Celebrating Australia’s welfare 2019—and a year of achievements

By Barry Sandison, CEO, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - Thursday, September 12th, 2019

It’s always a pleasure to see another of the AIHW’s flagship reports released—and this morning’s launch of Australia’s welfare 2019 is one to be particularly proud of.

This year, we’ve taken steps to modernise the format and presentation of Australia’s welfare. Rather than the large, printed book of the past, we’ve moved the majority of the analysis online, so users can explore in a more flexible, intuitive way. We’ve also restructured the content to ensure we’re always putting people and their experiences at the centre of the data. You can learn more about this on our website.

The way we think about national security needs to change

By Ewen Levick - Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

Forty years ago, Steve Jobs walked into a long concrete office building in Palo Alto, California. The building belonged to Xerox, the company that had recently invented the first ‘windows and mouse’ computer. Jobs saw the computer—the Xerox Alto—and was amazed. He thought the product was revolutionary. But why, he wondered, was Xerox not doing anything with it?

Spintronics: Physicists discover new material for highly efficient data processing

By Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg - Monday, September 9th, 2019

A new material could aid in the development of extremely energy efficient IT applications. The electrons at the oxide interface of the material possess special properties which drastically increase the conversion rate of spin current to charge current. The material is more efficient than any previously investigated material.

Fewer casual positions and less out-of-hours work could help retain early career teachers

By Michele Simons, Dean of Education, Western Sydney University, Anna Sullivan, Associate Professor of Education, University of South Australia, Bruce Johnson, University of South Australia - Monday, September 9th, 2019

Educating teachers who leave the profession early is a wasteful and inefficient use of public funds. Educational funding is diverted from school resources and facilities to recruitment and replacement.
Schools lose the expertise of new, high-achieving graduates and are destabilised and disrupted by any high staff turnover. Student learning can be compromised by this churn. It takes time for students to build relationships and adjust to learning with new teachers who are not guaranteed to be as expert as the ones they are replacing.