Here is an audio selection of news stories I have produced and programs I have presented on university radio stations 2SER (University of Technology, Sydney) and Smoke Radio (University of Westminster).


It covers a broad range of weird and wonderful subjects, from critics of the Dalai Lama to fans of the 'Asian Justin Timberlake'.


I'm very open to any feedback on how I might improve this - let me know what you think in the comments or via Twitter.

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On the first day of the UN's Copenhagen Climate Change Conference I thought it might be wise to spruik an environmental magazine I am currently working on.

Sustainability Magazine covers both scientific and political news on climate change and environmental conservation and sustainability issues, with a particular focus on Australia.

I am the deputy editor for the second issue of the mag, which will include analysis of Copenhagen and its aftermath, and be available on news stands and online early next year.

In the meantime, I'm helping manage the magazine's online component, which aims to boost discussion and analysis alongside daily news updates. Follow 'Sustainablogger' on Twitter, read daily blogs on our website and become our fan on Facebook.

You can also find a recent blog post I wrote for Sustainability summarising the recent political drama in Australia (which led to the failure of the Government's emissions trading scheme and the installation of a new Opposition leader) here.

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What a difference a week makes in Australian Federal politics.

Just five days before the international climate conference in Copenhagen, two leadership spills for the Opposition in as many weeks have produced a new leader who, unlike the old one, doesn't believe in anthropogenic climate change, doesn't support the emissions trading scheme (ETS) aimed at combating it and, on a totally unrelated conservative note, is also anti-abortion.

The surprising vote for Tony Abbott as the new leader of the Liberal party yesterday dashed all hopes that Australia would act on climate change by passing legislation on an ETS before Copenhagen.

The Senate is expected to (finally) vote on the proposed ETS this morning - a scheme which seems to have been completely forgotten amidst all the commotion, in more ways than one.


So I thought it might be timely to post an article I wrote recently for agricultural magazine 'Agribusiness Australia' as a reminder of what is really at stake.




'Meat & Emissions' asks one of the country's most carbon-intensive industries how it plans to reduce its own emissions, the extent of its obligation to the world, and the pressures it faces as the race to slow the effects of climate change heats up.

Click on the pages to enlarge them.

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The global financial crisis has renewed interest in Islamic finance and the possibility of greater integration with the conventional financial system in Australia.

Islamic banks' emphasis on strong asset backing for loans make their bonds attractive to low-risk investors and offer more stable alternatives to volatile debt instruments that prevailed in the lead-up to the crisis.

Read the rest of the article below - click on the pages to enlarge them.



Little known fact - one of my favourite uni subjects was Islamic law. It's easy to summarily dismiss (heh, in-joke) a foreign legal system as inherently invalid. It's easier still to parrot criticism of religion - politicised by extremists, exploited by mainstream media and demonised by political rhetoric - rather than arrive at our own informed conclusions.

Now that words like 'marketable' and 'profitable' can be bantered about Islamic law in an Australian context, perhaps many will actually try to do what is so much harder - understand.

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"Climate change may become as popular as asbestos or tobacco in Australian courts as individuals start to feel its effects, says the Environmental Defender's Office."

Remember how excited I was when my first cover story was published? I decided then and there that I could definitely get used to the feeling, if I was ever lucky enough to land myself another any time soon.

Well, this month, I got lucky again. A story on climate litigation I originally wrote for Sustainability Magazine has made the front cover of the latest issue of financial news magazine Insto.





Here is the article in full - click on the pages to enlarge them.





Only subscribers have access to the magazine online, but for a sneak peek at other features in this issue, click here.

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Artwork by: http://creativenerds.co.uk/


While I'm moseying on down this path of shameless self promotion, I should probably direct you to the nifty new widget on the right hand side column of the page (the 'Column of Shame') where you can now see up-to-the-minute tweet-sized updates of my life throughout the day. If you find them particularly interesting, you can even follow me on Twitter (where you will also find a lovely photo of me when I was 3) here.

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The title of this post was my original headline for the below article I wrote for Insto on PIPEs (private investments in public equity). Don't worry, about a month ago I had no idea what they were either.

