Who needs Chicken Little when we’ve got…..

Who needs Chicken Little when you’ve got The Age’s Peter Hartcher.

On March 7 The Age front page (also in the SMH) was devoted to an illustration of a massive red map of China with war planes flying towards Australia and a banner – Red Alert.

The basis for the story was a series of interviews with a panel of five experts (that’s right five) “brought together by The Age for a special review of Australia’s national security, who blew away the fog of war to give Australians some critical points of insight.” You got the cliches as a bonus apparently. read more

Writers Victoria 2015 Annual Report Patron’s Introduction

It has been some decades since the arts community was last under such pressure from government cutbacks; ideological attacks; and attempts to undermine peer-reviewed assessments of funding needs.

This puts pressure on both large and small arts organisations and for many their survival is at risk. Writers’ Victoria is not immune from these pressures. But what is remarkable is the resilience it has shown; the fact that it now has the largest membership in the organisation’s history; and, that it is experiencing – and meeting – strong and growing demand for its services and courses. read more

RMIT PR Program 25th anniversary prize-giving 2014

A few weeks ago I was at the PRIA Conference in Adelaide to attend the annual Fellows Dinner

I was sitting opposite someone who has been in the industry for about as long as me – which incidentally is about 20 years more than the RMIT program has been in existence. Like a few of the older members of the industry who seem to think the past was better than the present he was bemoaning the quality of students coming into the industry and holding forth, while waving a glass of wine, on their shortcomings. read more