The ACCC and Compulsory Competition

Just as well Graeme Samuel and the ACCC are looking out for my interests by blocking the roll out of a fibre-optic network. Telstra's refusal to build it is nothing more than a unreasonable dummy-spit. What business could be unhappy about a couple of bureaucrats with a spreadsheet setting prices for competitor access to its investment? Without the ACCC's steely intervention, Telstra could have tricked me into handing over monopoly rents for a high-speed internet connection!

In this same spirit of competition regulation, I look forward to picking up a cost-controlled Subway sandwich from McDonalds' drive-through network, The Bulletin in next weekend's Age delivery (at government-set prices) and a DVD from the regulator-mandated "Blockbuster Booth" at the back of my local Video-Ezy.

Outsourcing and IT Careers

It would be a shame if young Australians reading your report on outsourcing/offshoring (The Age, 21/8/2006) concluded that there are no longer careers in IT. On the contrary, when an input to business (like the IT function) gets cheaper, businesses will buy more.

Writing software and monitoring hardware can be done overseas, but the analysis, project management, design, integration and other high-value work will continue to be close to the client, right here. Further, Australia is paid to educate thousands of Indian IT professionals. The global trade in services is not a zero-sum game but an opportunity to bring people together and enrich lives.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

Of course history requires interpretation! When astronomers are debating (and voting on) a bald fact like the number of planets in the solar system (The Age, 17/8/2007), surely we can handle subjectivity around supposed facts like "Australia was discovered in 1770" or "Australia fought in Vietnam to stop communism".

I doubt that the educated, conservative politicians who push the idea of a "neutral" view of our past are really that naive. More likely, they are seeking political advantage by exploiting suspicion of teachers.

Commercial Tendering of Political Access

I object to The Age headline "Bracks ministers sold to business leaders for $7500 a head" (The Age, 15/8/2006). This is misleading and unfair - those ministers were rented out at a competitive daily rate, in a transparent commercial transaction. Victoria's taxpayers had every opportunity to submit a rival bid.

AFL And Fair Comment

If the AFL is so concerned about having its brand "trashed", why doesn't it look at coaches' reluctance - or inability - to sanction players for off-field misbehaviour and criminality?

The Prescription For Medical Marketing

It's difficult to imagine that repeated, international, multi-billion dollar marketing initiatives routinely fail - yet that is what doctors ask us to believe when they claim immunity to infection from "Big Pharma's" spin. This over-confidence (and unreliable self-diagnosis) is expected, since doctors are experts in human physiology and disease, not business, psychology or the pathology of this insidious strain of advertising.

What's more worrying is the lack of self-awareness or understanding of their own susceptibility. This means that many doctors unwittingly expose themselves to dangerous exposure levels without taking reasonable precautions.

The remedy? Since the contagion is so deeply ingrained, simply cutting it out would jeopardise the entire system. Without surgery, we'll have to fall back on early broad spectrum inoculation for trainee doctors, ongoing monitoring of the population and, if wanton recklessness persists, quarantining the carriers.

Eddie's Performance Management

Eddie won't be "boning" Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson; they'll have to play on since they "owe" fans and the club. In other news, Family Feud, Dancing on Ice and Business Sunday will air indefinitely in prime time, since they "owe" viewers and advertisers.