Our ABC - reporting allegations as fact

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is suffering a crisis of credibility - their reporting of news is seen to be partisan. For me, this isn't a problem as a news service must have freedom of reporting and editorial independence. What concerns me is shoddy and slipshod reporting practices, the failure to properly research and investigate a story is concerning at best and incompetent at worst. My question is, does ABC management place excessive pressure on reporters to conform to editorial direction or does a lack of journalistic integrity and work ethic exist?

The recent report by George Roberts is a case in point, unsubstantiated claims by asylum seekers claiming abuse by Australian navy personnel. Not only can their claims not be corroborated, but the original claimants are now changing their story - yet this was reported as fact by the ABC. I don't agree with Prime Minister Tony Abbott's view where he felt the ABC ''instinctively takes everyone's side but Australia's'' as the ABC is accountable to the board of directors, not politicians.

Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull summed it up pretty well ''What's the alternative, the editor-in-chief becomes the prime minister? Politicians, whether prime ministers or communications ministers, will often be unhappy with the ABC, but you can't tell them what to write.'' The ABC lacks professionalism and integrity - they had better change the organisational culture or face the consequences.

Diving within your limitations

I had promised to take my teenage nephew for a skin dive, his first time. He slept over and we headed down the beach in mid-morning. The day before, the wind battled to hit three knots in the morning, I know this because I was trying to get a yacht race started, a two and a half delay so I was expected a similar day, this was not the case. My first mistake, not checking the weather report.

Even on calm days, tiny waves still break - when the wind is up, the entry can get exciting for novices, this picture was about five knots, when we hit the water, we were looking at a wind strength over eighteen knots.

We drove down to Marmion Marine Park where a shallow reef was just offshore, unlike the day before, an onshore wind had already set in, so we were pretty much wiped out. Nevertheless, despite his lack of experience and reservations about the waves, we geared up and headed into the surf zone. As waves crashed around us in the surf zone, I hurried to exit the surf zone between sets only to trip over a series of rocks hidden by the turpid water caused by the churned water only to trip and bust a little toe and gash my leg open - damn.      

My nephew had difficulty getting his fins on in the surf, even though I was holding onto him, he was nervous and kept taking his snorkel out of his mouth. Taking water in before we decided to call the dive and head back, the second mistake was diving beyond his limitations. There were other people skin diving, they were however older and more experienced than him.

The lessons - I checked the conditions from shore, they were a bit advanced for him, we were there and I decided to go anyway despite his reservations, he didn't say so but I should have been more conservative. I rushed into the water after spotting an eagle ray from shore and I was hoping to give him an exceptional marine life interaction that will instill a love of the ocean based on inquisitive exploration.

So, I limped from the water with a busted little toe and blood running down my leg. Later that afternoon, I nodded off for a quick nap and my punk nephew took great delight in spraying this antiseptic on my open wound that I am sure was derived from Mexican chilli that opened my eyes so quickly, it bruised my eyelids. However, I fear he might remember his first skin dive for all the wrong reasons. 

Social media splintering

Social media is staring to splinter, the younger cohort is leaving Facebook as their parents and grandparents are now in common usage. I work with young people in the college system, while I see Facebook is still popular, they view this as too mainstream and seek the coolness of new social media mediums.

I now have a Google+ account and enjoy using it more because the smaller utilisation tends to not attract trolls, this will change if the expected exodus from Facebook continues. Facebook is full of food photographs, sports and bias commentary. From my Google+ account, I am able to follow my interests of high quality photography, business education and travel photography in a much more orderly fashion.

I am following a number of groups, I have an interest in business and management, MBA education and economics. So following the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, Wharton Executive Education, Kellogg School of Management, Financial Times Business Education, the London School of Business, Chicago Booth and the IE Business School give me access to great articles and research.

The publications from this diverse grouping of top end business and management schools is of excellent quality, these high end publishing faculties publish online in a regular manner that is both interesting and also helpful in my assignments.

Is a smartphone in the hands of an idiot still a smartphone?

