This post was originally published on Michael West.
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When the Australian Electoral Commission drops its political donations data tomorrow, it will almost certainly show that corporate donations are rising at an alarming clip and that Australia is tracking the US. Stephanie Tran and Michael West report on the extraordinary rise of money in politics.
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Google threatens to withdraw search from Australia and Facebook to remove news posts. These are not idle threats. Is propping up old media with grants gouged from Google good public policy? It delivers cash for Rupert Murdoch but does it serve consumers? Kim Wingerei reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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It was to much fanfare that the Institute of Public Affairs announced the hiring of Tony Abbott to “lead a new movement to defend and revive traditional Australian values”. Such a movement was deemed necessary by the release of the IPA’s report titled “The Fair Go – Going, Gone: The Decline of the Australian Way of Life, 2000 to 2020”.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out. Elizabeth Minter investigates
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Like aged care, quarantine is the responsibility of the federal government. Yet the Morrison government forced that role onto the states and territories, and deployed a submissive media to snipe from the sidelines.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Donald Trump aside, deaths in the US continue to soar from Covid-19, with a reported 383,000, and 23 million infections. Europe has also reported huge rises in the final month of 2020, while the numbers in African countries rose sharply too. Alan Austin takes a look at the latest pandemic wave.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Universities offer relatively limited support for researchers’ efforts to engage with the many non-academics who can benefit from research. Image: The Conversation/Life and Times/Shutterstock
ANALYSIS: By Margaret Kristin Merga, Edith Cowan University and Shannon Mason, Nagasaki University
Academics are increasingly expected to share their research widely beyond academia. However, our recent study of academics in Australia and Japan suggests Australian universities are still very much focused on supporting the production of scholarly outputs.
They offer relatively limited support for researchers’ efforts to engage with the many non-academics who can benefit from our research.
One reason engagement is expected is that government, industry and philanthropic sources fund research.
And when academics share their research with the public, industry and policymakers, this engagement is good for the university’s reputation. It can also lead to other benefits such as research funding.
But the work involved in sharing our ideas beyond academia can be diverse and substantial. For example, when we write for The Conversation, it takes time to find credible sources, adopt an appropriate tone, communicate often complex ideas simply and clearly, and respond to editor feedback.
We also need to be able to speak to the media about our findings, and respond to public comments when the piece comes out.
Unis don’t allow for the time it takes
However, as one respondent said in explaining why they were not sharing research with end users beyond academia:It’s not recognised by uni. So, when it is not recognised, it means that I don’t have any workload for that, and obviously I’m work-loaded for other stuff, and that means that I don’t actually have enough time to do this.
Sharing our findings beyond academia isn’t typically seen as part of our academic workload. This is problematic for academics who are already struggling to find time to do all the things their complex workload requires of them.
It takes time to write an article or engage with non-academics in other ways, but universities typically don’t treat this work as an integral part of academic duties. Image: The Conversation/Mangostar/ShutterstockIn our research, time and workload constraints were the most often-cited barriers to sharing research beyond academia. One respondent said they saw lots of opportunities to build partnerships with practitioners in their field, but added:
[I] just cannot do that, because I’m doing other things that, in my work, are a priority.
When we spend our time sharing our research with academic readers through journal articles, conference papers and academic books, our employers clearly value and expect these scholarly publications.
These works, and how the scholarly community receives them, have more weight in evaluation of our performance. Last year an Australian academic nearly lost her job for failing to meet a target for scholarly publications.
Our research found Japan-based academics feel a greater weight of expectations than their Australian counterparts to engage with diverse audiences beyond academia.
Universities clearly expect this engagement. Yet they often don’t back it up with support such as workload recognition, resourcing and training.
Universities need to offer better support if they wish to increase academics’ engagement with diverse audiences. They should also consider both the benefits and risks of this engagement.
Academics see the benefits of sharing research
The academics we spoke with valued the benefits of engaging with diverse audiences. They were pleased to see others putting their research to use. Sharing research often helped to secure funding.They also saw engagement as an opportunity to learn from end users. This helped ensure their research was responding to real-world needs.
Engaging with the end users of their research provides valuable feedback for academics. Image: The Conversation/Halfpoint/ShutterstockEven very early in their careers, many researchers look to engage with audiences beyond academia. In previous research, we found doctoral candidates may opt for a thesis by publication rather than a traditional thesis approach due to their desire to share findings.
What other problems do researchers face?
The early-career researchers we interviewed noted other barriers and risks in sharing their work with diverse audiences. Universities often did not help with these issues.They described communication skill gaps when seeking to tailor research content for diverse audiences. For example, the way research is communicated to industry experts needs to be different to how it is shared with governments or the general public.
