I have just read your editorial note in issue 65, and agree completely with your comments. I believe this piece deserves a far wider readership than it will probably receive in this publication. It should certainly be compulsory reading for Mr Latham and his spin doctors as they search for answers as to why they lost this election, as seems depressingly likely.
I have just read your editorial note in issue 65, and agree completely with your comments. I believe this piece deserves a far wider readership than it will probably receive in this publication. It should certainly be compulsory reading for Mr Latham and his spin doctors as they search for answers as to why they lost this election, as seems depressingly likely.
The actions and attitudes of this Government over the past few years would suggest, to me, that this election should be even more “unlosable” for Labor than John Hewson’s famous defeat. In a campaign that is supposed to be about trust and honesty, Labor has failed to present itself as any sort of real alternative to the Government.
If there are positives to come out of this, perhaps another loss will make Labour realise that it needs to actively differentiate itself from the Coalition if it is to have any hope of regaining government.
And as to what I see as the subtext of your piece, yes, the media has a very large role to play in showing the voting public what is really going on. The written media seems to be doing its bit, what about the rest? Keep up the good work!
– Kevin Smith CPA, finance & administration manager, Summit Technology Australia
I just wanted to congratulate you on your editorial note from a couple of weeks ago. It was refreshing to see someone prepared to express a view that is guaranteed not to be acceptable to all. It is saddening that we now seem to live in a society which espouses freedom as a virtue yet condemns anyone who thinks that freedom extends to the right to hold and express a view at odds to that of the majority.
I liked the ambiguity of your final statement. Do you hope that we don’t get the leaders we deserve, or that we don’t deserve the leaders we are about to get?
Just as an aside I have just returned from leave, it doesn’t usually take me this long to get around to reading your column.
– John Martin-Brown, Human Resources Manager, Kimberly-Clark, Millicent Mill
David, just a quick note of support and thanks for your comments in Human Resources 22 Sept 2004. I couldn’t agree more. I was fortunate to attend the recent 2004 Hawke Centre Lecture where Irene Kahn, Secretary General of Amnesty recently lamented the decline of Australia’s international standing and championing of human rights, free speech and democratic values. Lets hope we once again retain this role in the world.
– Novri Spagnoletti, Manager, Quality and Planning, Torrens Valley Institute of TAFE
I refer to your editorial in Human Resources Issue No. 65 and while there can be little argument that you are entitled to your political opinions, I would question that the Editorial Note in a publication such as Human Resources is the appropriate place to voice them. After all, the publication is about human resources and not politics in its wider sense.
I personally do not agree with your views as there are (and have been) numerous countries in the world with a Bill of Rights which in practice means nothing or in reality is irrelevant and subservient to the idea.
If I am not mistaken, Stalin’s Russia had a Bill of Rights as did Argentina in the days of the junta.
– Andrew Schwartz
What on earth possessed your otherwise well-focused publication to print David Hovenden’s self-indulgent rant in issue 65. Worse, this polemical piece was headed ‘Editorial note’, and since Mr Hovenden is listed as ‘associate publisher’, most readers would infer, and were probably intended to infer, that this was an ‘official’ line.
HR practitioners don’t need this claptrap in Human Resources, and it astonishes me that someone actually thought it should be given a run. It wouldn’t be quite so bad if it was an objective, constructive and accurate piece, but it isn’t and even so, such blatantly biased political writing has no place in Human Resources.
– Clive Willingham, director, Industrial Relations and State Service Management, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania
