u/dannydb

A few years back myself and several of my colleagues lost our long-term jobs suddenly due to budget cut backs at the organisation we were working at.

Fast forward to now and several of the folks are struggling to find stable work.

I seemed to have lucked out and have been able to be gainfully employed since then but it hasn’t been without its ups and downs.

I’m wondering, do folks that work in coops feel less concern about losing their job? Assuming we’re taking about honest hard workers that turn up regularly and always put in their best effort.

I’m thinking that if this is the case, coops might contribute to lower stress levels in society simply due to the fact that people would feel more like they are part of a supportive work-focussed community rather than a disposable cog in someone else’s machine.

I suppose however there is also the economic reality that if the coop has a lean period or experiences a downturn then everyone’s income might need to reduce for a while. I guess that would contribute to increased stress levels in some cases?

Would love to hear about the experiences and feelings of people working in coops themselves…

Sorry if this is a weird question. I’ve tried calculating this myself a few times by trying to average the inputs of each party but I keep getting a little bit lost part way through.

Ok… the context. You have a group of people that are to split an amount of money together. Just assume a small team, and, say, $100 (it could be any amount - I picked this for ease of calculation).

i.e. there is 100% initially and this needs to be shared to each person via percentage split so that it all gets distributed and nothing is leftover.

Each person gets to nominate what percentage they want. And each person also gets to nominate their opinion of what percentage each other person should get.

The question… is it possible to calculate a percentage split for each person, based on these nominated wants and opinions combined so that a final set of percentages get allocated to each person fairly?

In case you haven't listened to it yet, do yourself a favour and set aside one hour to listen to Madonna's new album, Confessions II, from start to finish.

Whether or not you're into dance/pop/house, this album is really well produced. It takes you on a little listening journey that you don't get very often.

The whole thing has been designed as a single set to be played in order, and it's great.

If you are actually into Madonna's style of music, then you'll probably appreciate the nuance and variety within each track.

Oh, and while you're there, you've just got to give respect to someone who can produce a banging set of new music given, well, to be polite about it, a significant amount of experience in the music industry.

After just having watched it at the cinema tonight, I can honestly say: I loved it!

I went into it with a little trepidation after hearing some not so flattering reviews. So much so that I almost decided to not bother and wait until it was out on streaming.

Man, I’m so glad I didn’t wait and decided to see it on the big screen.

Ok, so fair’s fair, it didn’t have some of the things that you would usually have in a Star Wars feature film. But, what it did have it was true to form.

The Mandalorian and Grogu has…

- action-o-plenty
- rolling battles
- freakish alien creatures
- Hutts being huttish
- Imperial Walkers reminding us yet again how confusing they are as a choice of mech for the Empire due to their obvious limitations and weaknesses, but at this stage in the life of the SW saga we’ve learned to accept that Empire baddies will never learn this particular lesson, to the advantage of the Rebel Scum

Oops, I got a little side-tracked there. Back to the list now. It has…

- joyful side-kick characters
- good vs evil
- a short X-wing fight, with bonus old school targeting computer cameo appearance
- moments that make you sad, some that have you scared, and some that have you almost cheering

Need I go on. I should probably stop before I risk treading into spoiler territory.

Look, I get it, there was probably a little bit missing in terms of depth in the context of broader galaxy politics. But this wasn’t meant to be that type of story. This was the story of Mando and Grogu. And if you go in with that in mind, you’ll get exactly that: a lovely, fun, exciting adventure that will leave you with a smile. If you’re anything like me, you’ll walk out thinking that Grogu has a bright future ahead of him and Mando might want to book himself a holiday for a little R&R.

Oh, I almost forgot. It was pretty cool having Zeb around. He really became part of the Star Wars family in Rebels so having him get in on the action here was a nice touch.

Do yourself a favour. Go and see it at the cinema. The sound effects are excellent and the immersion you get with the big screen is unlike anything you’d get at home.

I’m glad I went. I hope there’s plenty more Star Wars stories to come.

Hi folks,

Any suggestions of a physical copy of something to buy a lover of SciFi books as a gift?

Sub-genres they're into appear to be Space Opera, Cyberpunk, Social SF, Weird & Experimental SF.

They tend to get a lot of their books temporarily via the library or ebooks, but I'd like to get them something that is a decent read and will also be a nice keepsake for the shelf.

It would be a local bookstore that I'd be purchasing from, so I'm assuming the options for choice will be mainly what is currently available commercially, as opposed to hard-to-find treasures.

Thankfully, they recently shared with me a list of books that they have already read (which is what inspired me to come up with this as a gift idea) so I'll be able to make an informed choice depending on what ideas come up.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts...

Auto-save of draft comments when switching from a post to a search results feed and back to the post would be such a cool feature on mobile.

Here’s the scenario… on mobile, run a search, then from the search results feed, go to a post, start typing a comment, don’t hit publish, swipe away from the post / navigate back to the search results feed, then go back to the post you were previously on, go back to the comment field…

What would be nice… your draft comment was still there.

What I’ve seen happen: the text of the draft comment is gone.

I experienced this by accident, it was very uncool.

