by cameron | Sep 17, 2007 | Australian media, Australian politics, Podcast
My guest today is one of Australia’s highest profile barristers and human rights advocates – Julian Burnside QC. He is also the current President of Liberty Victoria, also known as the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties Inc, an independent non-government organisation committed to the defence and extension of human rights and civil liberties.
I have been appalled by the way Australia’s Government has acted over the last decade in the Tampa crises, the situation with refugee internment and the recent Haneef case. The legislation which enshrines these acts in law is extremely disturbing. So I invited Julian onto the show in order to help me understand how we got here, to affirm why we should all be very concerned, and to ask him if he thinks Australia, the only country among advanced liberal democracies which doesn’t have a Bill Of Rights, needs one.
In answer to the question about why we need a Bill Of Rights, Burnside points to the case of Al-Kateb v Godwin. I had never heard of it before and I’m guessing many of you won’t have either. It relates to a finding by The High Court, in 2004, that unsuccessful asylum seekers who could not be removed to another country despite their wish to leave Australia could be held in immigration detention indefinitely. As Burnside puts it “someone who has not committed a crime and has no charges against them, can be held in jail permanently”.
Is this the country we want to have?
You can find Julian Burnside’s website here and Liberty Victoria’s e-membership programme here.
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
I’ve created a couple of groups inside Second Life. You can now add yourself to the following groups:
Friends Of G’Day World
MODM
The Podcast Network
If I knew how to link directly to those groups from here, I would. But I don’t. So for now you just need to search for them in-world. Or you can add “Cameron Switchblade” to your friends and check out the groups I belong to.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
You can show your love by buying me stuff from my Amazon wish list.
Add me to your Twitter account.
You might DIGG the show.
Get the TPN version of Particls.
Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Sep 11, 2007 | Podcast, Public Relations
Sigh… here we go again… it seems the people from 2Clix haven’t attended any of my talks over the last couple of years where I have explained why jumping the gun and suing a blog/forum/podcast for a couple of negative comments about your company/product/people is just plain STUPID.
I heard about this via Daniel Bowen’s GEEK RANT blog (well via his Twitter post actually) but the original story is up here on Whirlpool.
Here is the substance of the blog post on Whirlpool:
Whirlpool founder Simon Wright is being sued by accounting software firm 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 118 044 198) for alleged “injurious falsehood”.
The Statement of Claim from the company alleges that Simon Wright allowed statements “relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious” to be published on the Whirlpool forums.
2Clix is suing for at least $150,000 (plus costs), and is demanding that two forum threads be removed from the site.
Whirlpool believes the action has no merit and will defend the matter vigorously, despite being a community website with little resources.
Does anyone remember Warren Kremer Paino Advertising? The same thing I said to them back in April 2006 I say now to the folks at 2Clix:
Take some free advice – retract the charges and get on with business. This is a no win situation for your company. You will forever tarnish your reputation. Every time someone Googles your company in the future all they are going to read about is how you sued a small-time online forum over a couple of negative comments. This isn’t a winnable situation for you. Your Googlerank will be screwed FOREVER. No amount of money can buy it back. Bail out now.
You’ve got two choices:
1. You can pursue this matter and try suing the entire blogosphere who will comment on it. It won’t even matter if you win against Whirlpool – there will be ten thousand blogs talking about the case.
2. You can accept that negative feedback is a part of doing business and learn how to manage the online process effectively. Call me (+61 400455334). I can advise you.
Oh and everyone else – you can digg the original Whirlpool post here.
technorati tags: 2clix, whirlpool
by cameron | Sep 11, 2007 | Melbourne, technology
About a week ago I tried to open my Acer Travelmate Tablet PC and noticed the little hinge where the screen attaches to the base was broken. No idea how it happened. Wear and tear I guess. I’ve had this machine for two and a half years. Now I can’t open the screen up at all. So I took it into Acer’s repair joint in Melbourne last Thursday. When I realized this morning I hadn’t heard from them, I gave them a call. They told me they had assessed the unit and it would cost me $300 to get it repaired!
I only paid $1000 for the whole machine.
So I went in today to see the quote. Turns out, the replacement hinge will cost $120, there is $60 for labour, and the remaining $120 is to replace the whole upper casing. Why? Because I mentioned that the little latch that hooks the screen onto the base at the front was broken.
$240 for two little pieces of plastic. A quarter of the cost of the entire unit. Makes you wonder what the other pieces of the unit are worth. The screen? Hard drive? Memory? Apparently not as much as the hinge and latch. THAT’S where the big bucks are.
So I told them to forget it, there’s no way I’m paying $300 for two little bits of plastic on a 2.5 year old laptop. That’s highway robbery. I paid my $50 “assessment fee” and left.
Now I’m in the market for a new laptop. I’ve been fairly happy with the Lenovo desktop I bought earlier this year. It’s bloody quiet. Maybe I should get a Lenovo? On the other hand, perhaps it’s time I bit the bullet and went Mac? Is it that time?
Did I mention that I run the largest independent media company (by reach) in Australia? You’d think there would be a whole bunch of hardware companies wanting to buddy up to me….
by cameron | Sep 5, 2007 | Uncategorized
Here’s something we don’t see very often in Australia – SNIPERS.
Nice shots courtesy of Hugo Sharp.
by cameron | Aug 22, 2007 | Melbourne, Podcast
Ryan Trainor started his first company, a Retail Security firm in 1997 at the age of 23. After three years he was servicing most major retailers in Australia, including Coles Myer and Woolworths, employing hundreds of staff and regarded as a key innovator of change in the security personnel industry. He sold to a large Multi National in 2000.
Since then, Ryan has founded grown several businesses, is the past President for the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) in Melbourne, Australia and is now a partner in the NinetyDaysâ„¢ Agency, a group of entrepreneurs who specialise in assisting early stage, high growth companies and is the co founder of JOOCED media.
Become part of the G’Day World conversation.
I’ve created a couple of groups inside Second Life. You can now add yourself to the following groups:
Friends Of G’Day World
MODM
The Podcast Network
If I knew how to link directly to those groups from here, I would. But I don’t. So for now you just need to search for them in-world. Or you can add “Cameron Switchblade” to your friends and check out the groups I belong to.
If you’re a member of Facebook, you can ADD ME AS A FRIEND and then ADD YOURSELF TO THE G’DAY WORLD GROUP.
Add me to your Twitter account.
Do me a solid and digg the show.
Get the TPN version of Particls.
Don’t forget to make use of my new comments line – +613 9016 9699.
You can now buy transcripts of this podcast from Pods In Print.
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed and leave us a voice comment!
The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
<img src="http://www.addthis.com/images/button2-bm.png" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button" border="0"
