Royal Genes

Genes aren't everything - Princess Di's improved the academic prowess of the Windsors (The Age, 24/6). Port Adelaide, take note!

Big Bother - The Real Affront

Like Liberal MP Trish Draper, I tuned in to Big Brother Uncut for the first time on Monday and was appalled. Like National MP Paul Neville, I'm certainly no prude. So I don't care about the on-screen nudity, profanity, masturbation, sex or mindless drivel. What shocked me was the deplorable harassment and assault - ranging from unwelcome and persistent skirt-lifting, humiliation, forced simulated sex ("dry humping"), breast-groping (and biting) and total degradation of human dignity. How can anyone look past all that to get worked up by the boobs and willies?

I don't want to sound like a corporate training video, but that kind of uninvited behaviour is disgusting and I hope the young women subject to it actively pursue their legal options against the perpetrators and Channel Ten. An arched eyebrow from host Gretel Killeen is hardly sufficient censure.

Back to Butterfly Nets

New specialist emergency mental health services may be a great approach. But I was disturbed by the tone of St. Vincent Hospital's Andrew Dent's vision (Age, 20/6) for two or three "really overwhelmingly" resourced "centres of excellence" with "security and sedation and all those things" to allow "very interesting" research on samurai-wielding patients "so people would want to work there". Sounds great for the staff - but how about focusing on effective and efficient treatment for people who need help?

While it's important that the media has direct access to key decision-makers in public organisations, I'm starting to see why they employ professional publicists and lobbyists!

Qualifications for Leadership

The Federal Education Minister, Dr. Brendan Nelson, lambasts members of University councils, stating that "it is an accident of circumstance if they know anything about leading, let alone managing people and budgets." (The Age, 14/6)

Right. How has the Minister's medical degree prepared him for his present role, leading and managing a sector worth billions? Perhaps his stint as head of the Tasmanian doctors' union gave him the necessary managerial skills.

What about Peter Costello? Is a union-busting barrister really the qualified to manage a trillion dollar economy? (The Libs tried an actual economist in Prof. John Hewson, and look where that got them.)

Come to think of it, an awful lot of Tory politicians have a background in the law or small business - neither involves managing in-the-large. Maybe Dr. Nelson's view that only corporate financiers can provide real leadership is his back-handed declaration of support for Malcolm Turnbull as PM!