Upcoming changes to taxation policy around negative gearing and CGT discount will open a new chapter in Australian housing markets.

I’m pondering what types of changes and how much these changes might make over the years ahead.

Anyone care to join me on talking through the models, variables, etc. just for the fun of it? ie nerdy conversations purely about the economics?

I’ll start…

Putting aside goals of fixing inter-generational fairness, increasing revenue, etc.

It appears one of the goals of the changes was to reduce incentive for speculators to invest in existing properties while keeping the existing incentives to invest in new stock.

Will a proportion of investors switch from old/existing stock to new? Will current investors of new builds continue on? Will first-time investors keep turning up but focus now on new builds? Will the number of people that do this meaningfully change? Will we see relatively more people investing in new builds in the years ahead, or less, or about the same? Will we see a shift in the demand for purchase of new builds?

What about supply side? How does new-build developer behaviour change as a result? What are the speccy-builders going to do? What about the larger property developers?

With less people investing in existing stock, will we see demand for renovations change? Will this cause the demand for builders and other trades-people services to shift?

Depending on the demand for renovation of existing properties, I wonder if there will be a meaningful change in demand for materials? Enough to change prices? Or, will this just be picked up in new builds instead?

What about finance? We’ve already seen lending terms / capacity change. Will we see a shift in the supply of funding for new bullds? What’s the impact of this?

What else changes here. In what direction? What changes are shifts in curves vs movements along curves?

Thanks in advance to anyone that wants to join in.

Edit: I acknowledge there are lots of questions in this post.

We don’t have to answer them all though. Perhaps we just explore some of them, hypothetically, out of interest?

I’m more interested in brainstorming what might be possible for the sake of it, that’s all.

Auto-save of draft comments when switching from a post to a main feed and back to the post would be such a cool feature on mobile.

Here’s the scenario… on mobile, go to a post, start typing a comment, don’t hit publish, swipe away from the post / navigate back to a main feed, go back to the post you were previously on, go back to the comment field…

What would be nice… your draft comment was still there.

What I’ve seen happen: the text of the draft comment is gone.

From the ABC News article...

>Have you ever looked at a flower up close? 
>
>Or wondered how plants are pollinated?
>
>Many of us know that for seeds to be made, pollen “lands on a flower” but what happens next?

So we’ve been seeing various news articles lately about yet another failure or controversy in corporate governance in Australia.

It got me wondering just how wide-scale the issue is, so I ran a few searches and compiled a list of recent publicly reported issues related to problems of governance and leadership. As you’ll see below, the results are pretty shocking.

Scan over this list and you get the feeling that there is a pattern of bad behaviour. This isn’t just a short mention of few issues here and there. This is a bloody long list.

Clearly, there seems to be some sort of behavioural tension where, occasionally, a few people get appointed to governance roles and don’t *want* to do the right thing. They want to take some other position and they just dig in.

So, it begs the questions…

• WTF is going on with Corporate and Organisational Governance in Australia lately?

and

• What can be done about it?

Somewhat related to this, if we were to expand this list to include international issues, it would just be ridiculously huge.

What's going on with the current generation of leaders in Australia (and around the world) at the moment? Is it just that my eyes are opening up to something that has always been there, or are we in some sort of era of people just feeling like morals and socially accepted behaviours just don't apply to them?

At the risk of sounding like a hippy, while I sit here on a Sunday sipping on my oat-milk chai latte, why can't we all just chill out a bit and be cool to each other.

Peace ✌

\---

Apologies for the long list but I think the fact that it is so long is what prompted me to write the article here.