Researchers may need to learn to communicate their ideas in many different forms. They may have to be skilled in producing industry reports, doing television or radio interviews or presenting their findings in professional forums.
Some encountered frustrations when sharing research via the bureaucratic processes of government. For example, a respondent explained:
There’s still that much back and forth because there’s three or four different government departments that are involved in the process and it goes to different people. Some people don’t want it to be changed because they’re vested in the old way of doing things, and then they’ve got to bring ministers up to speed, and then all of a sudden you’re got a new state government that comes in, so that all changes.
Many felt unprepared to deal with the media.
One respondent described being cautious about overstating the impact of their research. In their field, they saw messages claiming: “This is the be all and end all. This will cure cancer.” They were “wary of accidentally going down that path and making a claim bigger than is true”.
Respondents also described risks in sharing controversial and sensitive research beyond academia.
What can universities do?
For respondents in both Australia and Japan, demanding and diverse workloads crowded out opportunities to share findings. Universities cannot just expect engagement responsibilities to be absorbed into an already swollen workload.If universities are serious about supporting the sharing of research beyond academia, they need to recognise these contributions in meaningful ways. For example, Australian academics usually must meet teaching, research and service requirements in their workloads.
If sharing research with audiences beyond academia were counted toward service, academics could have this work properly taken into account in performance management and when seeking promotion.
Universities can do better at supporting academics to share their research with the public, industry and government. Improving access to training and mentoring to communicate research findings both in academia and beyond would be an important step forward.
By Dr Margaret Kristin Merga, senior lecturer in education, Edith Cowan University and Dr Shannon Mason, assistant professor in education, Nagasaki University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
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Gladys Berejiklian’s defence of pork barrelling will hardly enthuse ratepayers in Batemans Bay, or taxpayers for that matter. The local government debacle over a Leisure Centre, which got the tick from Deputy Premier John Barilaro in dubious circumstances is the quintessential object lesson in why governments should do their homework before they start throwing money around for political reasons. Elizabeth Minter reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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How did an Australian-made transponder, a key part of drone technology, end up in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan where human rights abuses are prolific? Michelle Fahy investigates the murky trail of the drone bit and the cagey response of the Defence establishment from DFAT to DoD to Minister Marise Payne.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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British Judge Vanessa Baraitser has ruled against US extradition for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but not for the reasons she should have.
Baraitser’s frightening ruling supported virtually every US prosecutorial argument that was made during the extradition trial, no matter how absurd and Orwellian. This includes quoting from a long-discredited CNN report alleging without evidence that Assange made the embassy a “command post” for election interference, saying the right to free speech does not give anyone “unfettered discretion” to disclose any document they wish, dismissing arguments from the defense that UK law prohibits extradition for political offenses, parroting the false claim that Assange’s attempt to help protect his source Chelsea Manning while she was exfiltrating documents she already had access to was not normal journalistic behavior, saying US intelligence might have had legitimate reasons to spy on Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, and claiming Assange’s rights would be protected by the US legal system if he were extradited.
“Judge is just repeating the US case, including its most dubious claims, in Assange case,” tweeted activist John Rees during the proceedings.
As I reported, that CNN article was authored by a right-wing Ecuadorian who worked for a NGO sponsored by the State Department & UK govt, and it relied on disinfo fed by UC Global, the CIA contractor that illegally spied on Assange https://t.co/hZAiIeor5M https://t.co/K0CywDFaPj
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 4, 2021
In the end, though, Baraitser ruled against extradition. Not because the US government has no business extraditing an Australian journalist from the UK for exposing its war crimes. Not because allowing the extradition and prosecution of journalists under the Espionage Act poses a direct threat to press freedoms worldwide. Not to prevent a global chilling effect on natsec investigative journalism into the behaviors of the largest power structures on our planet. No, Baraitser ultimately ruled against extradition because Assange would be too high a suicide risk in America’s draconian prison system.
Assange is still not free, and he is not out of the woods. The US government has said it will appeal the decision, and Baraitser has the legal authority to keep Assange locked in Belmarsh Prison until that appeals process has been carried through all the way to its end. Discussions on bail and release will resume on Wednesday, and Assange will remain imprisoned in Belmarsh at least until that time. Due to Assange’s bail offense which resulted from taking political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012, it’s very possible that bail will be denied and he will remain imprisoned throughout the US government appeal.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the Australian trade union to which Assange belongs as a journalist, has released a statement on the ruling which outlines the situation nicely.
