LATEST ARTICLES

Preserving flexibility is key in gig economy

Preserving flexibility is key in gig economy

Gig work is valued by consumers, employers and workers across Australia. The numbers tell the story: More than eight million consumers use Uber services, from food delivery to transport and 50,000 Australian restaurants and retailers are partnered with the Uber Eats platform. Now more than 150,000 Australian Uber drivers are waiting for the government’s final word …read more

High costs drive shift to sustainable travel

High costs drive shift to sustainable travel

Australia’s love affair with the family car is getting more and more expensive and less and less sustainable: it’s time for a Dear John letter to the four-wheeled machine that gobbles up so much cash, time, pavement space while eroding the atmosphere. Cars cost big money to keep on the road: registration, repairs, fuel, insurance and …read more

Limited mobile phone use during school hours now a fact of life

Limited mobile phone use during school hours now a fact of life

Toongabbie Christian College in Sydney’s west has restricted students’ mobile phone usage during school hours for the past decade and the policy is now deeply ingrained in school life: a simple matter of distancing students from their phones, rather than introducing internet signal restrictions. The school, which has 1100 children and teenagers in classes from Kindergarten …read more

Sharing boosts community spirit

Sharing boosts community spirit

Inspired by the success of sharing their facilities during the pandemic, independent schools across Australia are continuing to keep their doors open to their local communities, says Melbourne University’s Dr Ben Cleveland, who has been studying school-community connections for more than three years. “There’s a propensity for independent schools to want to be seen to be …read more

Chemical weapons remain a concern

Chemical weapons remain a concern

With an Oscar for best feature documentary now linked to his name, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is one of the world’s better-known victims of a chemical weapons attack. Poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 by Russian operatives, Navalny was airlifted in a coma from Russia to Germany where he spent months recovering.

Social media platforms are the new battlefields

Social media platforms are the new battlefields

Ballooning suspicion has pushed TikTok onto the back foot across much of the western world with increasing concerns the popular video-sharing app could double as a platform for disinformation as well as data gathering tool for China. Social media disinformation campaigns have been favoured by certain nations for years; deployed to push a range of agendas: …read more

Biting back

Biting back

Mick Humphreys says one bite from a mosquito left him with permanent brain damage. Ten months after that bite he gets monster headaches, he has to use a walking stick and his short-term memory is shot. The 71-year-old retiree lives near the Murray River in far north Victoria and a mosquito infected him with the Japanese …read more

Champion of diversification a force for good

Champion of diversification a force for good

Businesses must seriously consider diversification to be part of the new green economy, says Barney Swan, founder of ClimateForce charity in far north Queensland.  At 28 and armed with business and multi-media degrees from the US, he understands the fears and aspirations of younger generations and he knows that as climate change heats up, business …read more

Visitors in search of a road less trampled

Visitors in search of a road less trampled

As the world takes action to confront the looming threat of climate change, the Australian tourism industry is gearing up for a paradigm shift to greener travel options. With regenerative and sustainable tourism increasingly on the industry agenda, experts foresee a mix of government regulation and incentivisation is on the cards to shepherd the green transformation …read more

Reef tourism operating according to a new purpose

Reef tourism operating according to a new purpose

A new tourist pontoon on the Great Barrier Reef offers far more than sunbeds and soft-drinks. Forty-five kilometres from Cairns, on Moore reef, the Reef Magic pontoon is solar and wind-powered; it has a working scientific laboratory and accommodation for scientists. Launched in April 2022, the pontoon signifies the new thinking in the region: the need …read more