I don't care what changes are made to legislation to help make homosexuality more acceptabel and to prevent abuse and discrimination as long as:

1. they do not usurp the world "marriage" for homosexual partners (or whatever term other than "marriage" is acceptable to them).

2. It is not used to find ways to restrict freedom of speech, individual's freedom to hold and express divergent opinions, and freedom of the Church to preach Judo-Christian values, morals and ethics.

3. It is not giving those who call themselves 'Progressives' another weapon to use to block progress push their socialist agendas and divert attention from what is most important for the various levels of governments of the country to be focusing on, such as:

1. Defence of the nation and its interests
2. the economy,
3, freedom of speech and other genuine human rights (not the UN HR Commissioner' interpretation on human rights)
4. free trade, globalisation, fair competition policy,
5. Fixing the corruption in the Unions and Labor (which is controlled by the unions and it's politicians have been groomed by and have the integrity, ethics, moral values and culture of the union leaders who groomed them)
6. Fixing IR policy so Australia's businesses and industries can become more competitive and we all benefit from faster GDP growth and thus faster rising standard of living for everyone (better Health, Education, Infrastructure, etc.)

I recognise the "Progressives" and socialists don't understand any of this.

I think you might have the wrong thread Peter?

I was recently discussing the university experience with a friend who has, amongst other qualifications, an MBA and he made this view:

"University takes too long to learn too little, I don't believe I used 5% of what I had to do in my masters."

The Higher education sector is a joke. All of the curriculum and course work is designed to sell textbooks by those who are academics. Journal articles also are used as readings to provide an income for academics who wouldn't be paid for their work by anyone but other academics.

I will believe that higher education takes education and teaching seriously when a degree can be completed in half the time that it currently does. A full time student is only studying for 26 weeks a year. What a joke.

The main problem is the change of emphasis from a properly funded essential service to an often outsourced salable commodity? Now the emphasis seems to revolve around the profit motive rather than world beating excellence?

And we seem to be moving by degrees to, largely not worth the paper they're written on, commodified credentials. And the obvious pun was intended.

I don't know what the answer is, save it and our best possible future, isn't in the direction we're heading!

We need to get back to what worked, with the mantra, if it ain't broke don't (commodify/americanize) fix it.
Rhrosty.

Here here! A succinct account of the current situation Joanne and refreshing to here from one who has come from a position of management from within.

The emperor is naked and the elephant in the higher-ed room is industrial relations. Why is it not on the agenda for discussion? It effects every aspect of University business from research productivity to teaching quality. Australian Universities have become a haven for under-performing malcontents who are not subject to the same performance standards or accountability as those in the other industries. Worse still is the minority of high performing academics, those whose intelligence and behaviour grants them the right to hold their positions, who disengage as a form of protection against the mis-managed machine.

The productivity, behaviour and policies of our politicians is afforded much debate and publicity. I wonder what the general tax paying public would make of the shambolic state of our Universities, protectorate of the incompetent, neutered by the out-dated stand over tactics of an irrelevant union? You think a few thousand dollars spent on a private trip for a politician is news? Try the millions, and millions, AND MILLIONS squandered on the salaries of academics who should be managed out, wasted by HR departments and on external consultants taking woeful internal climate measures that are never addressed, and paid out to malcontents in private back door deals to avoid the murky waters of the IR system governing our education sector.