“Today’s court ruling is a huge relief for Julian, his partner and family, his legal team and his supporters around the world,” said MEAA Media Federal President Marcus Strom. “Julian has suffered a 10-year ordeal for trying to bring information of public interest to the light of day, and it has had an immense impact on his mental and physical health.”
“But we are dismayed that the judge showed no concern for press freedom in any of her comments today, and effectively accepted the US arguments that journalists can be prosecuted for exposing war crimes and other government secrets, and for protecting their sources,” Strom added. “The stories for which he was being prosecuted were published by WikiLeaks a decade ago and revealed war crimes and other shameful actions by the United States government. They were clearly in the public interest. The case against Assange has always been politically motivated with the intent of curtailing free speech, criminalising journalism and sending a clear message to future whistleblowers and publishers that they too will be punished if they step out of line.”
MEDIA RELEASE: MEAA welcomes today’s decision by a British judge to prevent the extradition to the United States of our member Julian Assange and calls on the US government to now drop his prosecution. https://t.co/KmykZED1Kd #pressfreedom #MEAAmedia pic.twitter.com/aYEKoCcoyi
— MEAA (@withMEAA) January 4, 2021
Indeed, the ruling today was a huge relief for Assange, his family, and for all his supporters around the world. But it wasn’t justice.
“It’s good to hear that court has ruled against the extradition of Julian Assange but I am wary of the fact it’s on mental health grounds,” AP’s Joana Ramiro commented on the ruling. “It’s a rather feeble precedent against the extradition of whistleblowers and/or in defence of the free press. Democracy needs better than that.”
“This wasn’t a victory for press freedom,” tweeted journalist Glenn Greenwald. “Quite the contrary: the judge made clear she believed there are grounds to prosecute Assange in connection with the 2010 publication. It was, instead, an indictment of the insanely oppressive US prison system for security ‘threats’.”
It is good that Baraitser ultimately ruled against extradition, but her ruling also supported the entirety of the US government’s prosecutorial narrative that would allow for extradition of journalists under the Espionage Act in the future. The ruling is a significant step toward freedom for Julian Assange, but it changes nothing as far as global imperialist tyranny is concerned.
So the appropriate response at this time is a sigh of relief, but not celebration. The Assange case has never been about just one man; the greater part of the battle, the one we are all fighting, continues unabated.
We're so far from justice that even the table scraps of "You're too crazy to extradite" are welcomed.
You want justice? Free Assange, shower him with awards and compensation, and lock up everyone who helped persecute him. THAT would be justice. THEN you'd be getting somewhere.
— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) January 4, 2021
That said, the message of the empire here was essentially “We totally coulda extradited you if we wanted, but you’re too crazy,” which sounds a lot like the international diplomacy equivalent of “I could kick your ass but you’re not worth it.” It’s a way of backing down while still saving face and appearing to be a threat. But everyone looking on can see that backing down is still backing down.
I think it’s a safe bet that if this case hadn’t had such intense scrutiny on it from all over the world, we would have heard a different ruling today. The empire did what it could to try and intimidate journalists with the possibility of prison for exposing its malfeasance, but in the end, it backed down.
I’m not going to take that as a sign that we’ve won the war, or even the battle. But it is a sign that our punches are landing. And that we’ve got a fighting chance here.
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Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
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This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone.
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While the federal government indulged in semantics, Covid-19 deaths continued to rise in the woefully under-prepared residential aged care sector. Sarah Russell and Elizabeth Minter report on a horror year for older people living in residential aged care.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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TEN ECONOMIC STEPS THAT FORM A PATHWAY TO THE TOP THEKOUK and EVERALDATLARGE OUTLINE A WAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA TO CREATE AND MAINTAIN SUSTAINED PROSPERITY Covid19 has opened a door for Australians to positively accept significant changes that will lead to a shared good. This rare opportunity enables us to achieve sustainable economic …
Continue reading CLIMBING THE COVID MOUNTAIN
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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EVERALD COMPTON RELATES HIS LONG AND PAINFUL JOURNEY Soon after John Howard became Prime Minister of Australia in 1996, I met him at Parliament in Canberra to outline my plan to build an Inland Railway. He agreed that it was a visionary project well worth a try and he gave me the green light to …
Continue reading THE VISION OF THE INLAND RAILWAY IS NOW A TRAGEDY.
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Last year, the Queensland Parliament voted to authorise its Health Committee to hold public hearings throughout Queensland to assess public attitudes to Voluntary Assisted Dying and Palliative Care. They did an extraordinary job of holding hearings far and wide across the State and encouraging all opinions to be expressed. I spoke at one of the …
Continue reading Voluntary Assisted Dying. Crunch time at Queensland Parliament.
