Court makes Sensis obsolete. Re. ‘Sensis hangs up on 120 workers‘ (Tuesday, item 1). Regarding the profitability and redundancies at Sensis, indeed the viability of the business model; one significant matter was not mentioned. That is the recent court decision regarding the IP of the Sensis database. The effect of this decision is that the databases assembled by Sensis are open to other parties for commercial or other use. The Sensis model has been rendered obsolete by the two step logic of the market abandoning the print model and the legal determination that electronic forms are open to any user to compile, segment or market without any compensation to Telstra.

Make Melbourne more white and male. The Herald Sun is currently running a series called Make Melbourne Better, with a sausage-fest forum this morning involving Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, Andrew McIntosh (Minister for Crime Prevention), Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe, Steve Price, Steve Vizard and Sam Newman, Eddie McGuire, Alan Howe, Adam Bandt and James Merlino. There were no females on the panel, until Herald Sun columnist Susie O’Brien jumped on, apparently last minute. “Susie has described herself as the token female. Says she’s happy to be..,” wrote the Herald Sun on its liveblog. Here’s a tip: pick some more diverse commentators, not just old white men we already hear enough from.


Where does the slant come from? In Who’s Who (2008 edition), Scott Morrison, Shadow Minister for Immigration, lists one of the clubs that he belongs to as “Hillsong Church (Waterloo)”. Now from where does he get his particular slant on seekers in general and Islam in particular? Bruce Baird, Scott’s predecessor in the seat of Cook, is also a religious chap but was very Christian in his approach to asylum seekers in general and Islam in particular. Of course, Tony Abbott is said to be a Catholic.

Health issues ignored. Hear that an ex-staff member is about to blow the whistle on The Northern Hospital. Seems that they have ignored for years the health fears of workers at PANCH. The Northern Hospital also has question marks over it after a soil study showed levels of lead in the soil. Never addressed the issue of a senior manager copying the contents of a staff members’ personal computer onto the network computer, saying that they removed it, and then two years later it was discovered again. Also, what hospital in their right mind would have the IT Department for a network in a portable, and one that leaks? Also inside trading is rife. This is only the start of it and there were be a serious fallout when he/she blows the whistle.