Posts by Andrew
Housing shortage, what housing shortage?
Another year another report on housing shortages (heck another day another report). This week the Housing Shortage National Housing Supply Council released their State of Supply Report. And, unlike many other ‘reports’ this one is made by some pretty smart (and objective observers). Not to suggest that the many press releases and associated findings from various industry bodies aren’t correct – but there is a degree of scepticism when reading a report claiming the need to build more houses from an organisation whose job it is to represent the cause of building more hou Amongst the report’s key findings are: Despite weaker market...
Read MoreThe rot rolls on.
News limited reports that A CONVICTED paedophile and a man ordered to pay damages for software piracy are on Queensland Health’s payroll. The Courier-Mail newspaper reports the pedophile, convicted in 1994, works in Queensland Health’s mental health section. An IT manager who was ordered by the Federal Court in 2001 to pay damages of $210,000 was employed by Queensland Health in 2006 and two years later was promoted. Police Minister Neil Roberts said people with criminal convictions should be forgiven at some stage and allowed to move on. “Certainly they need to be held accountable for that,” he told ABC Radio. “But we also want...
Read MoreThe Indian Elephant in the Room
Have ever wondered where the phrase “The elephant in the room” came from? The first popular record is actually in the classic Mark Twain short story “The stolen white elephant”. In this story an Indian elephant goes missing in New Jersey while en route to England as a gift for Queen Victoria. A massive search fails to find the elephant which is in plain sight all along – hence the elephant in the room becoming a metaphor for that which is unavoidably obvious, and yet is ignored by all. How apt that it should be an Indian Elephant? For some years now the Australia-Indian relationship has been decidedly parlous. When you consider that...
Read MoreCut and Paste
In honour of the federal member for Dobell, I am cutting and pasting this article in its entirety. Now I just have to wait for my $24 000 overseas study tour to kick off. Fairfax Media says Mr Thomson passed off speeches by overseas officials and outdated Wikipedia articles as his own work. It said a compilation of overseas travel reports tabled in parliament last month also concealed Mr Thomson's failure to submit his report within the 30-day deadline. It was eventually handed in four months late. The Labor MP spent at least $23,899 of his overseas travel entitlement between March 26 and May 8 visiting Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and the US. Fairfax...
Read MoreInformation Overload – too much information is making us less productive (and a lot less happy)
THE culture of modern business needs to change with workers drowning under a deluge of emails and information, experts have warned. Corporations are failing to help staff cope with the technological barrage, daily meetings and constant connection, leading to rising levels of stress and psychological illness, not to mention and costing billions in lost productivity. Psychologists and experts say the information glut is becoming a major issue for firms who are searching for realistic answers to the problem. A recent report, commissioned by Hitachi Data Systems, found 40 per cent of companies in Australia and New Zealand are suffering from the information glut, up from...
Read More
Recent Comments