Westpac sends more tech jobs offshore Paul Smith Westpac Banking Corporation has defended its decision to cut 119 permanent technology jobs as a necessary efficiency, after the Finance Sector Union hit out at the bank’s decision calling it a “completely unjustified” example of a “race to the bottom mentality”. The bank has told workers in a series of meetings in recent days that their jobs would go as a result of a review announced last November, which is informing a new “best sourcing” strategy. The bulk of the jobs are based in the Sydney CBD and Kogarah in the city’s south, with smaller numbers going from Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The best sourcing strategy is a decision to give greater responsibility for technology delivery to a selection of external, largely Indian suppliers. Westpac said a further seven roles in its collections team would also go but that efforts were being made to redeploy affected staff.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore: An Interpretation The world has become a harsh place. One moment you're sitting reading peacefully, the other you're in the middle of a storm. Though, figuratively, the storm could come in many different forms, they all have one thing in common – they can affect everybody except those shielded by the power of knowledge. While everybody runs for their lives, Mr Morris Lessmore runs after the book he was reading before the storm came. However, if not refreshed inside the mind, knowledge gradually evapourates with time. In no time, Lessmore becomes as black and white as the messy world he finds himself in. But knowledge never fails those who seek it. He finds himself in a library inhabited by millions of fantastic, flying books. Mr Lessmore, above all, shares his knowledge of books with others. Even in his death, Mr Lessmore doesn't cease to inspire other knowledge seekers with the knowledge he filled the world with.
Resources for teachers | GNM education centre Student research materials during a workshop The Education Centre provides a range of resources to help with the teaching of newspapers and news media that can be downloaded and accessed from this page. Fact sheets and teaching ideas Information on news report writing, newspaper and web terminology and types of news stories. Newspaper writingTypes of news storiesNews terminologyHow the Guardian is made - Gallery We have produced a range of suggested activities and teaching ideas for all of our workshops. Display materials 5Ws of journalism and structure of a news report Annotated Guardian front page Tuesday 4 February 2014Annotated Observer front page Sunday 2 February 2014Historic front page: News replaces advertising on the front page - 1952Historic front page: The Manchester Guardian to the Guardian -1959 More display materials, including other historic front pages, and information about the above pages, are included in the resources of the month from the GNM Archive below.
Revealed: Coal under green attack Matthew Stevens, Gemma Daley and Marcus Priest Disturbed ... Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says “elaborate strategies to destroy Australian industries and jobs” are a concern. Greenpeace is spearheading a campaign by green groups to raise up to $6 million to disrupt and delay new coalmines and infrastructure in a bid to make some unviable. The campaign, outlined in a document obtained by The Australian Financial Review, reveals a key part of the strategy to prevent a “global climate change tipping point” created by Australian coal is to tie up project approval processes in litigation and to create investor uncertainty. “By disrupting and delaying key projects, we are likely to make at least some of them unviable,” says the document, entitled Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom. This means lodging legal challenges to five new coal port expansions, two major rail lines and up to a dozen of the key mines. “The coal industry is a very important part of our national economy.
Activity Ideas - Squish Squash and Squeeze I have had loads of emails about planning since I posted about my work with Tim so my next post will be a planning one (or two, if I can't fit it into one)! In the mean time thought I would share my activities from today with you... It was meant to be a rare day off but it seems that the printing press waits for no man and I had to get my photoshoot sorted out for the next '50 Fantastic Things' book. I have to say a HUGE thank you to Jo and all of the team at Penguins Pre-School in Timperley who were super organised and super helpful and made the shoot run like a dream. Here are a few of the things that we did... Mix some food colouring with water in a potPut 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil into the bottom of your plastic bagThen add 4 tablespoons of coloured waterWAIT (and see what happens)Add 4 tablespoons of golden syrup to the bag.WAIT Zip up the bag and let the children squish. I know that jelly is a regular favourite but it never fails to get great results. Pink marshmallows in a bowl.
The Leveson dilemma - MPs split, coalition split, editors split and public split | Media The prime minister's dilemma over the Leveson report, which he will have the chance to read from midday today, could not be more obvious. The letter from 86 politicians, published in The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph today, brings David Cameron's problem into sharp focus. Though billed as a cross-party initiative, it is overwhelmingly Tory (signed by 76 Conservative MPs and peers) and argues passionately against any form of state involvement in press regulation. But the split within Cameron's own party is only one problem for him. So, as the Financial Times reports, it is possible that Cameron and Clegg will make separate statements about the matter in the Commons. That article also alludes to a tactic other commentators have touched on, that Cameron is considering the possibility of giving newspapers one last chance to prove that the industry can regulate itself without new legislation. There are several voices urging a non-statutory path in newspapers today. There is much more.
Federal minister says anti-coal activists are 'living in fantasy land' TRADE Minister Craig Emerson has warned an immediate switch to renewable energy would result in a global depression and has branded a group of anti-coal activists as "delusional". Responding to reports today of a $6 million call to arms by a group of environmental activists to disrupt and delay coal projects and infrastructure, Dr Emerson said it was a “fantasy” to suggest the industry could simply be abandoned. “They are deluding themselves if they think the world is just going to flick the switch to renewable energy,” Dr Emerson told ABC News 24. “We would have a global depression if we just said `that's it, we're out of coal, we are just going to move to renewable energy' just because they believe that is good for the world. “It would mean mass starvation and they ought to wake up to that instead of living in a fantasy land and organising these sorts of campaigns.” “Plans to disrupt and stop new coal projects threatens one of the key pillars of the economy,” Mr Hooke said.
How we made: Alison Prince and Brian Cant on Trumpton | Television & radio Alison Prince, scriptwriter I'd written a children's series called Joe, so I was already kicking around the BBC. At some point, Monica Sims, head of children's broadcasting, said: "Oh, you wouldn't like to write some stories for a puppet series, would you?" She was a very offhand woman; she'd been a naval officer. I didn't have a TV, but I had three kids to feed, so I said yes. Another problem was that the puppets all looked exactly the same. At that time, I was living in a rented flat. It's all Trumpton's part of what is now considered the golden age of children's TV, but at the time we didn't think of it like that. Brian Cant, narrator We used to record Trumpton in the bedroom of the show's composer, Freddie Phillips. Trumpton was the second of three series we did about Trumptonshire. It's very nice that it's been remastered – but where's my repeat fee? • This article was amended on 22 February 2012 to correct a quote from Alison Prince.