May we get the Goverment we both deserve AND need

If you’ve seen any of the media campaigns for the Australian Federal Election you could have come to the following conclusions: Julia Gillard had a fixation with hand getsures; Tony Abbott had a fixation on Boats; and the Greens had the best Television Commercial not only of this campaign but of any other they’ve had before – trouble was it was put together by an ad agency as part of the TV show ‘The Gruen Transfer’ and never made it into the real world.

So what to do today? I’m reminded that sometimes we want one thing but take actions that we know will probably not get us what we want. We take those actions because a different set of criteria get in the way. Whatever you choose today, I hope it leads to the Government we both need and deserve. Deserve because we voted for it; need because it’ll deliver what is required to position us to be able to cope with whatever challenges emerge in the future. We got bits of it last time. I’m hoping that whatever the outcome today. we get more of the ‘what we need’ Government. Best of luck everyone

Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report

Apr 20, 2008

You’d think that given a focus on the future, you’d ask specialists in the future to have some input, and whilst that didn’t occur for the PM’s Summit in Canberra over the weekend, some of Australia’s Futurists had already done the leg work to contribute their thoughts on the future of Australia. That report is…

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Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report goes ‘live’ tomorrow

Apr 17, 2008

Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten…

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Marcus Barber to join Jon Faine for the Conversation Hour on ABC Melbourne

Apr 14, 2008

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will meet with eminent ABC radio presenter Jon Faine on Wednesday the 16th of April to discuss the outcomes of the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra on the weekend With a focus on the future of Australia it would be only natural…

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2020 Australia – Futurist’s Report

Mar 3, 2008

A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a…

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Australia’s 2020 Future – the Futurist’s report

Feb 25, 2008

As preparations continue for the Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘1000 heads’ ideas summit in Canberra in April, a group of Australia’s leading futurists are gathering in Melbourne this weekend for the ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’. The futurists attending the summit work across Australia, in corporate, not for profit and Government agencies in a variety of fields…

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Are Interest Rate Rises Too Clumsy to Help a Teetering Economy?

Feb 21, 2008

A few thoughts on what steps could be taken to overcome the ‘treat everyone like a nail’ approach that Interest Rate rises seems to do. Check out the idea under the ‘Latest Focus’ section Interest Rate Rises are going to penalise too many people who don’t deserve to lose their homes

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How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks

Feb 7, 2008

Marcus Barber offers his thoughts on How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks and suggests that raiding boats won’t do the job. Instead he suggests that the key to negotiating with the Japanese is to have the Japanese people do the work. And to encourage them to do so we must begin to talk…

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Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony Blanketed by Dust Storm

Jan 17, 2008

If an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ raised the profile of global warming to the general population, it appears that a willingness by political leaders to take appropriate action to mitigate the possible ramifications is still very much lacking. It is such a pity. No one who holds the Global Warming scenario close to heart wants to be…

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Marcus Barber to be Interviewed on 774 ABC

Dec 6, 2007

Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will join Tim Cox on 774 ABC as part of the conversation hour next week Tim is filling in for Jon Faine whilst he takes a well deserved break and Marcus will join him for the conversation hour kicking off at 11am on Thursday the 13th of December, where they’ll discuss…

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From Foresight Foreplay to Corporate Consummation

Nov 14, 2007

At the AustForesight 2007 Conference, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber and fellow Futurist Steve Tighe presented their take on what is required to enable futurists to be seen as more relevant to the Corporate world. Drawing on their shared experience as facilitator and client, they detailed the journey of foresight and futures across the past 50…

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