Organisation	Controversy
University of Sydney	Pro-Palestinian protest handling and academic freedom controversies
University of Sydney	Wage underpayment and governance failures
University of Melbourne	Wage theft scandal and governance criticism
University of Queensland	Research governance and workplace culture concerns
Monash University	Governance disputes over campus protests and speech policies
Australian National University	Governance crisis, secrecy allegations, restructuring backlash, leadership resignations
Queensland University of Technology	Academic freedom and governance disputes over race and speech controversies
Canberra Institute of Technology	CEO recruitment disclosure controversy and governance inquiry
Football Australia	Governance instability and factional disputes
Rugby Australia	High profile player sacking saga created governance and cultural
Cricket Australia	“Sandpapergate” governance collapse and leadership overhaul
Basketball Australia	Governance instability and leadership conflict
Hawthorn Football Club	Racism allegations and governance inquiry
West Coast Eagles	Drug culture and governance criticism
Swimming Australia	Leadership instability and athlete welfare controversies
Gymnastics Australia	Abuse allegations and systemic governance failures
Australian Olympic Committee	Transparency and governance disputes
Surf Life Saving NSW	Financial governance and leadership disputes
Australian Rugby Union	Historical governance turmoil and leadership instability
Returned and Services League (RSL NSW)	Branch corruption, factionalism, and governance breakdowns
St Basil’s Homes for the Aged	COVID governance failures in aged care
Returned and Services League of Australia	Branch corruption and governance disputes
Hillsong Church	Financial transparency, misconduct allegations, and concentration of authority
Catholic Church Australia	Institutional abuse cover-ups and systemic governance failures
St John Ambulance WA	Governance and workplace culture controversy
Adelaide Writers’ Week	Board accused of censorship after disinviting Randa Abdel-Fattah, triggering mass writer boycott and full festival collapse
Adelaide Festival	Entire board resigned amid governance backlash and political interference allegations
Bendigo Writers Festival	Festival controversy over cancellation and free-speech disputes involving politically contentious speakers
Sydney Festival	Boycotts over Israeli embassy sponsorship and accusations of politicisation
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	Cancellation of pianist Jayson Gillham performance sparked censorship and governance criticism
State Library Victoria	Leadership controversy over workplace culture and governance complaints
National Gallery of Australia	Governance scrutiny over sponsorships, restitution, and leadership decisions
Creative Australia	Venice Biennale artist controversy and accusations of political interference
Screen Australia	Criticism over funding governance, diversity policy, and political pressure
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)	Political interference allegations, managing director controversies, and editorial independence disputes
SBS	Editorial independence and governance criticism around Middle East coverage
Nine Entertainment	Toxic culture allegations and governance criticism following reviews into newsroom behaviour
Seven West Media	Workplace culture scandals and executive misconduct allegations
Network Ten	Leadership instability and editorial governance criticism
Crikey	Defamation battle with Lachlan Murdoch raised questions about media governance and risk management
PwC Australia	Tax leaks scandal and collapse of public trust in consulting governance
KPMG Australia	Conflict-of-interest and independence controversies
Deloitte Australia	Consulting ethics and procurement scrutiny
EY Australia	Audit independence and consulting governance concerns
Crown Resorts	Royal commissions uncovered systemic governance and money laundering failures
Star Entertainment Group	Casino governance collapse and regulatory intervention
AMP	Fees-for-no-service scandal and governance failures exposed by Royal Commission
Commonwealth Bank	AUSTRAC money laundering scandal and compliance failures
Westpac	Anti-money laundering breaches and governance failures
National Australia Bank	Banking misconduct and fee scandals
ANZ	Banking Royal Commission misconduct findings
Optus	Massive outage and cybersecurity governance criticism
Telstra	Privacy and governance scrutiny over customer handling
Medibank	Data breach and governance failure over cyber preparedness
Latitude Financial	Data breach exposing governance and risk-management weaknesses
RAMS Financial Group	ASIC action over systemic governance and supervision failures
iSignthis	ASX suspension, disclosure breaches, and ASIC penalties
Blue Sky Alternative Investments	Valuation concerns and collapse following governance scrutiny
Greensill Capital	Collapse linked to risk management and governance failures
Freedom Foods	Accounting irregularities and governance breakdown
Mayne Pharma	Executive departures and governance concerns
Statewide Super	Former executives charged with dishonesty offences
ASX Limited	CHESS replacement disaster and board oversight failures
Nuix	IPO governance controversy and shareholder litigation
WiseTech Global	Founder conduct allegations and board independence crisis
Mineral Resources	Related-party dealings and whistleblower governance concerns
Rio Tinto	Juukan Gorge destruction and governance failure over Indigenous heritage
BHP	Workplace culture and sexual harassment governance scrutiny
Fortescue	Leadership culture and governance criticism
Wiluna Mining Corporation	Misleading capital raising disclosures and collapse into administration
Qantas	“Ghost flights”, customer treatment, and executive accountability backlash
Virgin Australia	Leadership turmoil and failed governance during administration
Rex Airlines	Financial collapse and governance scrutiny
7-Eleven Australia	Wage theft scandal and franchise governance failures
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises	Underpayment allegations and workplace governance scrutiny
Woolworths Group	Workplace surveillance and pricing controversy
Coles Group	Supplier treatment and pricing governance criticism
Harvey Norman	JobKeeper controversy and executive remuneration criticism
Super Retail Group	CEO dismissed over undisclosed relationship and whistleblower allegations
Aristocrat Leisure	Gambling harm and governance criticism
New Hope Corporation	Environmental governance and political influence concerns
Worley	Corruption investigations and compliance concerns
Mighty Craft	Financial distress and governance failures
Panoramic Resources	Operational collapse and governance scrutiny
CFMEU	Alleged corruption, organised crime infiltration, and administration intervention
CSIRO	Workplace culture investigations and executive governance criticism
Australian War Memorial	Sponsorship controversy involving weapons manufacturers
Museums Victoria	Governance criticism over Indigenous representation and board decisions
Australia Post	Cartier watches scandal and executive spending controversy
RoboDebt Scheme	Illegal debt recovery program and catastrophic public-sector governance failure
PwC Government Contracts	Conflict-of-interest concerns across federal procurement systems
Robodebt Royal Commission	Findings of systemic failures in public administration and accountability
Australian Submarine Program (AUKUS / Collins)	Procurement governance and transparency concerns
NDIS Administration	Fraud, oversight, and governance capability criticism
SafeWork SA	Governance scrutiny following workplace safety controversies
Teal Independent Campaign Funding Structures	Transparency and governance concerns regarding political donations
NSW ICAC controversies	Political corruption investigations exposing governance failures across public institutions