government

2009-09-26T03:43:00.000-07:00

Mabey & Johnson prosecution a feather in the cap of Serious Fraud Office The judgment against Mabey & Johnson is a major coup for the Serious Fraud Office — and for the principle that large companies operating abroad can be held accountable under British law.

It (U.N. Oil for Food Programme) did not come into force until 1996 but was abused from the start by Iraqi officials using the proceeds to bribe foreign politicians and businessmen as part of a campaign to have the sanctions lifted.

Of course Australian companies would never be complicit in similar corruption in Iraq so there is no need for charges to be laid.

AWB Scandal Latest September 2009

2009-09-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

AFP decision makes any charges over AWB scandal unlikely. The Australian Federal Police will drop its criminal investigation into the involvement of former AWB executives in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal. AWB was the subject of a Royal Commission, which found executives paid money to Saddam Hussein's regime to secure wheat deals with Iraq.

Downer may be called for AWB case. The Federal Court has given permission to the shareholders of disgraced wheat enterprise AWB to issue a subpoena to former Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer to call him as a witness in the case. In 2005, it came to light that AWB had made payments under the guise of transport fees to Saddam Hussein’s regime to secure lucrative wheat supply contracts, against the rules of United Nations sanctions.

Australian Wheat Board Corruption Scandal

2009-09-03T02:48:00.000-07:00

THE nation's worst trade scandal -- the $300 million in kickbacks paid to the regime of Saddam Hussein on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003 -- will go unpunished by criminal sanction. The Australian Federal Police said yesterday it had dropped its investigation into the scandal, in which wheat exporter AWB was found to have been funding the Iraqi regime in breach of UN sanctions.

Former AWB director slams move to drop Iraq charges FORMER AWB board member and Morawa farmer Chris Moffet has expressed deep disappointment at the disruption caused to the Australian grains industry by the Cole inquiry. Mr Moffet was speaking after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced last week, that it had abandoned its criminal investigation into the AWB Iraqi kickback scandal.

Well that's alright then..... of course the AFP were under no pressure to drop charges to protect reputation of several federal policians who knew exactly what was going on?

Welcome to Australia, land of cartels, cronyism and corruption. If we cannot trust politicans, authorities, media or voters to keep the bastards honest, maybe it is time for a version of Private Eye magazine in Oz?

Where are the Australian media, too scared of and cowed by the hand that feeds them? Luckily we have foreign media taking interest in corruption:

Corruption, Dishonesty Runs Rife in Australian Government The Australian Government has once again been proven to be incompetent, dishonest and even corrupt in relation to its accountability and other processes following the discovery of restricted and secret intelligence reports and communications between the various Australian embassies, trade officials, the UN, Australian public servants and the Australian Prime Minister, the then Minister for Trade and the Foreign Minister and their Departments in relation to the Australian Wheat Board bribery scandal.

Millions trump truth about dodgy schools

2009-07-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

"Few want the real story on international education to be told....

....I’m talking about the federal Department of Education, which refuses to let staff speak out; the Brumby Government, whose spin doctors offered me information in exchange for positive coverage; the state’s education regulator, who won’t answer questions unless they are in writing; the college operators who don’t answer my calls; the teachers who fear losing their jobs if they are identified; and the students who remain silent because they are either complicit in scams or terrified they will be deported for blowing the whistle."

True, many stakeholders, especially in state education sector, do not want truth to come out as the state sector may come under scrutiny e.g. lack of strategies for marketing and quality control, conflict of interest and corruption etc. etc.

Another issue is the excuse of visa rorts etc.to comment upon and villify Asian students and Indians in particular, when proportions of other nationalities using study for residency e.g. British, is probably as high?

Australian Parliamentary Inquiry Internatiuonal Students

2009-07-19T08:53:00.001-07:00

International students Senate Inquiry taking submissions to reach solutions Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says continuing reports about problems with international education in Australia highlights the importance of a Senate Inquiry into the sector that will report back in November this year. Reports today described Australia’s international education sector as being in parts an “immigration racket”, comprising of dodgy courses, steep fees, and empty promises.

Inquiry into the Welfare of International Students On 17 June 2009 in the Australian Parliament the Senate referred matters to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee for inquiry and report.

Australian International Education $15bn export earnings claim doubt

2009-07-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

"PEAK university bodies' claims that education is the country's third largest export earner are "grossly misleading" as up to half the headline $15 billion figure can come from overseas student earnings in Australia, a leading academic says.

In a challenge to the burgeoning economic and political power of universities, demographer Bob Birrell and commentator Andrew Norton have questioned whether education really is Australia's biggest services export."

I would question the data also but not for same reasons, i.e. authors above seem to seek out data which supports their view that Australia is being overwhelmed by Asians......

Issues include too much emphasis upon quantitative data being used to trumpet yet more export success....but excluding the use of qualitative research to explain and place data in context.

The multiplier used is quite reasonable and significant factor or value that each international student directly and indirectly does is to increase tourism earnings via friends and family visiting, plus informal but most significant input into Australian education marketing via "word of mouth".

Birrell etc. could use taxpayers money more effectively if they analysed more important marketing issues e.g. experience of student to permanent resident?, what are the important influencers?, why are $100 millions used for travel by international offciers under guise of marketing etc. etc?

