It is hard not to despair about indigenous disadvantage. Every week we hear anecdotal evidence of indigenous children being neglected, resulting in high rates of criminal activity, substance abuse and incarceration. Despite a huge expenditure on efforts to improve indigenous welfare we see little concrete evidence of improvement in the more dysfunctional communities. Mind you, […]
When you are a senior executive, it soon becomes apparent that your effectiveness is hugely dependent on your decision making ability. Delivering on the enterprise’s strategic plan, ensuring long term profitability, enhancing productivity and creating and sustaining an appropriate organisational culture, all rely on effective decision making. As humans the two obvious impediments to good […]
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The American Declaration of Independence The American Declaration of Independence is based on the premise that we all have rights […]
As Eric grew older he became aware of how fortunate he was to be the son of Jonas and Helena. Whilst they were reasonably strict parents their unconditional love for him was manifest. Some of his friends lived in dysfunctional families that seemed to oscillate between indulgence of their children and irrational demands. This gave […]
Over twenty years ago I was fortunate enough to have been selected to be CEO of the generating company, Stanwell Corporation. In one of our early strategic planning sessions we determined to focus on renewable energy projects. In following years we commissioned wind, mini-hydro and biofuel projects. It seemed to us that it was responsible […]
No doubt most caring Australians are appalled by the high rates of indigenous suicide, particularly among the young. It really is a blight on Australian society and surely we must strive to do better. Those struggling to find answers to this dilemma often point to the disadvantages and indignities to which many of our indigenous […]
A lot of things have been changed by the results of the recent election. All of a sudden the Queensland Labor Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk has taken umbrage at her Environmental Department’s stalling tactics with regard to the Adani Mine approvals. It seems she has belatedly concluded that Queenslanders generally might have different opinions to those […]
This does not purport to be an in depth analysis of the recent election. Millions of words have now been written by political commentators, party proponents and opponents and other supposedly politically well-informed writers on the issue. I just thought that I might share with you some of my thoughts on aspects of the election […]
A Facebook group I belong to has been dredging up old photos of my mother’s side of the family. It has been a real delight to see them. As I sit here on Mother’s Day, appropriately, I have been reminiscing over photos of my mother and maternal grandmother, two fine women who were very influential […]
The English Romantic poet, William Wordsworth, wrote a sonnet with the great title The World is too much with us. And indeed far too often in our lives this seems to be the case. We forget about the great wonder and mystery of life and are overly concerned with paying the mortgage, our personal appearance, […]