The best way to boost the economy is to improve the lives of deprived students

By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW - Monday, December 3rd, 2018

What if we had an opportunity to double the size of the tourism industry, or to quadruple the size of the beef industry, or to boost the economy by more than any of the presently proposed tax switches?

What if we could do it while permanently improving the lives of disadvantaged young people?

We surely wouldn’t let it slip away.

MacGibbon: cyber catastrophe is society’s ‘greatest existential threat’ right now

By Stephen Easton - Monday, December 3rd, 2018

If you think cyber risk management is not the end of the world you are dead wrong, according to the federal government’s top adviser on these matters.

Alastair MacGibbon thinks a potentially cataclysmic cyber security failure is “the greatest existential threat we face as a society today” and the relevant authorities have not been taking it seriously enough.

He told delegates at last week’s National Investigations Symposium — who came mostly from regulatory, law enforcement and public sector integrity agencies, as well as internal integrity units — that “cyber-related evidence” would soon become integral in most of their investigations.

Australia’s surveillance laws could damage internet security globally, overseas critics say

By ABC Science technology reporter Ariel Bogle - Monday, December 3rd, 2018

Australia’s new technology surveillance laws are drawing increasing scrutiny from international privacy groups and technology companies.

Crimes, smartphone applications and data can cross borders thanks to the internet, and the proposed legislation is part of a push to allow authorities greater access to suspects’ secure messages.

“The lack of access to encrypted communications presents an increasingly significant barrier for national security and law enforcement agencies,” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said when introducing the bill to parliament in mid-September.

I think I am, therefore I am, I think

By Ted Smillie - Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

“Scepticism is an attitude that treats every claim to truth as up for debate. Religion, philosophy, science, history, psychology – generally, sceptics believe every source of knowledge has its limits, and its up to us to figure out what those are.” So says a 05 October 2018 article by The Ethics Centre, Ethics Explainer: Scepticism, […]