Monthly Archives: October 2011

The internet is insecure – let’s build a better one, fast

By Mark Gregory | Published: 31/10/2011
A few days ago, senior FBI official Shawn Henry called for the creation of a new and secure “alternative internet” to secure key infrastructure and financial systems. He assessed the process of connecting systems of national significance to the internet as a recipe for disaster, and he was right: the internet is insecure. And yet we [...]
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The future for Melbourne house prices?

By Ashton de Silva and Gavin Wood and Dag Sommervoll | Published: 27/10/2011
Melbourne property prices took off in the first decade of the 21st century.  According to a repeat sales index that we have estimated the average quarterly growth rate over the period 2000-2009 was approximately 2.4%; this equates to almost 10% on an annual basis. This is more than three times the rate experienced during the period [...]
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A Week in Athens

By Des Cahill | Published: 27/10/2011
Greece today is a troubled nation, deeply unsure of its future and deeply aware of the hardships that are beginning to be endured. I was in Athens recently at the invitation of the EU and the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs to speak to adult migrant teachers on the lessons to be learned [...]
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Slow Motion Six-Party Engagement

By Jeffrey Lewis and Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce | Published: 25/10/2011
In the last few weeks, Kim Jong Il has inspected a pig farm, a mine, a solar thermal energy research unit, a restaurant, an orchestra and even gave field guidance to the Tudan Duck Farm on how to raise these pesky birds, where he reportedly enjoyed an art performance given by the members of the [...]
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Browsers vs Browsers

By Jonathan Boymal | Published: 20/10/2011
The last few weeks has seen a renewed focus on the perilous state of brick-and-mortar book retailing in Melbourne. The usual suspects often referred to are the fixed costs of traditional retailing (especially rent) and the growth of online retailing.
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Nuclear doom or baby boom?

By Jonathon Boymal and Ashton de Silva and Sarah Sinclair | Published: 11/10/2011
Newspaper journalists have two functions to perform: one is to inform the reader; the other is to sell the reader to their advertisers. Making use of a sensational statistic is often an element of media reporting, but have journalists been taught to critically examine statistics? Just as problematic is the use of authority figures in [...]
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Layers come out on top at Convergence Review

By Vincent ODonnell | Published: 07/10/2011
The Convergence Review Panel has released five detailed discussion papers that reflect the breadth of issues raised in the public and private consultations of the past five months. They are titled (with bureaucratic sobriety) Layering, Licensing and Regulation; Australian and Local Content; Spectrum Allocation and Management; Media Diversity; Competition and Market Structures; and Community Standards. [...]
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Bolt is guilty, but the law is wrong – let the markets deal with racial discrimination

By Sinclair Davidson | Published: 03/10/2011
Political activists and bad legislation have combined to create the extraordinary situation where eligibility for awards and prizes can’t be questioned. Not all prizes and awards – we can still mock Wayne Swan’s Euromoney award – but only those that have an ethnic component to them. In a society increasingly obsessed with ethnicity and race [...]
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