Category: Griffith University Feed

In 1992, more than 170 countries came together at the Rio Earth Summit and agreed to pursue sustainable development, protect biological diversity, prevent dangerous interference with climate systems, and conserve forests. But, 25 years later, the natural systems on which humanity relies continue to be degraded.
So why hasn’t the world become much more environmentally sustainable despite decades of international agreements, national policies, state laws and local plans? This is the question that a team of researchers and I have tried to answer in a recent article.
We reviewed 94 studies of how sustainability policies had failed across every continent. These included case studies from both developed and developing countries, and ranged in scope from international to local initiatives.
Consider the following key environmental indicators. Since 1970:

Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded the Earth’s capacity and has risen to the point where 1.6 planets would be needed to provide resources sustainably.
The biodiversity index has

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When Hollie Wiseman first applied to be part of Griffith University’s Work Integrated Learning program, she never could have imagined the scale of the project to which she would be assigned.
The former Bachelor of Business student, who majored in employment relations and human resource management had been seeking to expand her business horizons when she applied for an internship with GBS. She was given a choice of projects to work on, and selected the one that interested her the most, only later learning she would be seconded to Queensland Health.
“I was interested in getting some exposure to the HR industry, because my experience was quite limited,” Hollie says. The project was with the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Service (PSQIS) and involved Hollie playing a large part in influencing their future policy.
“They were upgrading their online learning platform,” the HR and Payroll Administrator for Next Hotels explains. “They wanted to

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2016 Griffith Film School  graduates Shannen Tunnicliffe and Lachlan Morton, and film student Claire Randell’s documentary Wolfe  has been selected for the 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. Randell, the director-producer made the film with Tunnicliffe, producer and Morton, cinematographer and animator.
For more than five decades, Oberhausen has become one of the world’s most respected film events – a place where filmmakers and artists ranging from Roman Polanski to Cate Shortland, from George Lucas to Pipilotti Rist have presented their first films.  It is one of the most exclusive festivals in the world.

Griffith Film School graduate Benjamin Zaugg, along with Daley Pearson who also studied at GFS, have won an International Emmy Award in the Kids: Digital category for Doodles at MIPTV in Cannes, France.
Doodles transforms the drawings from Australian children submitted online into

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Reducing the use of ineffective practices in autism early intervention is the focus of a new Griffith University study.
“Autism has been described as a “fad magnet’ as it attracts a wide array of potential interventions,’’ says Professor Deb Keen from the Autism Centre of Excellence.
“These interventions have varying levels of effectiveness leaving both parents and professionals unsure of “what works”.
Research has often focussed on encouraging greater use of effective practices, but little has been done to reduce or eliminate the use of practices that have been shown to be ineffective.
“Our study aims to address this problem by focusing on increasing knowledge of the evidence based on both effective and ineffective strategies.”
More than 230,000 people in Australia have autism with boys four times more likely than girls to be affected. But as there is no “cure’’ and no clear cause (although genetic factors are implicated), and there is no single best

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Professor Muhammad Yunus has delivered a passionate 2017 Griffith Lecture at the Queensland Conservatorium Theatre.
The Bangledeshi economist and micro-finance pioneer concluded his short speaking tour of Australasia at Griffith’s South Bank campus with the annual Griffith Lecture, his sole Queensland appearance.
Professor Yunus has been on a mission to educate the world on the benefits of social business since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
The 76 year-old captivated the audience with his tale of how he used his innovative social business model to eventually provide solar energy to power nearly two million Bangledeshi homes which had remained reliant on kerosene oil for light for generations.

In recent years, Professor Yunus has begun establishing Yunus Social Business Centres at universities around the world and has now done likewise at Griffith University.
 