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Remember when everyone was up in arms over the scandalous amounts of money executives were supposedly paid in termination bonuses after companies like AIG and Pacific Brands crashed? "Typical. One law for the rich, another for the poor," our production manager lamented somewhat gleefully upon seeing the headlines in the morning news.

Well, it was around that time of general public disgust that I wrote my first story on executive salaries, and got my first glimpse into the weird and whacky industry of remuneration - that's right, I did say 'industry'. For it was then that I discovered that there are thousands of suits who make a living determining how much other people should be paid which all of a sudden made the phrase 'executive remuneration' a much more interesting one.

Think about it - how do you go about rewarding intrinsically unquantifiable amounts of 'talent'? It's the seemingly random sprinkles of entrepreneurial stardust that can turn a music box into an iPod generation, a daydream into a household brand, not to mention churn out billions of dollars in profit for shareholders and employees alike. But on the other side of the coin, many argued that the incentive of overly generous short term bonuses encouraged the equally 'entrepreneurial' risks many took that have so contributed to the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis.

Painting all executives who are paid astronomically more than you will ever be as the greedy bastards you wish you were, becomes all the more difficult when you learn that remuneration packages in recent years have tended to make it more worthwhile to take those risks and earn massive bonuses, because base salaries have in many cases actually been pretty low in comparison. The crudest (and largely inaccurate) metaphor I could use to illustrate this point is that of a McDonalds cashier working for a lowly $3 an hour, who gets paid a grand every time they throw a huge rock into oncoming traffic and miss all the cars. Sure, there's a huge risk some of those pesky drivers might get hurt in the process, but who wouldn't, given the opportunity?

Compound all of that with the problem of the packages used to pay execs, which are complex little bastards in and of themselves, and don't necessarily guarantee that compensation will be paid in full, if at all. As Heidi Mason, former CEO of Enron's Australian branch (the well performing, honest one) explained to me after the Pacific Brands scandal:

"PacBrands is the perfect example of the most ill-advised media that you’ve seen in a long time. Everything that is quoted about the way Sue’s salary has changed completely ignores the fact that she’s gone from a Divisional General Manager role to a CEO role. The number they’re quoting on the low side is what she was entitled to in a completely different role 12 months ago. The number they’re quoting on the high side includes all aspects of her variable compensation that she’s not necessarily going to get."

Despite all these enlightening moments of discovery, I was still pretty green and uncertain about the ins and outs of it all when I attended the FINSIA breakfast conference on remuneration. I was so nervous I spilled coffee everywhere, and felt the need to explain to anyone I made small talk with that even though I didn't have a name tag and looked about 12, I really was allowed to be there. All attempts to at least appear as nonchalant and confident as the journalists, remuneration specialists and executives around me officially went to the dogs when a woman asked me if I was a 'rem manager too' and my face went completely blank. Rem. Remuneration. Who would've guessed, right?

Thankfully, some good came of it. I wrote an article on the conference which was published in the Insto newsletter, and after a lot more research, gave an overview on all rem reforms in Australia in this article for the magazine:



You'll notice it's very different to my first article on this subject, which had been timidly ridden with long quotes for fear of making any ludicrous conjectures of my own. I've found that financial reporting involves a LOT more assumed knowledge and analytical skill than I'd previously assumed. So I'm pretty proud of this one. :)

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Yesterday, the first copies of this quarter's issue of Insto arrived in the office.

The understated tradition of basking in the glow of the fruit of the last few months' hard work usually lasts for about 15 minutes, and always seems to pass too quickly. First, there's the squeal or yelp from the first person to notice the big brown box entering the premises (This is usually me. Sometimes it's a cross between a squeal and a yelp).

Then there's the eager handing out of copies to the editorial team - the graphic designer carefully scrutinises everything from the colour of the cover to the glue on the spine of the magazine. The contributors lean back in their chairs smugly and flip through the contents, looking out for their articles before seeking each other out to pat themselves on the back once again for a job well done. Self-serving compliments like: "That turned out really well!" and "I really loved the way that page came together" are exchanged, before everyone returns to their respective desks and reluctantly puts their copies just out of their line of vision so they can continue their work.

