If there’s anyone who knows the value of networking with alumni, it’s Griffith University graduate Thomas Punch. Currently based in Montreal, Thomas is the youngest executive for the wildly successful global media company WatchMojo, and was keen to drop back into his former university to provide valuable guidance to current students when he visited Australia.
“When I moved overseas to further my career, a lot of the networking I did to build my networks was through alumni. I was essentially contacting former Griffith University students who were a lot older than me and asking them about their career path,” he explains. “Then it just occured to me I could do the same for the younger generations. It’s always helpful to hear from people in the workforce who are in different careers to what you might have thought about.”
And Thomas’s career has been quite extraordinary. At 30 years old, he is one
Category: Griffith University Feed
Australian farm animal regulators are ‘hopelessly conflicted’
By Dr Steven White, Griffith Law School
What role should government play in the protection of farm animals? This is the essential question which will be addressed by David Robinson Simon in the 2017 Voiceless Law Lecture, hosted by Griffith Law School. The question is an important one, since farm animals have an intrinsic moral worth, based on their sentience and cognitive abilities, justifying government intervention to protect their well-being.
The evidence in Australia is that governments at a state and federal level are failing to properly address the needs of farm animals. The federal government has retreated from coordinating a nationally consistent approach to protection, farm industry groups dominate the setting of standards for farm animal protection, and animal welfare science research is largely industry-driven. Animal welfare is very poorly resourced, compromising meaningful compliance monitoring and enforcement. The key government regulators – generally agriculture departments – are hopelessly conflicted: on the
Game on for innovative Gold Coast businesses
It’s not going to be ‘business as usual’ during the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
But business owners who take control of the more unusual opportunities will be best placed to benefit from the event.
That’s just one of the messages to come out of a study commissioned by the Friends of Griffith Business School.
The research, by Dr Joan Carlini from the school’s Department of Marketing, looked at how the mega event would impact local private enterprise.
“The expectation is that there will be widespread benefit,” Dr Carlini said.
“But it’s not as simple as that. I’m encouraging businesses to think carefully about the disrupters and how they can turn these into opportunities for their business.”
In April 2018, more than 6500 athletes and their support crews will arrive in Queensland for the Commonwealth Games.
Kerri Jekyll, owner of Get West Surf School, Amery Burleigh, General Manager, Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach, Laura Younger, General Manager, Australian
Griffith secures $5m to help cure spinal cord injury
The Queensland Government has invested $5 million in a Griffith University pre-clinical trial to prove that a “nerve bridge” across a damaged spinal cord may be the answer to otherwise permanent paralysis.
In a science and health collaboration, the project, led by Dr James St John, will be conducted across two of the university’s leading research institutes, the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD) and the Menzies Health Institute Queensland.
The pre-clinical trial will expand on the work led by current Australian of the Year and GRIDD biomedical scientist Professor Emeritus Alan Mackay-Sim who showed that transplanting olfactory cells from the nose into the spinal cord was safe in humans.
The newly funded work will now use modern scientific approaches to produce a three-dimensional nerve bridge that can be transplanted into the spinal cord to promote regeneration across the injury site.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Griffith’s research team had the unique know-how and clinical
World-class dimension added to Griffith rugby sevens
Olympic gold medalist Shannon Parry will bring her range of world-class skills to the Griffith University team that contests the inaugural Women’s Aon Uni 7s Series when it kicks off in August.
The Australia co-captain is one of two elite stars from the Australian Women’s Sevens squad to be named today (Wednesday) in the Griffith squad, with rising star Demi Hayes the other star recruit.
Both Shannon and Demi have added incentives to lead Griffith to glory. Shannon graduated from Griffith with an education degree, while Demi is currently on leave of absence from her business studies at Griffith to fulfill national Rugby Sevens commitments.
Olympic gold medalist Shannon Parry will line out for Griffith University. PHOTO: ARU Media/Stu Walmsley.
“We’ll be able to share our knowledge and experience with the next generation of players, which is a great opportunity for them and for us. It’s our chance to inspire the younger girls,” Shannon
Griffith film alumni in the spotlight
Griffith Film School student Claire Randall is following in the footsteps of legendary directors like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas – presenting her first film at the renowned International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen.
