Author: media

Business futurist and all round stirrer, Morris Miselowski this week called for the country to switch to a 3 day weekend advocating it will enhance our health, well-being, family, society and economy.

It is based on having more time to relax and unwind, it speaks to the ability to be more efficient and focused on your 4 days of work and the possibility of hiring others to work on the other days.

Leading business futurist, Morris Miselowski has explored this notion in detail and concludes that in the next few years the notion of a weekend, a standard 5 day week and 9-5 jobs would all become obsolete as we move into a world that worked on a project and task basis.

He believes getting things done as, where and when they need to be done will be the norm, rather than trying to shoehorn it into an industrial revolution constructed work week.

He also believes the ability to work where and when you want, will allow families to choose together time that suits them all, to be able to come together for important events and school activities and to re-frame family back into the centre of activity, rather than something else that has to be juggled in a busy week.

Yellow Brick Road West End will answer all those burning home loan, superannuation,insurance and other financial advice questions you’ve wanted to ask. Yellow Brick Road West End has announced its Ask an Advisor Day will be held on August 16.

“We decided to hold an Ask an Advisor Day here in West End because it’s important for everyone to be able to access quality professional financial advice so that they can understand how to make their money work harder for them and Yellow Brick Road is dedicated to helping our people do just that” says Yellow Brick Road West End’s Suzy Butterworth.

Research compiled from Australian consumers aged 30-49 in the major cities found that nearly 49% of individuals claimed they didn’t speak to a professional about their financial affairs because they found it to be too complex and didn’t have the confidence to have a conversation about their finances.

“The finance industry is very good at using confusion to their advantage. We want to cut through the confusion and start that conversion to help people understand their financial situation by being able to speak with a professional, which is why Ask an Advisor is so important for the people in our community,” says Suzy.

Residents who are interested in being a part of the Ask My Advisor Day can register at www.ybr.com.au/promotions/amad, or by contacting Suzy Butterworth directly at suzy.butterworth@ybr.com.au.

Queensland Law Society today commended the government for tackling alcohol-related violence but stated they may not achieve their desired outcome.

Appearing at a public hearing on the draft Safe Night Out legislation, QLS President Ian Brown said that harsher penalties proposed in the Bill may not achieve the desired result.

“We fully support the government’s efforts to address the negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption,” Mr Brown said.

“However, we are concerned that harsher penalties and standard non-parole periods will not be effective in addressing the underlying issues.

“We are likely to see the changes impact disproportionately on vulnerable offenders, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those with a mental illness or intellectual impairment.

“There is no need to create new offences, including ‘unlawful striking causing death’, when offences for violent and anti-social behaviour already exist.

“Duplicating existing offences has the potential to cause confusion and in some instances may result in significant injustices without acting as an effective deterrent to potential offending.

“A further troubling aspect is that an accused will not be able to rely on long established defences such as accident and provocation.

“We urge the government to consider introducing reduced trading hours as part of a range of measures, including lockouts, as an option to address community concerns.

“Newcastle’s reduction in trading hours has been effective in reducing alcohol-related violence, with a 33% drop in alcohol-related, non-domestic assaults and a 26% reduction in alcohol-related hospital emergency department admissions.

“We also encourage the government to look at implementing sensible pre-emptive measures such as ensuring greater police resourcing.

“One of the most significant deterrents of offending behaviour is greater certainty of being apprehended and punished.

“Visible policing is a vital tool in achieving this.”

Australian businesses are missing out on billions of dollars by not adjusting their business models to take account of older consumers with disposable income, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

In a speech to be delivered in Melbourne to the CPA Masters Series today, Age Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Ryan, will report that the over 50’s have about $218 million in discretionary spending power.

“A staggering 40 per cent of Australia’s net wealth is held by mature Australians but all too often marketers, advertisers and businesses direct their attention only to the younger market. Not only do older consumers  miss out on the services and products they are interested in,  but businesses lose potential markets ,” said Commissioner Ryan.

“Australians are living longer and are healthy for many more years than previous generations. Retirement is longer and far more diverse than the out-dated stereotypes depict.

Many retirees are living active, healthy lives and they want to take part in our economy in all sorts of ways.

They are keen travellers. They look for slimmed down , accessible housing that suits their needs as they age.  They want products and services that meet their requirements and interests, but too often can’t find them. This is a failure of business strategy.

Deloitte Access Economics predicts that by 2030, more than 5 million Australians will be aged 55-70 and as we know, many are living well beyond that.