This issue focused on the future of banking beyond the global financial crisis, with a series of lead articles covering the potential growth of different areas of the financial system. I wrote an article - "Anti-Trust the System" - about the future regulation of Australia's major four banks, which are predicted to grow even bigger on the back of government guarantees.

This is my first cover story. Cover stories are significant because they are of the few selected to feature on the front of a magazine to entice readers to open it, and are therefore usually the first to be read. I never imagined that my first cover story would be about financial regulation. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that I was buying magazines for cover lines like "How to get great cheekbones in 10 minutes". (I knew it could only lead to a single page on blush, foundation sticks and bronzers but I decided the editor's gall deserved $7 if nothing else.)

It was particularly fortuitous that my first cover line was featured on issue #11 (my lucky number), the cover design a throwback to the 1980s Michael J Fox film trilogy "Back to the Future" - the first of which is one of my favourites.




My article starts in a similarly colourful way, and even features a cartoon image I personally selected for the spread. Who said finance was boring, eh?

You can read the story below. Click on the images to enlarge them.

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The second story I've ever written on executive remuneration (see the first here), this was published in Insto's newsletter, which is emailed to all the magazine's subscribers. I'm currently working on an extended version of this article for Insto's next issue, keep a look out for it on my blog if you're at all interested in the future fallout for once 'untouchable' executives.

More on how this story came about later. Night kids!

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About a month ago I began working on an article about Myanmar (Burma) for trade magazine Australasia ASEAN Business. The mag explores the way member states will be impacted by the recently signed AANZFTA, a multilateral free trade agreement that will drastically reduce trade barriers between member states over a region worth about $US2.7 trillion in GDP.

I agonised over this article for a long time. At first I struggled to find any sources to speak candidly about Burma's military regime for fear of reprisal. But I did manage to speak to a number of people well-versed in the economic and humanitarian plight of the region, and was happy with the end result. But it didn't end there. Having been commissioned by the ASEAN Australia Business Council, the final product was toned down for obvious reasons. But I still think it sheds light on some interesting issues that remain relevant almost fifty years since the military regime first came into power.

The Agreement is set to come into force this month.

"Burma's status as a signatory to AANZFTA would appear at odds with the diplomatic stance of the broader international community. But what impact will the agreement actually have on the Union of Myanmar?"

Read the rest of the article on page 126 of the ezine here.

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The penny has finally dropped for the leaders of the world's largest economies: badly thought out and sloppily negotiated executive pay contracts have actually proved to be a failure of risk management, as Jane Lee reports.




Check out the rest of my first article in the latest issue of INSTO magazine (and first financial news article) here:

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For the past month I've been working on Australian Innovation, the official publication of the Australian Innovation Festival. The first copies arrived yesterday, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I sub-edited a number of the articles and advertorials that appeared in the book, and even contributed a few stories of my own, namely:

Curiosity Killed the Copycat - p.63

Picking Winners - p.107

Sharks in Shock - p.116

Secret Inventors' Business - p.117


More on this a little later.

You can check out an online version of the magazine here.

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Update:

I always thought working in a magazine would mean living the glamorous life - wearing expensive clothes, swishing away super shiny locks and carrying away bags of freebies from expensively catered events...though much of this was probably drilled into me by one too many hours spent re-watching 'The Devil Wears Prada'. (Don't judge me, you've all done it too, I know, and coveted those Chanel boots at one stage or another. Bite me.)

But after getting Jane Bruton her breakfast every day (a fruit cup and a bottle of water from that particular store in Covent Garden) and watching the Features Editor of an Australian magazine that shall remain nameless paint her fingernails with dark purple nailpolish at her desk, the once sparkling snapshot of magazine life in my head became a little dull and tattered around the edges.

The B2B publishing house where I work presented an equally huge culture shock to my system. I can count the number of women in the office on one hand on most days (part-time interns excluded, for now). And yes, the gender-shift really does change the culture of a newsroom. Compared to the wire service routine to which I was by now accustomed, the pace seemed to slow right down. Until, that is, production week before deadline arrived out of nowhere, and everyone simultaneously shifted gears to accommodate the adrenaline rush.

