Choosing to eat good fresh food
My idea for the past twelve years has been to develop an enjoyable program suitable for all Australian primary schools, with the aim of positively influencing children’s attitudes and behaviours about food
Australia’s got ICT talent — how do we make the most of it?
It is finally dawning on private and public sectors that information and communications technology (ICT) is an enabling technology. ICT is relevant to companies — whether making drugs, mining coal, building a bridge or providing banking services — and government agencies, such as the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), operators of an urban railway systems and (obviously) Social Security and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DTSO)
Climate Change: It’s a ‘People’ Thing and it Discriminates
Much of our agricultural land is presently straining under the ‘worst drought in living memory’: 80% of Queensland is drought declared. This drought comes upon the heels of the Millennium Drought, the longest drought in the living memory of those who colonised this country. Stocking rates are down and impacts will continue to be felt as any debt to restock will be heavy when it rains. Markets have been distorted. Towns and communities are affected. Nature and humanity are distressed
Personalisation, Privacy, and Public Fragmentation
You are being followed. Not by a person — by the 800-odd cookies dropped by websites on your own machine, by GPS and the apps that use it from your own phone even when you are not using them, by your own purchases on cards and on devices, and by the algorithms used to parse all that data for behavioural patterns — patterns that are then used to personalise your media content
The lottery of genetics
It’s Saturday morning, which means pancakes. After a long drive out to the quiet suburbs of regional Victoria, I arrive too late for the pancakes — but I am where I need to be. Down a wide street, past an oval with cricketers, is the home of Sandra and her family. Underneath a precious family portrait, one of Sandra’s ‘short kids’ smiles to welcome me. I’m taking Sandra out to lunch to discuss how she and her family became known to medical specialists the world over, and how her remarkable story has made it into this book
Telling Stories
I was born into a culture that has a tradition of storytelling. Indigenous cultures across Australia have cultural on “Dreamtime” stories that explain our relationship to each other and to our land and also teach us about the standard of behaviour that are expected of us. These stories are like “law stories” or morality tales
The Long Path to Reconciliation
We live in a world forever changed by the terrorist attacks in New York City on 11 September 2001 that made people feel vulnerable in a way that they hadn’t imagined that they were. Rather than providing us with a vision of hope and an alternative future, we have seen parties from both sides of the political divide seek to utilise the increased fear amongst the population
You Do Not Inherit; You Hold On Trust
The concept of sustainability has always been central to indigenous cultures. Native Americans believe that you have to consider the impact of your actions on the next seven generations. And in Australia there is a world view among Indigenous people that says that you do not inherit land, you hold it on trust for future generations
Skin ageing
What is this covering that we call the skin — this amazing envelope that contains some of the most extraordinary mechanisms in the entire body? It is not just the ‘giftwrap of life’, but an efficient organ of the body that guards, nourishes and protects it 24 hours a day. Yet we take our skin for granted
Umpire, Where’s the Line? Reporting the Private Lives of Footballers
Terry Wallace was a tough footballer. During his time playing for the Hawthorn Football Club he was called ‘the Plough’ for his ability to burrow into packs of players and emerge with the ball. Later, as a coach, he presented a terrifying spectacle when excoriating his players after a losing game