” I’d like to challenge Australian businesses to work on strategies that deliver to  both the bottom line and to older customers. If you look at the facts of demographic change, you will see including the mature dollar in your planning makes business sense,” said Ms Ryan.

To read Commissioner Ryan’s speech go to:

https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/age-discrimination-workplace

Today Stripe announced its global payments platform is open for business in Australia.

Australian merchants can now create a Stripe account in minutes and instantly begin accepting payments in more than 100 different currencies, receiving deposits in Australian dollars in their current accounts.

Stripe’s technology can be seamlessly integrated into any app or website, and only requires an existing Australian bank account. Furthermore, Stripe’s service has been designed to allow business to scale from start up stage to billion-dollar multinational organisations.

“I expect the pace of innovation to pick up significantly now that Stripe is here,” said Niki Scevak Startmate, Blackbird VC. “While payments solutions in Australia have been incremental improvements, we think the arrival of Stripe could mean that new kinds of businesses will be easier to start than ever in Australia; particularly online software and services businesses like Campaign Monitor or Atlassian, marketplaces like Freelancer or 99Designs, and subscription businesses.

“In keeping with Stripe’s ethos of simplicity and developer-friendliness, subscriptions, multicurrency, and one-tap purchasing are standard features and requires no additional work to integrate. Currency functionality that previously represented a quagmire of paperwork and integration work can now be implemented in minutes.LIFX, reinventors of the light bulb, are using Stripe to help sell their smartphone controlled, wifi-enabled, multi-color LED light bulb to the world.

“We’re delighted to be using Stripe, the best payment platform with world class user experience and customer support,” said Daniel May, CIO of LIFX. “We were up and running in just minutes, and are now able to accept payments from anyone in almost any currency.”

“Stripe’s mission is to grow Internet commerce by providing everything an online business needs to accept payments,” said John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe. “We hope Stripe’s powerful set of tools and APIs helps Australian businesses scale globally.

“In the past, traditional merchant processing posed considerable barriers to entry for new companies – and substantial friction for existing ones.

Stripe’s fully-online payment service, and rapidly-growing global reach replace a complicated matrix of bank accounts, gateways and third-party software. Stripe handles the heavy lifting of payments — from credit-card storage to fraud detection — and lets companies get back to building.

Pricing for Stripe in Australia will be 1.75% + 30c for domestic transactions and 2.90% + 30c for international and American Express transactions.

Peter Bullimore, Founder & Chair of the UK Paranoia Network, is an international trainer and facilitator and is an expert on the topic of hearing voices by lived experience.

This August, he returns to Australia to facilitate a very unique one-day workshop exploring the role of trauma and fear in mental wellbeing, and understanding and working with voices.

Studies have found that between four and 10 per cent of people across the world hear voices. Between 70 and 90 cent of people who hear voices do so following traumatic events. These voices can be male, female, without gender, child, adult, human or non-human. People may hear one voice or many. Some people report hearing hundreds, although in almost all reported cases, one dominates above the others.

It is not so much the voices that are the problem, but the difficulties that some people have in coping with them. Whilst one in three people who hears voices becomes a psychiatric patient – two in three people cope well, don’t need psychiatric care and live and function well.

Voices often reflect important aspects of the hearer’s emotional state – emotions that are often unexpressed by the hearer. Hearing voices in itself is not related to the illness of schizophrenia. In population research, only 16% of the whole group of voice hearers are diagnosed with schizophrenia.*

Many voices can be unthreatening and even positive. It’s wrong to turn this into a shameful problem that people either feel they have to deny or to take medication to suppress.**

Peter Bullimore believes many people believe hearing voices is a normal part of life, not a mental illness. Using coping strategies can help manage voices without necessarily eliminating them.

David Facer from the Australian Mental Health Recovery Consultants, will be supporting Peter’s tour and the development of Hearing Voices workshops.

Together, Peter and David will assist participants to work through paranoia and help make sense of unusual beliefs.

For further information about the tour, or to speak to someone about hearing voices, contact MIFQ on 07 3358 4424.

Working Through Paranoia & Making Sense of Unusual Beliefs

7 August – Albert Waterways Community Centre, Cnr Hooker & Sunshine Blvd MERMAID WATERS
8 August – Venue to be confirmed TOOWOOMBA
11 August – Calliope Community Centre, 3 Don Cameron Dr, Calliope GLADSTONE
14 August – Merthyr Road Uniting Church, 52 Merthyr Road, New Farm BRISBANE
Workshops are a ticketed event and run 8:30am to 4:30pm, refreshments & lunch provided.

*Romme & Escher 2001

**Professor Marius Romme