As a college lecturer, I am frequently fighting the battle with students who can't leave their mobile phones alone. All day, every day we fight this battle where students play on their phone during class, sending messages to each other, downloading and sharing porn, racing out of class to take calls and generally distracting students doing the right thing. I am still yet to see them use these amazing devices for any intelligent activities and frequently ask myself "Is a smartphone in the hands of an idiot still a smartphone?"

Evidence indicates the most prolific users are generally the students that fail written and practical examinations. I have even had cases where students get up and leave during written examinations to take phone calls, the surprised looks on the faces when they come back to see a big fail written on their paper is astounding. They then make formal complaints about you - I actually encourage this as it all comes out and management have to act, its actually the best that can happen. 

A lack of leadership by college management has failed to address the issue, many of them truly believe they should be allowed to use their phones while taking a test. Inaction has caused a fairly simple issue to fester, the inability to address confrontation has left frontline staff addressing confrontation without any support.

Five missing Bali divers found

Great news, five of the seven Japanese dives missing on Bali's Nusa Penida have been found clinging to a coral reef in rough waters by local fishermen. While the joy is somewhat muted as two are still missing, this is a significant occasion.

Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan are small islands just east of Bali, divers generally head out from Sanur for daily dive trips, these sites are in ripping currents where the divers are dropped in the water and the bubble stream is followed by the boat. You can also stay on the islands, but I never have. The divers were eventually found more than 20 kilometres away from their entry point, these are great dives but can also be very treacherous. 

I first dived these sites about nineteen years ago, it was my first drift dive back then and it was super exciting being driven along by a 6 knot current. I fortunately made it back then and have engaged in numerous drift dives throughout South East Asia since then, while drift diving in strong currents is exhilarating, they need to be well planned and executed - I just hope the two divers still missing will be found shortly.

An online MBA

In the United States, Europe and Asia, typically the more education attained - the greater salary commanded. This is not necessarily the case in Australia though, unless you are trying to get a seat on the board of directors on a mid to large company - that has more to do with connections anyway.

Two questions remain; firstly, is an MBA worth the cost and effort and secondly, will the qualification get you that job or promotion?

A standard full-time MBA from a top university can cost up to $75,000 in Australia whereas an online MBA starts at $18,000 at the Central Queensland University, $24,000 at the University of New England and Southern Cross University, now renamed Federation University. 

Face-to-face delivery will set you back $30,000 for Curtin, Murdoch and Edith Cowan Universities, $46,000 at the University of Western Australia and Melbourne Business School topping the list at $75,000, slightly below the price at the Graduate School of Management.

The option of full time or part time courses creates a quandary, one year full-time versus two years part-time indicates a loss of income during that period - it takes a pretty good pay rise to make back $75k in a respectable time period.

Of course, MBAs are equipped with the tools to calculate their return of investment - although they should be able to crunch the numbers before they commit to such an intense program.

Executive MBA programs on the other hand are designed to meet the needs of executives, upper managers and increasingly middle managers - the advantage of maintaining employment is the ability to implement learned principles in an actual environment.

Given the cost of a full-time MBA, one could assume the full-time face-to-face is of higher quality given the price differential. The online version of the MBA is significantly cheaper, one would presume the class sizes are somewhat larger but lack the vis-a-vis interaction between lecturer, class members, corporate practitioners and links to industry.

Reputation is paramount where prestige and brand dictate employability prospects, likewise, strong alumni ties builds relationships. The ability to work from textbooks, communicate via a learning platform such as Moodle, C6 or Blackboard suits adult learning styles.

Online MBAs are suitable for those who are motivated and well prepared to manage their own learning outcomes - facilitation methodology for humanistic learners according to Rogers is student-centered and highly personalised.

The job market for recent graduates is tight, online delivery is significantly cheaper with a major advantage of maintaining full-time employment (needed to pay for the course) and viewed equally with face-to-face delivery. A ROI of $25k is much easier to reconcile as compared to $75k with further advantage of gaining and maintaining actual work based experience.

That being said, gaining a $25k pay rise could see educational debt paid off in 5 years after tax, that's tacked onto the two years required to complete the qualification - a 7 year commitment. The disadvantage of online study is the lack of personal relationships combined with no tutorials and the ability to practice presentation skills.   

Why not bailing out SPC is the correct decision

The Shepparton Preserving Company (SPC) is in tragic decline requesting funding by the Australian federal government, this is serious but we need to look further into their request for funding.