Wolfe, which recently won a Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, explores a young man’s journey through adolescence with undiagnosed schizophrenia.
The young director will accompany the film to a handful of prestigious film festivals this month, after it was selected to screen at Cannes Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest and the Sydney Film Festival.
“It’s really exciting, although it’s not all red carpets and movie stars,” she said.
“Festivals are a real gateway into the industry – it’s about taking every opportunity to make contact with festival programmers and network with other filmmakers.”
Griffith Film School Acting Director Professor Trish FitzSimons said the film’s success was testimony to the calibre of talent nurtured at Griffith.
“We are so very proud of what our
Economy further challenged by 2017 Budget
By Professor Fabrizio Carmignani, Griffith Business School
The Treasurer falls short of what Australia needs to sustain growth in the long-term. Moreover, in spite of a somewhat popular view that this was a “labour budget”, the artificial distinction between good and bad debt and several of the provisions around social welfare provide fertile grounds for Australia’s hidden disease, inequality, to blossom.
Overview
The macroeconomic environment faced by the government remains challenging, albeit moderately improving. At a global level, economic growth and trade are picking up. The outlook is however weakened by significant risks, including the emergence of new protectionist sentiments, uncertainties about the policy agenda of some major economies (e.g. the US), persistent fiscal imbalances in a number of advanced economies, and increasing financial and balance-sheet vulnerabilities in emerging countries.
Home front
Domestically, economic growth in the last 12 months has gone down to 1.75% from 2.6% in 2015-16. At the same time, the unemployment
Home affordability remains an issue
By Associate Professor Robert Bianchi, Griffith Business School
Owning your own home may become a ‘great Australian pipe dream’ for some first home buyers. The Federal Government can employ a number of policies to improve housing affordability. The crucial question remains how does the government address housing affordability without fueling higher demand?
Overview
The 2017 Federal Budget proposes an initiative to allow first home buyers to accumulate their housing deposit in their superannuation fund. The announcement proposes that potential first-home buyers who make additional deposits above the compulsory 9.5% contribution rate, can accumulate these savings in their super fund. These additional contributions are subject to a lower 15% tax rate (rather than earnings being taxed at their personal marginal tax rate). This initiative attempts to address housing affordability in Australia’s capital cities, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. At face value, this Budget announcement is a novel concept that seeks to address the challenges
Coalition in-fighting remains a thorn in PM’s side
The 2017 Federal Budget is make or break for Turnbull and Morrison as the vestiges of the Abbott-Hockey era and accusations of dysfunctional politics continue to undermine efforts to reboot economic confidence.
by Professor Anne Tiernan, Griffith Business School
Overview
The 2014-15 Federal Budget continues to haunt the Turnbull government like Banquo’s ghost. It has been a debilitating drain on the Prime Minister’s ability and willingness to present a coherent agenda to reboot confidence and economic growth.
Approaching its fourth year in office, the histrionic slogans that proved lethal in Opposition and that formed the core of the Abbott government’s platform – ‘debt and deficit disaster’ – have limited the Coalition’s options in many domains of policy. Turnbull government ministers (often heroic) attempts to pivot in new directions have been thwarted by the need to avoid being seen to contradict current commitments.
Nation building
Witness Treasurer Scott Morrison’s efforts over recent weeks to distinguish ‘good’ from
Regional areas benefit through infrastructure
The pre-Budget talk was all about nation building through sizeable infrastructure projects. Now regional Australia is set to benefit after Scott Morrison opened the chequebook to bring forward a host of big ticket items from last year’s $50 billion infrastructure program.
By Professor Christine Smith, Griffith Business School
Good debt financed infrastructure
The 2017-18 budget will be framed around making a distinction between “good” and “bad” debt on the premise that the use of debt financing to cover ongoing or recurrent expenditure (e.g. welfare payments) is ‘bad’ while use of debt to cover expenditure on infrastructure which leads to future growth and/or productivity enhancement is ‘good’.
As a result various regions have been eagerly waiting to hear if the much vaunted boost to federally funded infrastructure projects will benefit their locality in either the short or the long term. The challenge for the government is to ensure that projects selected are not judged by