Complying with OPCAT in social care settings
Australia has still to fully implement the international undertaking given more than five years ago when it ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). Ratification obliges countries, among other things, to establish one or more ‘National Preventive Mechanisms’ to organise the monitoring of places of detention. What is a 'place of detention'? Does it extend to social care settings such as locked dementia wards, or places where people in disability settings are subject to restrictive practices that amount to deprivations of liberty?
Beware the Tricks: How Real Estate Agents Exploit Buyers' Cognitive Biases
Buying or selling a property is usually the most significant financial decision of one's lifetime. However, many buyers lack experience with auctions, bidding, and negotiation, putting them at a disadvantage against sellers who have experienced agents working with them. Also, due to lack of experience, buyers are vulnerable to various psychological biases that could negatively affect their decision-making process.
Haste is waste! Is Google’s fear of missing out (FoMO) hurting the holistic development of AI?
In February 2023, Google announced its conversational AI chat service named Bard, which resembles ChatGPT, within three months of ChatGPT's launch in November 2022. Bard has not been released to the public yet, as it is currently being tested with trusted partners. This announcement was made by Google's CEO Sundar Pichai (Roth, 2023).
Embracing ChatGPT for Education
OpenAI's latest innovation, ChatGPT, is causing concern in the academic community due to its capability of preparing assignments, acing exams, and tackling intricate issues. Since its release in November 2022, reports have surfaced of students exploiting ChatGPT to fulfill their academic tasks. Early studies on ChatGPT highlight its aptitude for passing rigorous exams, such as the US Medical Licensing Exam.
ChatGPT – Sentient AI or singularity. How close are we?
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. By design, ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM), however, its popularity is way more ahead of other LLMs because of its human-like responses.
Scaling innovation: What can we do to address the corporate innovation investment and value generation gap?
Clarify, ideate, develop, and implement – the broad underlying design-thinking principles that guide the innovation processes at all levels of enterprises, from your large multi-nationals to grassroots entrepreneurs.
Digital 3 - the frontier to a new era of economic infrastructure
Keynote speech by Distinguished Professor Jason Potts at D3 launch – 26 October 2022
Budget Response: Dr Leonora Risse
The Albanese Government’s first Budget, announced on Tuesday night by Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers, did what many new owners do when they move into a new place: renovate.
National OPCAT Symposium – a step in the right direction
Are we there yet? A recent National Symposium examined how far Australia has progressed in protecting the rights of people who are detained, as required under the UN Treaty, OPCAT.
ESG investing and the threat of ‘greenwashing’
At a recent event in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I had the opportunity to sit down and speak to a group of individuals who are doing some very interesting things within the area of blockchain innovation for sustainability.
Why unions and small business want industry bargaining from the jobs summit – and big business doesn’t
The trade union movement’s push to reform Australia’s enterprise bargaining system looks set to be a major issue at this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit.
The ‘city’ is becoming increasingly digital, forcing us to rethink its role in life and work
The role of the city is changing. To find out how, we surveyed more than 2,000 Victorians living in Melbourne, its suburbs and regional centres in April 2022.
Inflationary psychology could make things worse, but for now it’s in check
With the world experiencing inflation levels not seen since the 1980s, central banks are caught between warning of the dangers of an 1970s-style inflationary spiral, and contributing to that spiral by talking about it.
Why did this $21 million COVID-tracing app fail?
On August 9 2022, Australia’s COVIDSafe app was officially decommissioned, and all its features removed. People were encouraged to uninstall the app. Reports of its closure have made international news.
Making sense of Australia’s current economy
Unemployment is on the way down. Cost of living and interest rates are on the way up. And employers are desperate for staff. So what exactly is going on with the Australian economy?
Ecocide Cannot Succeed without Challenging the Capitalist System
Despite the escalating environmental crisis, with its impacts on human rights and ecological communities, both states and corporations have rigidly clung to capitalist principles of extraction and unlimited growth. This has led to the resurrection of the concept of ecocide as a means to prevent and punish the destruction of the environment.
Corporate sanctions in Russia: Rethinking corporate political responsibility against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine: A Panel Review
Since the 24th of February 2022, when Russia, on the orders of Vladimir Putin, began a large-scale military attack on Ukraine, we have been witnessing that over 1,000 companies from different industries have publicly announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia (Yale School of Management 2022). On the 19th of May 2022, we organised the Panel with the internationally recognised experts in different fields of knowledge and disciplines, all of which in various ways relate to corporate political responsibility – a concept that views companies as political actors that have human rights-related duties.
Legal Waivers and the Limits of Non-Judicial Grievance Mechanisms in Business and Human Rights
Remedy is rare for victims of corporate human rights abuses through judicial mechanisms. To address this gap, the authoritative text dealing with issues pertaining to business and human rights, The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, included principles endorsing the use of non-judicial mechanisms to resolve human rights claims.
World Cup Victories for Qatar’s Migrant Workers and International Law
In the past decade, the conditions experienced by Qatar’s migrant workers have dramatically improved. While these reforms owe much to the international legal system, they also expose some of the system’s weaknesses. Nevertheless, the widespread outrage concerning the rights of migrant workers in Qatar would likely have fallen on deaf ears without the efforts of international legal
Operator integrity and trustworthiness are essential to consumer confidence in the gambling industry
On Monday 30th May Crown Casino made global news headlines when it was fined AU$80m for illegally accepting Chinese bank cards at the Melbourne Casino.