The role of a federal government is to create the conditions for business to prosper, this does not include bailing out private enterprise with tax payer funds due to poor management decisions, industrial relations policy or competition. There are laws to prevent dumping, anti-competitive practices, price collusion and cartel activity - all to protect the consumer and the organisation. In my view, the federal government looks after the macro economy, of course, micro economic reforms are required too.

The federal government certainly doesn't have to bail out multi-national companies requiring restructuring when the parent company is Coca Cola Amatil. They are, after all, the largest producers of non-alcoholic beverages in the Asia Pacific region; they have some pretty good alcoholic brands as well.

We are in a precarious position, the manufacturing base of this country is in serious decline, yet when I download and read the 2012 Coca Cola Amatil annual report, I see a net profit after tax of $558.4 million. I also see that Coca Cola Holdings owns 29.27% of the company with other significant shareholders including HSBC, JP Morgan, National Nominees, Citicorp, AMP and UBS. What is wrong with going to the market to secure more capital? Or, what is wrong with using internal revenue to restructure?

This is a commercial enterprise and should not be seeking government life support payments. Shareholder dividends are important to any business, the 6.7% full year dividend increase in 2012 took the total dividend increase to 13.3% That is, $243.9 million spent on dividends at 32 cents per share franked to 75% - ok, that's fair. But what is with the special unfranked dividend of 3.5 cents per share totaling $26.7 million?

There it is, the funding SPC requires that can be funded internally. We don't even need to head to the directors and chief executive's remuneration report to seek further savings. As Australians, we could support the company by purchasing their products, the company can maintain dividends at current rates and reinvest the special dividend - not the taxpayer footing the bill.

Postwrap on Bruce's second Perth concert

Walking out of Bruce’s concert, I had mixed feelings. After three decades of waiting – was this concert worth the wait? For me - the short answer is no. Now, some people will never be entirely happy, since I am handing over my hard earned cash - I am entitled to an opinion and I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be. I can't say I was impressed with the song list, I viewed the set lists from Wednesday and Saturday nights and wished I had been there Saturday night, Friday night was not the night for me.

Bruce stated in an interview before the concerts that as a surprise, to keep things interesting, he would change the set list around between concerts. It certainly was a surprise, but since he has never toured Perth before we can safely say the majority of punters had never seen a Springsteen concert. It kept the set list for interesting for Bruce and the band but that's about it - much has been said about what has been left of the set list.

Bruce has plenty of albums to draw material from, if you are a fan of the Born in the USA album, Friday night was sure to disappoint. With the exception of Dancing in the Dark, the album wasn't represented at all. I checked the song list from Saturday night and saw that Saturday was the night for me. For many of the Bruce Springsteen fans, the age group that he draws from in Perth were introduced to his music from that album. 

We never got to see the 1985 Born in the USA tour as Perth was left off the tour destinations. Likewise, the 2003 The Rising and 2013 Wrecking Ball tours boycotted Perth as well. Tickets were extremely hard to come by, I was lucky enough to purchase ticket for the first Perth show, this was the Friday night concert, a second concert was then announced on Saturday night as the show sold out in quick time with a third concert on the Wednesday night.

Third row from the back on the left hand wall was the best I could do, there wasn't many choices of seats available. As we were on a timer purchasing tickets - you take what you can, I wasn't able to purchase multiple seats so I got a single seat on my own, I was pretty thankful for that as plenty of people missed out.

The E Street band played with plenty of energy and passion, Bruce worked hard over the three hours of non-stop singing. I wanted to see Bruce Springsteen play live since his first Sydney concert back in 1985 bu was never in the right place when he played, I had already given up all hope of seeing him in Perth so I resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to see him play live a long time ago. It left me wondering, how good would it have been to see Bruce Springsteen in his prime? I will never know.

Schapelle Corby's parole

Schapelle Corby is soon to be released from Bali's Kerobakan prison after being paroled for drug trafficking, she has not been out of the news since her 2004 arrest and 2005 trial. Sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for attempting to smuggle 4.2 kg of marijuana into Indonesia, her sentence has been reduced on numerous occasions prior to her parole - this was big news in Australia driven partly by the 24/7 news cycle and the notion that this could be me.