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Jeremy Corbyn has led British Labour to a massive defeat. Bill Shorten led the Australian ALP to the loss of an election that should never have been lost. Hilary Clinton led her left wing Democrats to lose an American Presidential Election to a candidate who will be remembered as the worst President in American History. …
Continue reading THE LEFT HAS BEEN LEFT
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Shop. Click. And the next day, your purchase is on your doorstep. Amazon has changed the face of shopping, but at a surprisingly high cost to its workers. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming soon, we look at what’s behind those smiling packages to reveal the dangers of working at Amazon.
Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.This post was originally published on Reveal.
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Let me say loudly and clearly that I am hugely switched off by the Extinction Rebellion, but I am switched on about Greta Thunberg and about the fact that Citizens Referendums are a much better alternative than marching. Thunberg made an impact at the United Nations a few weeks ago with her speech that harshly …
Continue reading THE EXTINCTION OF THE EXTINCTION REBELLION
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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After the housing bust, a group of men profited by destroying the American dream of homeownership for hundreds of thousands of families. On Reveal, we learn how these Homewreckers — many of whom are close to President Donald Trump — did it and meet a woman who fought back.
This episode is based on Aaron Glantz’s new book, “Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream.”
Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.
This post was originally published on Reveal.
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I was born and bred in the Australian bush. There, I went to a tiny bush school which had eleven students whose parents worked in the local timber mill. I enjoyed many happy days in a prosperous little community that really was one large family. Back in those days of the 1930’s and 40’s, Australia …
Continue reading TOWNS DIE, CITIES CHOKE, AUSTRALIA SLEEPS
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Twenty years ago, Trade Union legend Bill Ludwig introduced me to Bill Shorten, telling me that here was a young guy who was going places. Shorten and I met for coffee at Melbourne University where he was studying part time to get his MBA. I liked him and asked what were his future plans for his …
Continue reading SHORTEN’S END
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Let us for the moment presume that Bill Shorten will become Prime Minister of Australia on Saturday evening. Once he settles into the job, I will seek a meeting with him to advocate a number of changes to the way in which we elect governments and the manner in which changes can be made to …
Continue reading AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY NEEDS A REFORMATION
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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It is beyond dispute that Bill Shorten is correct when he states that a cash refund of franking credits on investments should be claimed only by a taxpayer. What is in dispute is the timing and manner in which he intends to legislate changes to current taxation laws on those credits. His planned legislation must be changed to exempt all shares purchased …
Continue reading FULLY FRANKED MUST BE FRANK AND FAIR
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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2018 has been the most pointless of my 87 years. Nothing dreadful happened to me or Australia. It was just a boring time of decadent politics and absent ethics in which not one inspiring thing happened and there was much to lament. There are many regrettable issues that deserve a mention, but I will talk …
Continue reading THE YEAR THAT NEVER WAS
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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For 75 years, the Liberal Party of Australia has been a respected and enduring institution of our nation which will be remembered kindly for many notable achievements. However, it is breathing its last and rigor mortis will set in very quickly and permanently. Its record over the past few years has been so lamentable that few will …
Continue reading VALE LIBERALS FOREVER
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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We have reached a huge watershed in Australian political history. There is now no Member of the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament who holds a safe seat, not one, no matter what their current majority may be, not even Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten. And neither the Coalition nor the ALP can be certain …
Continue reading NO SAFE SEATS
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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American Marine Scientists have discovered the remains of the Endeavour, the fine old ship sailed by Captain James Cook on his voyage of discovery along the Eastern Seaboard of Australia in 1770. It lies at the bottom of the harbour at Newport, Rhode Island, where it was scuttled during the American War of Independence long …
Continue reading THE ENDEAVOUR
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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Donald Trump is the worst American President in my 86 years on Planet Earth. In all likelihood, he is the worst since George Washington kicked out the British. But, let me stop beating around the bush and admit that I utterly and thoroughly despise him. Having said this, I must confess that there are times when …
Continue reading TRUMPED BY TRUMP
This post was originally published on My Articles – Everald Compton.
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This week, we continue our ongoing investigation into what happens to immigrant children after they’re detained by the U.S. government. Our latest story investigates a vacant office building being used by a defense contractor to house children.
Then, we travel to the Gulf Coast to learn why last year was the costliest hurricane season on record. In Houston, we discover that homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey were actually built inside a reservoir.
We end on the Louisiana coast, where officials say they can no longer provide protection to homes most vulnerable to flooding, and that residents will have to abandon them.
Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.
This post was originally published on Reveal.
