Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Talking Point

Invest in teachers, not laptops

The take-home message the Federal Government was selling with the release of the Gonski report into school funding on Monday was that Australian schools are not performing as well as they used to compared with the rest of the world, and the only way to...
Wed, February 22, 2012, 8:58 am WST
Schools do not exist just to fill universities

The claim by WA public universities that high school students are not ready for university, as reported recently, demands a response. The stated position of the universities, and their entry agency the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre, demonstrates...
Thu, February 16, 2012, 12:30 pm WST
Tour reveals detention policy harmful and costly

Indefinite mandatory detention for asylum seekers is a flawed policy in urgent need of reform.The despair and isolation that I have seen at detention facilities in WA in the past few days is symptomatic of an untenable system for people waiting for...
Wed, February 15, 2012, 12:14 pm WST
Let's treasure our wrinkles

A good friend celebrated her 50th birthday last week. And I mean celebrated.None of that, "Oh my God, where did my life go" navel-gazing stuff. No obsessing about wrinkles, grey hairs or other not-so-welcome natural reminders of the ageing...
Tue, February 14, 2012, 12:16 pm WST
WA's regrowth forests thrive

Even after 35 years working in the State's forests and plantations, I never tire of standing on the edge of Caves Road near Margaret River admiring the majesty of the Boranup karri forest, its tall trees gleaming in the dappled sunlight, the rich smell...
Mon, February 13, 2012, 11:11 am WST
Fair play to give a break to low-paid women

If you or a member of your family became disabled, unemployed, homeless or a victim of domestic violence, would you want vital services to be delivered by the lowest paid people? There’s an old Czech saying: “I’m not so rich that I can...
Thu, February 9, 2012, 9:20 am WST
Sex guide a sign of changing times

It's not easy being a parent, with so many decisions to make. Do you smack or not? Is using controlled crying for grizzling babies cruel or clever? At what age should children have a mobile phone?The decisions start before children are born, even...
Wed, February 8, 2012, 12:13 pm WST
Meeting the challenge of a changing China

This year promises to be a year of significant change in China. As Australia's largest export market and trading partner, and as an emerging power that continues to buck the trend of the global financial downturn, developments in China will bear...
Tue, February 7, 2012, 1:23 pm WST
Logging is a crime against nature

The madness of logging our forests. It is anyone's guess why the State Government wants logging in native forests to continue. Against all the evidence, it claims that logging is sustainable.So let's turn the question round and ask: why should we stop...
Mon, February 6, 2012, 11:09 am WST
Parents need to make sure children are at school

As I have travelled around the State, it has been obvious that successful schools benefit from supportive communities. Particularly when it comes to student attendance.Where communities come together to support their school and develop innovative ideas...
Fri, February 3, 2012, 12:56 pm WST
More police not the answer to social strife

Every Monday morning the WA community wakes to hear the stories of violence from the weekend.Heartbreakingly, it often involves a young one-punch or stabbing victim fighting for their life in hospital, and the young perpetrator facing time in jail after...
Thu, February 2, 2012, 10:12 am WST
Skyworks more than just dazzle

The Perth Lord Mayor appears to have split the city by questioning whether the Australia Day Skyworks should continue in all its current glory.It is a legitimate debate given the obvious frustrations of the event but it would be wrong to cancel or scale...
Wed, February 1, 2012, 2:19 pm WST
Time to let the kids off the leash

There is this corner on my way to work where I always slow down a little more, my foot hovering over the brake. Not because it's particularly treacherous, but because of the alarming habits of pedestrians crossing that road.It's as if the kerb is a...
Tue, January 31, 2012, 12:44 pm WST
Drivers, cyclists need to rethink attitudes

It is often said that WA drivers are among the most discourteous in the nation and that Australian drivers generally have a low consideration for other road users.Having driven in other countries I cannot unequivocally state that Australians are the...
Mon, January 30, 2012, 12:35 pm WST
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Where do we belong?

I shared a coffee with a friend of mine last week and he was recounting an all too common story of being tailgated by a young hoon in a hotted-up ute with "mag" wheels.At the traffic lights, the music was blaring and the young man was proudly...
Thu, January 26, 2012, 12:15 pm WST
Science formula proves elusive

Young children start out as natural scientists, constantly asking questions to try to make sense of the world around them. So why is it so difficult to harness that scientific curiosity in later life?Two recent reports have raised serious concerns about...
Wed, January 25, 2012, 11:31 am WST
Time for a spark of national pride

Australia Day is still something of a mystery to me. Where did this day with all its modern patriotic fervour spring from? I don't recall it from my days growing up.Maybe that was because Australia was such a different place all those decades ago.It...
Tue, January 24, 2012, 12:10 pm WST
Female leaders should act on fertility control

When Tony Abbott became Opposition Leader, women's groups went on the attack, convinced the man they labelled the "Mad Monk" would set back women's progress particularly in areas like reproductive health if he was ever elected to lead the...
Thu, January 19, 2012, 1:18 pm WST
Anti-gay message inflicts pain

It must be so comforting up there in the land of certainty. Where everything is black and white. No room for those murky shades of grey.I say "up there" because the inhabitants of this particular plane claim the guidance of a higher power....
Tue, January 17, 2012, 12:00 pm WST
A year of living dangerously

Whaling wars aside, Julia Gillard and her British counterpart David Cameron have had strikingly similar years.For both prime ministers, 2011 was a white-knuckle ride at the helm of an unlikely, ungainly, cobbled-together coalition of political strange...
Fri, January 13, 2012, 12:26 pm WST