Invitations to the Australia 2020 Summit will be sent out next week. “The Government has reserved a right to make some appointments of their own and they can be people who either didn’t apply or people who did apply and we left out,” says Steering Committee member Tim Costello. “With the Prime Minister saying we want the brightest and best there, anyone with any sort of healthy ego felt compelled to apply, so it’s attracted absolutely brilliant people.”
Never rely on people
Never rely on people to point out the glitches. I’ve just printed one of my business’ invoices for the first time in ages — hey, I do everything on screen — and noticed that the template is still tagged with “Holiday Arrangements 2007-08”. In 2.5 months, no-one has mentioned it. Then again, I’m hardly surprised. Energy Australia tells me that street lights stay broken for months because no-one tells them — even though they can usually fix them promptly.
Is Fitzgibbon really confident about the Super Hornets?
I’ve just watched defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon being interviewed on The 7.30 Report about the Super Hornet purchase. It’s not reassuring. When challenged on the performance shortfalls compared with the Russian-built Sukhois being bought by our neighbours — basic factors in a fighter aircraft like speed, acceleration, climb rate and turning circle — he keeps flipping the conversation back to avionics and interoperability. “Never mind the quality, feel the width,” eh Joel? Check it out while the video’s still online and tell me what you think about his body language.
Lego spacecraft from 2001
Speaking of Arthur C Clarke, how about a Lego model of Discovery, the spacecraft from 2001: A Space Odyssey? Ta for the pointer, Richard.
The Real Brendan Nelson
Will the real Brendan Nelson please stand up? Is it the man Annabel Crabb saw on Tuesday, the mild-mannered doctor with “substantial empathy for those suffering from misfortune” whose “attention is drawn disproportionately to the Gothic end of the human suffering spectrum”? Or is the rabid Bon Jovi fan?
Throwing new tools at the communication problem
If you think some fancy new communications tool will solve your problems, think again. According to one commenter at 43 Folders, “Reality was that the same bad habits were then applied to the new tool just like the old tools. And soon the new tool was just as cumbersome and inefficient as the old ones.” I’ll come back to this post next week, because some good lessons are accumulating — and it relates directly to some work I’m doing with clients.