Writer
Francesca Beddie
Francesca Beddie is a former diplomat. She was general manager research at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research from 2007 to 2013. She is editor of Australian Garden History and co-editor of Circa, the journal of Professional Historians Australia. She is the author of A differentiated model for tertiary education: past ideas, contemporary policy and future possibilities.
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A university career is no longer the best way to channel a fine mind
A friend of mine resigned from her university job in February 2024 just weeks before term started. She couldn’t face another year. She was old enough to retire but I had thought she might have a couple more years of teaching in her. The bureaucracy, the rules, lowering standards were too much. Another friend, an Continue reading »
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Vale Bill Hayden, a dedicated foreign minister
Bill Hayden’s five years as foreign minister have received some attention in the week since his death. However, there’s more to say about his contribution to an independent foreign policy that allowed its diplomats to hold their heads high. Continue reading »
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Truth-telling with Walpiri people at the heart of new opera
Jack Waterford warned recently that ‘it’s time to get fair dinkum, or the Voice proposal will lose momentum and support’. A way to do that is by taking a two-way approach to telling shared stories. That’s what the composer Anne Boyd is doing as she creates a musical language for the Australian landscape. Her new Continue reading »
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It’s time to ditch the hierarchy of tertiary education
Education and training carry a heavy weight of expectation in policy development. They are cited as the pathway to prosperity and productivity, a key to innovation and to international competitiveness. Less and less often are they mentioned as the foundation for a healthy and harmonious citizenry. Continue reading »
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I grieve for Russia, which is not the same as Putin
Russia got under my skin early. Continue reading »
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The larrikin: a symbol of our fractured political landscape
It is a matter of despair that Australian politics has become all about faux larrikinism, leaving much of the population marginalised by bad policy. Continue reading »
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Don’t forget the plight of Afghans in Australia
Further to Stuart Rees’ eloquent exposure of the Prime Minister’s cruelty toward those Afghans already in Australia on temporary visas, below is my letter to the Prime Minister arguing for a more humane and pragmatic asylum seeker policy. Pragmatic because times have changed – the boats are no longer coming – and because among those temporary protection Continue reading »
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Humans unite: We badly need more than gestures
Dave Sharma’s token gesture on International Women’s Day, handing out single pink dahlias to female commuters, reminded me of my days in Moscow. Continue reading »
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Will we ever be satisfied with less?
I can’t imagine the old normal returning unaltered after COVID-19 but worry that the rush towards a new normal will entail too much focus on growth and profits and not enough on caring for the vulnerable and the environment. If that happens, we will have squandered an opportunity to reset how we value health, work Continue reading »
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Higher education reform: use and abuse of Menzies
Announcing his plans for university reform on 19 June, the minister for education, Dan Tehan, did as many of his predecessors have done. He invoked Robert Menzies. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Tertiary education after COVID-19: part two
Are we finally seeing the end of the Dawkins era? If so, what next? Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Tertiary education after COVID-19. Part 1
One thing COVID-19 has done is shatter laborious bureaucratic reform processes that so often breed inertia rather than change. I marvel at how quickly education systems have adapted to the lockdown. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Australia Day: the occasion for collective mourning.
In early January, the leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, suggested the first sitting day of Federal Parliament for 2020 be devoted to marking the unprecedented bushfire crisis. That got me thinking about Australia Day. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Bushfire Haiku
These catastrophic times call for different responses to the festive season. Mine is below. The community reaction in our part of the Southern Highlands (as yet untouched by fire) has been heartening. Donations are flowing, people are looking out for each other, and even grey-haired respectably clad ladies are openly railing about the lack of Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The Golden Country, Australia’s Changing Identity.
I follow migration matters closely, so Tim Watt’s survey of the White Australia Policy and subsequent immigration policy was familiar territory. For those who don’t, there is much to recommend in the story he tells and his demonstration of the economic benefits of skilled migration. But his analysis has flaws. Continue reading »
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Vocational education in an election climate: it’s time to be bold
The Labor Party is being bold, putting reformist policies before the voter. It has proposed a comprehensive inquiry into post-secondary education. If it gets to undertake that inquiry, I hope it will keep being bold and be prepared to restructure rather than just fiddle with a system that was shaped in the 1970s in very Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE: Beyond Anzac: a multicultural Australia needs a multicultural history
I recently attended a history conference in Wellington, New Zealand, which posed the question After the War, What Next? My answer was that we need a transnational approach to telling history, which presents the complexity of global influences that have informed decisions about nation building and which resonates with Australia’s multicultural community. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The common-sense test for assessing research applications.
In 2014, the last year for which complete data is available on the Australian Research Council’s website, 20.7 per cent of applications for research grants were successful; 1,417 grants were made, at a cost of $1,018,017,312. The Australian taxpayer deserves to know if sums of such magnitude are being well allocated. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Renewing democracy must include honing public servants on the job.
These days, opinion polls and surveys provide the basis for many a proclamation about the state of the world. According to the 2018 Lowy Institute Poll, only 47% of Australians between 18 and 44 years of age say ‘democracy is preferable to any other kind of government’. As someone who still thinks of democracy as Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Wanted: politicians who inspire and creative public policy (Part 2 of 2)
I watched Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake again recently. Again, I cried. A sick bloke with talent and decency ends up dead before he can argue his case to be treated not as a client, customer, service user or national insurance number but as a citizen, no more no less. Surely our citizens can Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. Wanted: politicians who inspire and creative public policy (Part 1 of 2)
I watched Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake again recently. Again, I cried. A sick bloke with talent and decency ends up dead before he can argue his case to be treated not as a client, customer, service user or national insurance number but as a citizen, no more no less. Surely our citizens can Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. What do we mean by Australia Day?
All the talk about Australia Day – what it symbolises, for whom and when we should celebrate – prompted me to delve into the history of the date, which has long been contentious. Before we lock in the date, we need to decide what we want our national day to commemorate. Continue reading »
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FRANCESCA BEDDIE. The way ahead for VET
The Productivity Commission’s five-year review, Shifting the Dial, recommends reforms in vocational education and training (VET). These are based on ‘the key premise…that skills formation is one of the central pillars for productivity improvement, even if its benefits are not immediately realised’. That caveat is important: neither skills acquisition nor other knowledge gains are easily Continue reading »