Yunus Social Business Centre Griffith University
During Professor Yunus’ Brisbane visit, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business) Professor David Grant joined the Grameen Bank founder to

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Improving the communication and decision-making about medical treatment for patients at the end of their life is crucial to avoid needless suffering.
This is the view of Darren K. Heyland (above), Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada, who will present a seminar – “To die well, you need to plan well: The importance of end of life communication and decision making” – at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus tomorrow (April 12).
“The problem starts with poor communication and decision-making about medical treatments during serious illness,” says Professor Heyland.
“This leads to the ‘intensification of care’ at the end of someone’s life, meaning many older patients who prefer a more comfortable, dignity-preserving pathway towards the ‘end,’ suffer needlessly in an intensive-care unit receiving aggressive forms of life-sustaining treatments and then, after all of that, they pass.
“This has a negative impact on the family who witness this ‘intensified’ death experience.
“It also impacts

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By Professor Sara L. McGaughey, Griffith Business School & Professor Pascalis Raimondos, QUT Business School
The current international company taxation system goes all the way back to 1923 and a ‘Report on Double Taxation’ solicited by the League of Nations.  It was a time when the word “wireless” described radio communication and air travel was still not a regular means of transport. Most firms were national, and value chains were concentrated in one place.
The two core principles outlined in the report granted each country the right to tax profits accrued within its own borders, and to enforce arm’s length rules that restrain profit shifting.  Nowadays – with more complex ownership structures for multinational enterprises (MNEs), finely-sliced global value chains and production networks, and global firms selling goods from the ‘cloud’ – the effectiveness of these two principles is in doubt.
Nevertheless, they remain the basis of our world-wide corporate income tax system

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New research released by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Tourism Working Group (TWG) has revealed the region’s tourism industry is on the cusp of being severely impacted by a shrinking skilled labour force.
The TWG engaged Griffith’s Institute for Tourism (GIFT) and EarthCheck to study the future of the tourism workforce across 21 APEC member economies, including Australia and the United States.
The project entitled, Developing the Tourism Workforce of the Future through Labour and Skills Development, Certification and Mobility in the APEC Region’ is sponsored by Australia and co-sponsored by Chile; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; The Republic of the Philippines; and Vietnam.
 
Dr Andreas Chai
Growth compromised
Dr Andreas Chai, Director of Griffith’s Economic Analysis Program said while the industry is projected to create 25 million jobs worldwide in the next decade, major challenges exist which could severely compromise growth.
“Without access to a skilled and willing labour force, businesses won’t be able to reap

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Professor David Grant is the Griffith Business School’s Pro Vice Chancellor, holding executive leadership, management and strategic planning responsibilities for the entire Group. Somewhere amongst this he also (longs to) find time to research into the impact of leadership development and change practices on work and organisation. Somewhat unusually, David looks at these issues drawing on discourse theory and analysis. We stole away five minutes of David’s research time(!) to learn a little more…
In what area/s does your research interests lie?
I have an interest in organisational discourse – how language and other symbolic media influence our understanding of, and the practice of, leadership and change at the organisation-wide, group and individual levels.
Are there emerging or ongoing trends in your fields of research?
When organisational discourse was being established as a field [of research] we spent a lot of time on developing the theory around it. In recent years though, there has

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Ex-Cyclone Debbie dumped rain in an erosion hot spot in the Burdekin catchment estimated to generate nearly a third of all the sediment that flows to the Great Barrier Reef.
Flood plumes from the Gregory and Fitzroy rivers are also pushing sediment and nitrogen pollution into Reef waters.
It is another blow to the Reef which has just suffered unprecedented back-to-back mass coral bleaching events.
Griffith University scientist Associate Professor Andrew Brooks has released dramatic pictures and video of the Burdekin and Gregory river flood plumes heading out to sea, and erosion in the Burdekin catchment.
His post cyclone helicopter flight (on March 31) to assess damage was jointly funded by Griffith University, the Federal Government’s National Environmental Science Program, the Queensland Government, and NQ Dry Tropics.
Dr Brooks said much of the cyclone deluge fell in an 11,000 sq km section of the Burdekin catchment which is a known erosion hot spot.
This area is currently the

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