Welcome to Off the Record: a new Australian blog combining Insight, Ideas and Influence
OTR is an exciting new contribution to the social media or the Web 2.0 phenomenon. We at P&P strongly embrace this new digital evolution for social interaction where ideas can be interactive. At OTR we strive to be open and honest in our contributions and encourage comments and feedback. We all have Insight, Ideas and Influence and we would like to share some of ours with you. As Web 2.0 is such a dynamic place, we welcome your feedback on our digital Off the Record blog to make it better and look forward to your comments and contributions. Finally, watch out for special high profile guest bloggers coming soon and please use the RSS feed on the bottom left of this page to keep on top of new blog postings. Regards the P&P team read more >
Health Ministers' on board
Yesterday’s Australian Health Ministers’ Conference delivered the key news that in six months almost 14,000 additional patients - 55% of the target - had received elective surgery because of the Government’s injection of $150 million for people on waiting lists. This funding was proposed to deliver 25,000 additional procedures within a year for people waiting longer than clinically recommended. read more >
Emissions Trading Scheme OTR Special Edition
Today the Government released its Green Paper on a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, in which it outlined the plans and structure for an Emissions Trading Scheme here in Australia. OTR have prepared this special edition of OTR covering the political highlights of today’s announcement. Have your say on the impact of the ETS on you, on our online poll. read more >
Eyes focused on Climate Change Green Paper
After last week’s Garnaut extravaganza all eyes should now be focused on the released of the Federal Government’s Green Paper on climate change. The paper which should be released next week will canvass some of the options the Government is considering as a response to climate change. read more >
Pope Strike?
If you are thinking the resolution to the potential city stopping crisis of NSW rail workers going on strike next Thursday in the middle of World Youth Day activities was a little too convenient and a little too stage managed you are not alone. While there is no suggestion that it was prompted by John Watkins, who has by all accounts merely sought to do his job as Transport Minister, the same cannot be said of John “Robbo” Robertson Secretary of Unions NSW. read more >
Personality of the week: Hetty Johnston
The convergence of a number of issues related to child protection in recent weeks has led more journalists than usual to the door of Hetty Johnston; vocal children’s rights advocate and founder of Bravehearts whose Google News search hits are sitting up around 700 at the moment. read more >
Youth of the digital age help global law enforcers
It was easy enough when Elvis Presley burst on the scene to protect the youth of the day from his controversial ways by only filming him from the waist up. But the digital age has made protecting young people much more difficult. read more >
“Oh say can you see…” P&P US Election Tracker
Contrary to popular belief, Barack Obama and John McCain are not yet officially nominated to lead their parties into the next US election. Their status is still that of “presumptive nominee”. What does that mean you ask? Well quite simply, they have both clinched the nominations from their respective parties however they are yet to receive the formal nomination. This comes at the Republican (September 1-4 2008 in Minneapolis - Saint Paul) and Democratic (August 25 – 28 2008 in Denver) National Conventions. read more >