Is she innocent or is she guilty? I have absolutely no idea, I am sure there are only a hand full of people actually know the answer. What I do know is she has sold newspapers, magazines and books as well as online media and lots of advertising space. A tele-movie is soon to be played on Australian television prime time Sunday night promising to tell the true story - I, for one won't be watching. Will they try to convince us she is as guilty as hell or will they go the miscarriage of justice route with the Indonesian corruption playing the decisive factor?

What I do know is that we have no right to accuse the Indonesians of corruption or mock their justice system as ours is far from perfect. The Indonesian system prescribes harsh punishment whereas the Australian system is too lenient allowing convicted drug dealers, smugglers and users straight back out into the community where they commit further crimes.

What concerns me is the manipulation by the media convincing the community at large of the media driven perspective - I have no idea what is fact, what is half truths and what is pure manipulation. I just know I turned off back in 2005 when this overexposed trial flooded our news outlets in their blanket coverage.

Little boxes

I recently heard the song Little Boxes on the television and reflected the effect it had on my outlook on life. While I imagine it was mean't to be a humorous song, it was anything but for me. It shaped my views on mediocrity and how I didn't want to spend my life chasing the same outcomes of leaving school, meeting a girl, engagement, marriage, kids, mortgage, divorce, sell the house and split the proceeds, child support and retirement spent with grandchildren who prefer the other grandparents to you.

Now don't get me wrong, this is an honourable life aspiration that more than 50% of the population experiences - it just isn't for me. I learned this song in primary school with the effect on a pre-teenage boy still strong in a mid forties man.

John Mellencamp's Pink Houses from his uh hah album further reinforced the message and strengthened my desire to lead an alternative lifestyle. I always felt Mellencamp expressed a very poignant view of the current state of America. I thought couldn't really lead a Bohemian lifestyle as I'm not the arty type. That being said, my choice of weapons is in the form of written words, I do identify with the prose of Maugham, Fitzgerald and Hemingway respecting their timeless work.

Whilst I left school early after just reaching 16, I took the well worn path of a 4 year technical apprenticeship. After finishing a four year commitment, I immediately began saving a deposit for two years and undertook a mortgage at age 22. Whilst undertaking further technical trade studies, the mortgage was repaid in full 6 years later at age 28 and the life free of commitment began. It took a while, but I feel I escaped the little boxes I tried so hard to avoid, but then again, I now own on of those little boxes on the hillside - not so different after all.

Bruce Springsteen finally jets into Perth

I've waited a long time for this, nearly 3 decades actually. Bruce Springsteen didn't tour Australia often, until last year that was. When the occasion arises, if you live on the west coast as I do - you can forget about seeing Bruce play live. That was until now, the long wait is over, its been 29 years but Bruce Springsteen will finally play Perth after his first Australian tour hit our shores back in 1985.

Apparently, the deciding factor in Bruce deciding to visit Perth was he learnt five thousand people had to fly to the eastern states to see his concert last year. We were told at the time that he was soooooo close to touring Perth - of course, nobody believed him as we had heard it all before. You could imagine our surprise when a Perth concert was announced, the tickets sold out very quickly, as I was registered for the pre-sale, I was fortunate enough to secure a single ticket, I fared better than others who, despite trying - missed out altogether.

For the majority of people my age, a bulked up Bruce burst on the scene with his Born in the USA album. As a bunch of young punks at high school, we then learnt that Springsteen had been around for some time with the albums Nebraska, The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run. For those of us interested enough, we had the opportunity to build our album collections with Bruce's previous offerings.

Bruce's first Australian tour in 1985 brought a level of excitement not seen in my lifetime, I was too young to have seen the Beatles and Rolling Stones tour Australia in the 60s - the pandemonium generated back then was legendary.

I can remember being on a school camp when Bruce played Sydney, the concert was not telecast live but the cameras were at the arena with live cross and breaking news flashes interrupting normal transmission. We crowded around a single television to watch the news reports learning that Bruce's concerts often went into overtime - as the Sydney show did.

