Last night I had the opportunity to witness a real debate. The occasion was an IQ2 debate at Melbourne Town Hall. Six experts – three on each side – took turns to argue for and against the proposition that Australia should embrace nuclear power. The highlight of the evening was that, according to before and after polling, a large proportion of the audience made up their mind on the issue on the night. In other words, the debate held real sway.
This is a situation which has become all too rare.
Back when I was at school, the concept of debate was as it is defined. Formally, it was “a systematic contest of speakers in which two opposing points of view of a proposition are advanced”. Informally, it was a reasoned exchange of views. In both cases, the issue being debated held centre stage while the arguments danced around it. [click to continue…]
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Last June, in a moment of apparent weakness, I wrote a post in defence of our poor, struggling politicians. Perhaps tempered by that article, I have been resisting the urge to join the chorus of rants about the current batch of complete balls-ups by Australian governments, both federal and state. Then I read the astonishing and appalling must-read article by Canberra writer Myles Peterson in last weekend’s Fairfax press. I can resist no more.
Peterson describes his short experience as a speech-writer in the federal Health Department. He describes being head-hunted and employed despite having no relevant experience, being dropped into the job and assigned various ‘important’ tasks without any induction or training, and being involved in policy-on-the-run when the Prime Minister decided he needed a big health announcement at short notice.
In short, if you can imagine the most outrageous scenarios of Yes Minister or The Hollowmen being amplified ten fold, you might come close to the real life public service world described by Myles Peterson. [click to continue…]
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I've been work- ing in business, one way or another, for the last 20 years, and writing for the last ten. My main interest now is to get messages across - yours and mine - in a readable and approachable fashion. 