AIEC Australian International Education Centre

Roadshow calms Indian jitters...

2009-07-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

IF Ravi Palta had any fears about his son's impending move to Melbourne this month they were immediately dispelled yesterday with a single dinner invitation - from one of Victoria's top police officers. "Not bad hey?" Palkit Palta, 21, said with a grin after accepting the offer from Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Paul Evans yesterday. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25743755-12332,00.html

That's alright then? A physical promotional roadshow is going to solve security issues for Indian students and they will continue to be attracted to Australia?

Deeper issue regarding Australian international education industry is that here we have an elite educated group of Australians intending to physically meet every prospective student or stakeholder? Is this roadshow approach a very good promotion of Australian education, skills learnt and limited promotional resources? No.

How about something unique and innovative in Australian education marketing i.e. first stay onshore, gain feedback from existing candidates who have Australian experience (in this case Indian), act upon concerns and suggestions, have selected group give feedback (in local dialects) with Australian educators to video (.wmv or mp4 format), then using internet post to YouTube, Study in Australia and related websites, blogs etc. (suggest to institutions to have on theirs also), then inform media, agents and education entities in India.

This would mimick how the market was assisted greatly (in Victoria) by Indians producing a Bollywood film in Melbourne five years ago.

Surely this is not rocket science.....but then again no one from Australia would get to rort travel opportunities.....

AIEC Australian International Education Centre

Australia Overseas Students, Racism, Bob Birrell, Migration, Employment

2009-06-21T02:58:00.000-07:00

Student residency regulated OVERSEAS students face unprecedented levels of regulation aimed at cracking down on the rampant permanent residency market, according to peak university, government and academic authorities. As Indian newspapers reacted to a fresh attack on one of their student nationals in Melbourne last Friday, Monash demographer Bob Birrell predicted the era of unrestrained permanent residency for former overseas students may be over.

What's the issue, as the government sets the quota for an upper limit anyway? Or is Birrell like other Australians with questionable racial views happy to take international students fees and economic benefits, but still prefer that Australia should only allow Anglo, Saxon or Celtic migrants? In Germany for example these comments could be perceived as incitement to racial hatred? Who is next Dr. Birrell, Chinese students?

Remember Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)......”First they came.....”

Racist bosses no surprise: ANU New research by Australian National University showing that Australian employers are racist is disappointing, but hardly surprising. The ANU study, reported in The Age newspaper on 18 June, supported the findings of Harnessing Diversity: addressing racial and religious discrimination in employment, the report published last year by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and the Victorian Multicultural Commission. The study showed that when job applicants changed their names on their resumes from Arabic-sounding to more Anglo-sounding names, they suddenly experienced much more success in gaining interviews. http://www.southasiatimes.com.au/news/racist-bosses-no-surprise-anu/

MP, Public Sector & International Education Expense Rorts Short Memories?

2009-05-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yes of course Australian MPs would never rort system, but concern is what we do not know about within the public and quango sector....

MPs regular at big-tickets event... but they are not paying. FEDERAL politicians are riding the gravy train all the way to the MCG and the Sydney Opera House. Many MPs are regulars at big-ticket sporting events, lapping up the free corporate hospitality while everyday Australians pay at the gate. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25519786-661,00.html

TAXPAYERS are paying off the mortgages of politicians to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year. More than 40 federal MPs have bought a house or an apartment in Canberra, to use as their home away from home. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,25509598-5006922,00.html

Senior Victorian public servants receive $5.6m in bonuses BUREAUCRATS are sharing in a multi-million-dollar bonus bonanza as Victorians are stuck on hospital waiting lists or on overcrowded trains. State Government documents reveal some of the worst-performing departments are rewarding senior public servants with bonuses worth $5.6 million http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25509296-661,00.html

Possibly the state or public international education sector, i.e. universities and TAFEs could do with some scrutiny? They have form......below is tip of iceberg....

2005 Uni chief quits over travel row LA TROBE University vice-chancellor Michael Osborne has resigned following intense scrutiny of his extensive overseas travel and questions about the direction of the university. A week after The Age revealed the pressure on him to disclose the cost of his travel, Professor Osborne yesterday brought forward his retirement by 18 months to July, ending a 15-year reign....Documents released by La Trobe showed that in 2003, Professor Osborne spent more than a third of the year overseas, visiting 22 cities (apparently $600,000) http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/uni-chief-quits-over-travel-row/2005/12/16/1134703611296.html

Taxpayers pick up tab for Victorian politicians' trips MINISTERS and MPs will spend more than $120,000 of taxpayers' money on junkets to the US, Europe and Asia over the winter break as most Victorians cut costs to cope with the global financial crisis. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25537348-2862,00.html

Relatively low amounts and in frequency just shows how incompetent politicians are at rorting the system for international travel compared to the education sector personnel who are much better e.g. VC who racked up AUD600,000 in two years during mid noughties ....and the rest......under the guise of “marketing”

Here is an annual European junket for Australian international education sector in Europe annually for the European Association of International Education. In 2008 over 100 from Australia at an estimated cost of AUD500,000 (excluding side trips in Europe)? See here for list of Australian participants http://www.eaie.org/antwerp/participants/index.asp?wat=country