27 April 2025

When I'm 65...

The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines anyone over 65 as old. You don’t qualify for the means tested old age pension for two more years, and when politicians talk of ageing, they focus on nursing homes and care, dementia and falls. Ageing policy is confused and confusing.

14 April 2025

There is no future without children

Imagine a world without children, a world steadily depopulating like that in the dystopian novel by P.D. James, Children of Men.

7 April 2025

‘Adolescence’, misogyny and the power of television

Rarely does a television series stop you in your tracks, through the heartbreaking power of its content and the creative process employed in its making. Such is the Netflix series from the UK titled Adolescence.

24 November 2024

It can’t happen here

The novel It Can’t Happen Here, written by Sinclair Lewis was published in 1935 during the rise of fascism in Europe. It tells the story of Berzelius Buzz Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear, and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and traditional values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via a self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force.

20 September 2024

The road to hell is paved with good intentions: Do not ban social media for kids

Social media platforms allow users to interact with others, have conversations, share information and create web content. There are many forms, including games, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, instant messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and more. So, with the government considering a ban on social media for children where do we start this impossible task?

20 June 2023

The ageing challenge: navigating the pandemic, technology, and identity politics

Ten years ago, I wrote a book titled In Praise of Ageing. I found there is strong evidence that our attitude to life influences our longevity. But the obstacles we face today make slouching towards Bethlehem seem like a walk in the park.

12 May 2023

Budget focus on primary health care; a missed opportunity for ageing Australia

We need a radical rethink of the way we structure a 100-year life.

19 September 2022

Queen Elizabeth II: The palace is winning the propaganda war

Queen Elizabeth II is dead and the Palace is working assiduously to shore up her legacy and the institution of Monarchy. Polls show they are winning the hearts and minds in a propaganda war, with the mass media complicit in its hyperbolic, adulatory, blanket coverage. Debates about the Monarchy are cancelled, demonstrators in the UK moved on by police, politicians universally agreeing it is not the time to question what the Monarchy represents. Tomorrow is another day as Scarlett OHara famously said. Meanwhile the Queens persona is emerging as heroic and mythical.

8 September 2022

The medium is the message: Marshall McLuhan saw the catastrophe coming

It is more than 50 years since the astute cultural critic Marshall McLuhan burst into the academic world with his perplexing insights into the meaning of communications and how they would affect mankind. He declaimed, The medium is the message. I had just turned 30 and was enrolled for an MA in the Stanford University Communications Department. I didnt understand what McLuhan meant, but as another popular truth at the time was, Dont trust anyone over thirty, I kept my mouth shut and listened.

17 July 2022

Thinking outside the age care trap

Too much of our thinking about aged care is based on outmoded assumptions. It is argued that ageing Baby Boomers will cost the economy dearly, when in fact it is the policy taken that has caused a crisis. Change is essential, for todays Millennials, facing a century-long life, will be an even larger aged cohort. There are many variations on the story but at the core is a fundamental problem. We have achieved the remarkable medical feat of prolonging life by two or three decades but have done practically nothing to restructure a 100-year life.

7 July 2022

A radical future for ABC childrens television programs

Now that the new Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland is considering a review of the whole broadcasting sector, the lid might be lifted on failures in the system for children. Among all the resets needed for the digital age, the ABC should be charged with the mission for children it should have been on for the last 50 years.

5 July 2022

In our identity culture wars is the ABC promoting cohesion or pulling us further apart?

The Western world is undergoing a war between cultures and ideologies with the future uncertain. David Anderson the Managing Director claims, the ABC nurtures social cohesion and national unity. But, in their attempt to be inclusive, is the organisation having the opposite effect and contributing to the spread of contagion and a tyranny of the minorities where individuals are eager to take offence?

3 July 2022

Happy Birthday ABC. Where are you going now?

The ABC celebrates its 90th birthday June 30th this year. There are few Australians alive today who were here at the birth. So, it is timely to ask what the future of our public broadcaster is, particularly given the BBC, its model and guiding star, is in trouble.

10 June 2021

Ageism and the secret to living a long life.

The Archibald is 100 and Peter Wegner has won the 2021 prize for his portrait of 100-year-old artist Guy Warren who commented, One hundred years is a hell of a lot of experience. Ive survived the Great Depression, a war, Ive survived serious medical difficulties and Ive survived COVID touch wood. The secret to living a long life is you just have to keep living.

4 April 2021

Anything goes, in Canberra

Share your truth. It is your power Grace Tame, Australian of the Year 2021.

28 July 2020

The Power of Attorney and abuse of the elderly

Australia has a long way to go and COVID is lifting the scab revealing how neglect and absolute indifference have exposed these communities of older people to an end of life nightmare.

7 July 2020

Humanities Fightback: CASSH Skills VS STEM.

Just how do Universities respond to Minister Tehans diabolical plan to neuter the brainpower of the next generation through engineering their debt burden by more than doubling fees for Humanities Degrees?

25 June 2020

Proposed University Funding is Policy Ideological Vandalism

Minister Tehans targeted university funding proposal is part of an ongoing government plan to destroy the hotbeds of left-wing ideological fervour seen as centred in arts and social science faculties.

7 April 2020

PATRICIA EDGAR. Education and Entertainment after COVID-19

COVID-19 has let the genie out of the bottle. Education and entertainment will not return to their traditional forms.

29 March 2020

PATRICIA and DON EDGAR. Who is expendable? Ethics in an age of a pandemic

In 1651, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, writing about the social contract, warned that without a strong central government man reverts to his natural state of self-interest and life is solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short. The West has rejected Hobbes philosophy and we have seen the erosion of strong central government across decades. And the school girl with her school bag.