Call me a self-absorbed brat (though maybe not to my face too early in the morning) but I will never tire of seeing my words and name in print. The day the first copies of the book came in, I could hardly contain myself, and in the words of my colleague, 'jumped around'.

Sure, we may have all made daily sarcastic jokes about how, being a B2B book, rather than a consumer publication, with a large number of politically spun commissioned articles, our readership would not be mind-blowing and our best efforts would not be acknowledged by many. I can tell you with all honesty I've had my own doubts about the 'value' of my contribution to that elusive and self-effacing profession of 'journalism' in the production of this magazine.

Nevertheless, in came the prints, in their awkwardly fragile brown cardboard boxes. And there we each sat on our respective wheely-chairs, music blaring on the radio in the background - for once, the only audible sound in the room. Flicking through each page painstakingly for errors, squinting at the cover, holding up the spine to the light to examine the glue that connected pages we had gone over for days on end. Jokes aside, we take a lot of pride in what we do. And the same can be said for the best journalists in the business.

That's good enough for me.

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What an obscure post title. The Hs stand for the Hack Half Hour.
I ordinarily try to shy away from any form of advertising on this blog, but this is really too good to miss, and I guess it could count as shameless self-promotion*, which we all know I'm in tremendous favour of.

I always go on about how I think it's tragic that young people are so apathetic about politics and the world around them these days, and that the media alone holds the key to somehow turning this around by making news palatable and relevant to us again.

In all seriousness, I think this show, a TV-version of Triple J's excellent program The Hack, could really make a difference to the problem. 'Current affairs' is no longer a dirty word in the world of Australian journalism!

I could rant about this show forever but I think it speaks for itself:

The first episode aired on ABC2 on Monday night. Get it while it's hot.


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Update: watch it online here.

*I've been intern-ing on the show for the past few weeks.

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"now. look in ur personal basket and lemme know if u happy with wot i've done to ur fashionspace stry. i want to use it today. it's terrific by the way"


(Hemyca promotional shot, Fashionspace)

Usually I use the headlines i originally propose when I file my stories, as the headlines for my blog posts, just to retain a little semblance of creative integrity/glory. But this time- i believe for the first time- my original headline was actually USED in the final published article! Woot! About five words in total were changed from my original copy, and I pitched the idea for this story off my own bat, too, so seeing the final article here was extra sweet.

:)

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here...because I wrote the questions and helped put it together this week!

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Shakespeare's Globe mixes old with new in 2008

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I could've potentially interviewed anyone for this profile- Reuters commands that kind of authority- but I was drawn to Annie Mole, who's blog I stumbled on when scrambling for contacts for the 'London Love' story. She writes for Qype, and advertised their survey about commuters picking up on the Tube, on her blog.. She was pretty fun to interview, check out the profile here.

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Update:
Holy Moley.
When my editor said this story would really spread (as the London Mayoral elections are on today, and poor Tube conditions and services are high on the agenda) I took it as a sign of encouragement, but didn't take it too seriously. I came into work this morning and found online versions of the story at:


The Mirror

Reuters Africa

Tiscali News

Yahoo! UK News

Yahoo! News

Yahoo! Canada News

NZ Herald

stv.tv

Thank God for Google.

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It's been a while folks, sorry!


(Prudence Staite White's chocolate interpretation of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe)

I write this whilst procrastinating (from?) doing an assignment that's due tomorrow. Some things never change. It's my last one for semester though!:)

Since we last spoke, I've been to Denmark and Norway, and applied to a lot of places for work experience- about ten magazines and a couple of media agencies..

I've been at Reuters for almost two weeks now, and it's been everything I hoped for and more in terms of valuable work experience. I feel like my writing's improved tenfold in just ten days and it can only get better. Sure the one and a half hour tube journey there and back gets tiring, and I'm usually working from about 10am to 7or 8pm at night. But I try not to let myself get too whingy for too long, when I think about how long it's taken me to get to this point.

Here are some of the articles I've written so far. I'll try to post them up as I go along to save you the mass-catch-up-read.

Cute and prickly hedgehogs latest British pet fad.

Kids can make own chocolate art at new London show.

London love may be staring at you on the Tube.

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