Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Ever been on the receiving end of a call centre Droid? Someone who instead of answering your query, badgers you with question after question? You bet. It’s part of daily life and we are told that this benefits us by improving call centre efficiency.

Thirteen-year-old Tim Spehr solemnly watched as wreaths were laid at the cenotaph at High Cross Park in Randwick; the medals of his great-great-uncle, World War I veteran Private Harold Walter Cavill, adorned his jacket. Spehr and dozens of local residents of all ages had gathered to commemorate Anzac Day, 25 April 2009.

There is an art to finding affordable housing, especially if one is in the world’s most expensive cities. I discovered this when I arrived in Sydney early this year. As one of my main concerns, I went looking for housing industry experts to give me a couple of tips on how to get a fairly priced rental accommodation.

The question remains, should law-biding aerosol street artists be classified in the same group as vandals? I would say the answer is definitely not. These groups like the one Jasy runs not only promote better communities through quality mural street art but also provide positive guidance and direction to young people in becoming responsible citizens.

Is there even a market for the huge number of community broadcasters in Australia’ Well, in a word, yes. There is definitely a market. According to mid-2008 Community Radio National Listener Survey conducted by McNair Ingenuity Research, the number of Australians (aged 15+) listening to community radio in an average month has risen from 45% in 2004 to 57% (9,562,000 people) in 2008.

Just how do we assess the effectiveness of this tax? A recent AC Nielsen report showed a 28 per cent drop in Ready To Drink (RTD) sales from April 2008 to January 2009, yet there was also a 14 per cent increase in the sale of spirits. Are young people just saving their pennies by upping their spirits intake? And are sales figures really the best way to judge?

We’ve all been there. You’re having a blue with your partner; your opportunity to retort opens so you throw in a ‘home truth’ and… your partner walks out. Us – 1; Them – 0. Cue: Your Smug Smirk.

Some people are sceptical of the benefits of digital television over analogue television, complaining that they do not want to have to update their televisions when they are happy with their service the way it is, but it seems that for the most part this is just resistance to change in general as opposed to resistance to digital television specifically.

As a newly converted wine lover and a Chinese, I experienced such difficulty rooted in culture – first and foremost were the names. It is very much like dating. How can you start a relationship with a girl without even knowing her name? Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah or Shiraz – they are not even English names! Oh, my God, should I learn another foreign language before I start to enjoy wines?

What makes politics different to other arenas where media teams are involved (for example, in the entertainment industry), is that in politics these teams need to be heard (via the politician) and not seen.

Although Australia’s borders need to be secure and protected, efforts to deal with people smugglers who prey on refugees trying to make it to Australia must be intensified. Genuine asylum seekers should be wholeheartedly welcomed to Australia regardless of how they arrive, in accordance with this country’s United Nations obligations.

The Rudd government plans to create a NBN that will connect 90% of Australian homes, school and workplaces with speed that is up to 100 megabytes per second, investing a budget of $43 billion over a period of 8 years. It plans to use FTTP technology to create this NBN service and promises that the NBN to be a historical nation-building investment that will help to transform Australian economy and create jobs and business of the 21st century.

For the working journalist, it seems unclear what shape the future will take. Until the ongoing viability of print media becomes evident, journalists will need to be fluent in both print and online publication, able to adapt stories to the distinct media.

IP will remain an extraordinary and controversial topic, especially in the midst of new technologies ways to convey a message. To think that your intellectual expressions can, one day, join your property portfolio is only as amusing as it's challenging and difficult to be delimited by law.

Australia needs to stop fear mongering and reach a cohesive, long lasting solution to a permanent problem. Boat people are not the poster children for what is wrong with immigration policy. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

The term 'illegal asylum seekers' is an oxymoron. According to the Migration Act, there is only a distinction between 'lawful non-citizens'(with visa) and 'unlawful non-citizens'(without visa). Unlawful doesn't mean illegal, as it is not a crime to arrive in Australia without a visa, whether by boat, air, parachute, spaceship, or catapult.

Earlier this year, as you might recall, the Federal government cut its skilled migration program by 14% in response to worsening economic conditions. Many people worried about Australia’s unemployment supported the decision - but they may not realise the number of working holiday visas is rising rapidly instead.

Doesn’t sound right, does it? Why then call a Somali fisherman one, when it was the western powers that exploited the socially, politically and economically unstable Somalia and turned the small-time Somali fisherman into a pirate?

When Australia Post made the controversial decision to remove Brett Stewart’s face from the 2008 NRL Grand Final Collector’s stamps, it sent out a strong message to the public. Guilty. But Stewart has not yet been found guilty. So why should he be punished by being left off the stamps?

The collapse of ABC has seen government funds being spent on bailing out ABC, rather than being spent on establishing new centres, or improving the quality of existing ones. One man’s greed has impacted on hundreds of thousands of families across the country.

A combination of processing delays at the City of Sydney council and staffing issues at the state government run Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) make applying for a small bar licence unaffordable for many entrepreneurs. Changing the law simply wasn’t, and isn’t, enough.

Sob-stories about the unfair way that females are judged by their appearance globally have been all over the Australian press in the last couple of weeks, from the frumpy Scottish singer Susan Boyle’s rise to fame, to Veronica Lario’s objection to her husband’s selection of beautiful young women to the European Parliament.

It’s no wonder why employers are monitoring social networking sites and sacking workers for posting potentially threatening material to protect their company’s reputation. That’s why employees need to develop some common sense about using social networking services.

It’s strange that just when Australia’s education system is crying out for more full-fee paying international students, the NSW government is continuously discriminating against them. While travel concession is generally provided to students, I am not getting it – because I am an international student. This means I’m paying twice more each week to get to and from uni.

In Fiji, the military regime has been exercising the time-honoured routine of silencing critique by media censorship. If the expectation was to ensure social stability and continued power, then, thus far, they have been successful.

Music bloggers the world over are getting nervous. Suddenly they are the target of an industry that censors and deletes content without warning, and there’s very little the blogger can do to prevent it. Since late last year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been making reckless attempts to crack down on online music piracy.

When we swipe our card for a clothing purchase, we might think twice about the price, or the bill we’ll get at the end of the month, but we should really be thinking about what we don’t see when we pick up the end product. Could my weakness for new clothing purchases not only be costing me a pretty penny, but also be costing the environment a fortune?

The Aboriginal Housing Company was formed in the early 1970’s for the purpose of appropriating property for the purpose of providing affordable housing for the local indigenous community. The AHC gradually acquired the whole of what is now known as ‘the Block’, establishing a strong, family-centred community in the area by the early 1980’s. The 80’s also saw the rise of a hard drug culture in the area...

People from the Eastern Suburbs will tell you that the North Shore is nothing compared to their suburbs and people from the North will of course tell you their part of the city is the best. Ironically, people from other suburbs will say none of the two is that good because of the people living there.

The presence of various ethnic communities and different cultures is one of the trademarks of the modern metropolis and Sydney, with its ethnic and linguistic diversity, prides itself on being the most multicultural city in Australia.