May 1, 2014Opinion
The French developed an entire cuisine based on ingredients that others discarded, the Italians have worked out how to make flour and water taste good, Monaco worked out how to turn a small cliff face into a playground for the rich and famous; all too often it’s not about the resources themselves, its more about …
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April 16, 2014Opinion
Have you ever considered which industries will sustain this country when the once in a life time mining boom passes? What are we good at what, what will win? Thriving Industries provide growth and jobs; innovation and technology drives industries, smart creative minds drive technology. Recently there has been a lot of speculation about the …
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April 2, 2014Opinion
Technological development continually exceeds our wildest imagination. There is probably no better example of that than modern commercial aircraft; If your surgeon said to you, “with this procedure, the success rate is 99%”, you would be saying, “where do I sign?” Apply a 99% success rate, to the 28,000 daily commercial flights in the US, …
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August 19, 2013Opinion
Wouldn’t it be great if Australia had a business plan? An actual plan with (well-thought-out) strategies and objectives; publicly available; updated and reported against for all to see. Perhaps such a plan could explain the erratic vote grabbing decisions made by our politicians. “Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation……….whoops, actually not, but …
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August 2, 2013Opinion
Some things just don’t make sense; it doesn’t matter which way you look at them; how many times you do – they don’t make sense! For me, open refrigerated and freezer display cabinets in supermarkets have always fitted into this category. It’s like “we have done this for 100 years, it’s how we do it” …
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July 30, 2013Opinion
Recently my wife, Paula spent about 20 hours on the phone with Origin Energy, attempting to sort out our electricity bills. After building a house, we received a number of bills that appeared to be in conflict with each other e.g. we were charged at one point for electricity usage when there was no electrical …
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July 23, 2013Opinion
I don’t know what it is, I just feel better about buying seafood grown in Australia. Well actually I do know what it is, I have traveled a lot and seen a lot of factories and I think I would prefer something produced under Australian Food Standards. The reason for this is that very little …
Read moreJuly 20, 2013Opinion
Expensive foyer art is designed to set the tone of the building as well as provide a welcoming feel and communicate a message to visitors and staff of the building. It’s a bit like, “market positioning” for the building; it needs to be prominent and grandiose to have desired impact. Wouldn’t an entrance that displayed …
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July 19, 2013Opinion
Once upon a time, buildings were assessed based on location and structure, these days it’s a bit more like an IQ test for buildings! How smart is your building? Can it heat and cool itself, can it breathe… What about those older buildings, or I guess these days, those dumb buildings? Clearly the technology is …
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July 16, 2013Opinion
There is always a lot of discussion about the green credentials of companies; the motives, the reality, the actual outcomes etc! Often companies promote eco-labels or standards and third party endorsements. Although this certainly is a step in the right direction, they are often too confusing. Some are better than others, but what do they …
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