19 May 2019

PATRICIA and DON EDGAR Family Views the Election Results

Last Saturday evening we sat as a family to view the election results. There were four grandchildren present, aged 18 to 24 who had voted that day and taken their decisions seriously. They were waiting to see how the evening would unfold. They are rightly concerned about their future, particularly climate change, and as the votes came rolling in they watched in disbelief. One leader had offered them a detailed plan for their future, the other had run around the country, behaving like a clown, spouting slogans: Cut taxes, I stopped the boats, Kill Bill, How good is that? Yet...

7 April 2019

DON AND PATRICIA EDGAR. Universities as Failed Critics

Back in 1997, Mark Davis complained that the Baby Boomers were monopolising public comment and should make way for the next generation meaning him to lead us out of Gangland to a new generationalism. Weve heard little since and the key public intellectuals are still (as in Pearls & Irritations) those cultural elites he bemoaned, from the Baby Boom years. In an era when we have more graduates than ever before, informed social critique is in serious decline.

12 March 2019

PATRICIA & DON EDGAR. The Farce Called Community consultation.

Yarra City Council touts community consultation as part of its resident-friendly credentials. But our recent experience suggests the process is a farce. It demonstrates why public disillusionment with government and a bureaucratic process is at an all time high for transparency is completely lacking.

5 December 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The Case for Regulation of Australian Childrens content (Part 3).

In the dynamic media environment we have in Australia, broadcasting regulation has become an exceptionally tricky exercise. If regulations are to work, they require creative application and on-going monitoring as commercial players will always seek to outmanoeuvre them, especially when they affect programming decisions. Bureaucracies move slowly. It takes time to define, then to pass legislation and once regulations are in place, too often assumptions are made that the job is done. That may be the case in legislating for seat belts or banning smoking in public spaces, but when the desired outcome is a cultural, educational purpose, where judgments...

4 December 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: The programs and projects children want to see (Part 2).

Children are now on the move. Their phone is their companion for reaching out to friends, texting, referencing, looking up what they want and need to know, viewing YouTube, playing games, taking photos and videos. They can click through whats on offer: a cornucopia from which they are learning and having fun. They have led the way in showing tech companies how versatile a smart phone can be. They go online for a myriad of purposes and attracting their attention for any length of time is a challenge. Yes they enjoy stories but they are looking for diversity and innovation.

3 December 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Technology is not the enemy. The Need for Positive Media Literacy (Part 1).

The Information-technology Revolution is challenging the assumptions on which the education of children and the provision of their entertainment are based. The doomsayers argue the big companies Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, et al. despite their rhetoric of preventing evil and promoting global togetherness - are in fact exacerbating inequality, poverty, unemployment, invasion of privacy, breakdown in social cohesion, supporting political disruption and Donald Trump.

2 December 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Kids Technology and the Future: Radical revamp needed for Childrens TV content quotas.

Todays kids are way ahead of our broadcasting regulators and television producers in the way they use both television and digital media. Its time for a radical rethink of content regulations, quotas, and subsidy for childrens media education and entertainment in their best interest.

27 July 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. The Nine Entertainment Cos takeover of Fairfax

The proposed Nine Entertainment Cos takeover of Fairfax would be a disaster for journalism and for Australia. Malcolm Turnbulls changes to the 30 year-old cross- media rule means one owner can control print, radio and television in one market. Of course this will result in serious loss of diversity in information. That it is Nine that will take control of Fairfax is spine chilling. It is a devastating outcome for those Fairfax journalists who have dedicated their careers to accurately informing readers who value objective professional reporting.

5 July 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. The ABC, Facebook and the Meaning of Trust

Trust is an interesting concept. It takes time to develop trust which results from a broad experience of something (or someone) which demonstrates consistent, reliable behavior with integrity, ability, and surety; it involves confident expectation. But trust can be lost irretrievably, quite quickly. Trust allows for mistakes if they are dealt with openly and honestly. It does not forgive manipulation, dishonesty and betrayal.

4 July 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. Going Round the Twist with Telstra and the NBN Co

NBN Co claims their focus remains strongly on improving customer experience on the network including a smooth connection to the network. In fact the experience is a fiasco.

25 June 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. The Circus that has been Government Policy on the ABC for Forty Years

The ABC has been an extraordinarily resilient organisation. It has withstood management and Board upheavals, survived remorseless budget cuts and harassment. But the current attacks on staff and on its role are as overt and vicious as they have ever been. Many of those who were imbued with ABC values have died or moved on. The biggest fear to friends of the ABC today is inertia. This current attack will not be solved by quiet negotiation. The Governments tactics are neither rational nor honest. This has to be a vocal public fight and once the dangers are understood the public...

17 April 2018

PATRICIA EDGAR. The Death of Australian Childrens Broadcast Television Programming.

How many times must it be said that if we do not take action Australian childrens programming will disappear from our screens?

28 September 2017

PATRICIA EDGAR AND DON EDGAR. Aged care will be a different ballgame -the risks of commercialisation.

There is an obvious conflict of interests in any care industry where profits have to be made and returned to shareholders, rather than ploughed back into better care. Profit is never a good incentive for the common good. Its easier to cut back on staff, food quality, proper supervision and social activity for those in care, while ramping up schemes that confuse people about entry and exit costs in aged care homes and deny families peace of mind and financial justice. Lack of enforcement of proper standards means the providers too often get away with it.