Ronald Reagan was the US president, Bob Hawke was the Australian prime minister, Nelson Mandela still had another 5 years in a South African jail, the Vietnam war had been over for nearly a decade, the Berlin Wall divided West and East Germany and the cold war was still at its height with nuclear catastrophe ever present when Bruce first played Australia all those years ago.

Springsteen has aged another 30 years since his Born in the USA tour first kicked off, he is 65 now and I am hoping that his Friday show is going to be worth the three decade wait - as legendary as his concerts are reputed to be. I went from high school, from just turning 16 to almost 45 before I had the opportunity to see Bruce in Perth - that's a long wait. I had almost given up all hope of seeing The Boss play live - barring a car accident or heart attack, I will be at the Perth Arena Friday night full of energy and enthusiasm.

Suburban bush fires

Every country has its natural catastrophic events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tornado and cyclones. For Perth, it is bush fires, but this is not a rural area - this is Perth suburbia.

I was at work yesterday and phone calls were coming hard and fast, some of my workmates had to leave to get home to defend their properties. I walked outside of the office and viewed the smoke billowing into the air, fortunately for me, I live in the other direction and didn't suffer the problems of road blocks, fire trucks and smoke.

I had heard fire trucks driving past earlier in the day with their sirens screaming and lights flashing, I didn't think much of it as it is a pretty normal event here in summer. Perth has a large professional fire fighting force complete with water bombers, helicopters, command structures and a sizable volunteer bush fire brigade. 

Together, these guys worked through the night bringing the fire under control in high temperatures and strong winds. Today, another 37 degree Celsius day is forecast so it was important to get this fire under control as soon as possible. The fire was caused by a flare up of a fire that started on Sunday, as the winds increase during the day, this fire could be out of control threatening homes again.

What makes this fire personal is the number of my colleagues affected, last year, the hills fires last year burnt down peoples homes, another hills bush fire a few weeks back destroyed countless properties, sometimes the number of homes destroyed is in its hundreds. It is amazing, the embers flying through the air land on houses setting them alight but sparing the property next door, in some ways, it is a bit of a lottery.

Last Tuesday, I was taking my university examination with the rumbling of low flying helicopters dropping water on the nearby fire, the sound of sirens from fire trucks was not overshadowed by the rattling glass and boom of the turbine of the low flying water bombers.

As we started the 2 hour, 15 minute exam - we had evacuation plans in place. As we sat there at our desks prior to the exam start, the exam supervisor called the faculty to determine if we were to proceed - as I had taken a day off work to attend, I wanted to stay no matter what the distractions. 

For me, this was a mild inconvenience, sure I had spent a trimester studying the unit but apart from time invested, I had nothing to lose. Here, peoples lives and houses are on the line, yesterday there was six homes damaged and no lives lost - a pretty good outcome really.

Budgie smugglers versus people smugglers

People smuggling is a business run by criminal organisations - this despicable business is trafficking human misery for profit. The notion of people smuggling is an emotive and divisive community issue, however, the problem of people smuggling was solved before Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard overturned successful policy allowing the people smuggling cartels to rebuild their business models. The end result, more than 50, 000 people arrive on Australia's shores by boat, over 1100 deaths at sea and a fortune spent running offshore processing centres.

People, that is, their clients are paying people smuggling cartels to transport them across the sea to Australia - Indonesia is the staging point for the boat trip. How are they actually getting from their country of origin to Indonesia? After all, a plane ticket is a cheaper option into Australia, much cheaper than the people smuggling option - yet people don't use this option, why? You need a visa to arrive legally by plane to get into Australia, to get into Indonesia, most citizens require a visa, without doubt, they require a valid passport. The question then arises, once in the company of people smugglers, why do their passport and legal documents somehow vanish on route to Australia?

I have a fundamental problem with international criminal organisations dictating Australian immigration policy, it is clear after six years of weak willed policy failures, we now have strong leadership who implement their plans in the best interests of our nation.

I have no problem with immigration, I would not be concerned if we increased out immigration intake, in fact, I believe we should do so in a controlled manner. Furthermore, I believe as a nation we should increase our refugee intake inline with general immigration - the main point is, we run the bloody show, not organised crime cartels. It's budgie smugglers versus people smugglers - it appears budgie is gaining ascendancy.